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"We Belong Together" is the second single from Mariah Carey's 14th album, The Emancipation of Mimi.

The song

The single, released in 2005, was written by Carey, Jermaine Dupri, Manuel Seal, and Johnta Austin and was produced by Carey, Dupri, and Seal. "We Belong Together" was among the last songs recorded for The Emancipation of Mimi. After recording nearly 20 tracks for the album, Carey was satisfied with her output, but president of Island Def Jam, L.A. Reid, felt something was missing and asked Mariah to write more songs with Jermaine Dupri. The results were the hit singles "It's Like That" and "We Belong Together." In this heartfelt mid-tempo ballad, Mariah declares herself stupid and foolish for ending a relationship on the wrong terms. She wants her ex-lover to come back to her, as when he left, she lost a part of herself. The song features an interesting blend of quiet storm ambience and hip-hop style singing leading to a traditional Carey climax where the pitch raises an octave and Mariah belts the chorus, then ends the song on a note held for nearly twelve seconds.

References to other songs

In the middle of the song, Carey makes a reference to soul singer Bobby Womack's 1981 hit "If You Think You're Lonely Now". She sings:

I can't sleep at night

When you are on my mind

Bobby Womack's on the radio

Singing to me, "If you think you're lonely now"

Immediately after that, her character changes radio stations and makes a reference to Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds' 1987 song recorded by The Deele, "Two Occasions." She sings, "And then I hear Babyface / 'I only think of you,'" the latter line of which is the first line of the chorus of that song. The reference is clearer on the Jadakiss-Styles remix, where she continues singing the rest of the chorus of "Two Occasions."

Due to the interpolation of these songs, the songwriters of both songs have also been given co-writing credit on "We Belong Together."

Chart success

This song is Mariah Carey's record-breaking sixteenth #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and it is also her ninth #1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart. It was officially released to radio on March 26, 2005, and is currently Mariah's biggest hit in 8 years. This is Mariah's first single to hit #1 since "Thank God I Found You" in 2000, and it is Mariah's first single to top the Hot 100 Airplay Chart since "One Sweet Day" in 1995.

Critics, especially after the turn of the millennium, had criticized Carey for having lost her "radio magic," as her positions on the airplay chart slowly declined, but this single seems to prove she hasn't quite lost the radio magic within her. Her 16th #1 positions Carey as the only artist in contention to surpass The Beatles (with 20 #1’s) and Elvis Presley (18 #1’s) in the modern era. (With 70 total weeks of #1 hits since 1990, Carey also ranks 2nd only to Elvis, with 80 weeks.)

Besides The Hot 100, the Hot 100 Airplay, and the Hot R&B/Hip Hop Singles charts, "We Belong Together" has also hit #1 on the Rhythmic Top 40 chart (the most spins ever by a female at the format), the Mainstream Top 40, The Pop 100, the Pop 100 Airplay,Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, Hot Dance Music/Club Play, and Hot Videoclips. It has also hit #1 on other non-Billboard charts, like the Streaming Audio chart (for 6 weeks) and the AOL Music Network’s Top 11.

The single has also broken numerous airplay records on both major forms of radio airplay collection,Mediabase and Nielsen BDS. When the song reached 192.3 audience impressions as counted by Nielsen BDS, Carey's "We Belong Together" broke the previous airplay record held by Mario's "Let Me Love You," whose airplay peaked at 191.6 million impressions, making "We Belong Together" the most heard song (in a week) on American radio stations ever. On the week it broke the BDS record, it also broke the record for the largest gap between a #1 song and a #2 song on the Hot 100 Airplay Chart, having more than 60 million impressions between its nearest competitor (Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl".)

Futhermore, on the week ending June 17, 2005, "We Belong Together" broke its own record of 192.3 million audience impressions as it peaked at 195.8 million audience impressions. On the weeks ending June 24 and July 1 and July 15, the song once again broke its own record as it escalated to 202.1 million and 212.2 million and then 223 million impressions respectively. It is the first song in history to break the 200 million one-week BDS audience barrier. The song also repeatedly broke its own record for the largest gap between a #1 song and a #2 song on the Hot 100 Airplay, and its highest gap right now is a difference of nearly 119 million impressions. The week of its highest peak (at least for now), it had 223 million impressions, while the #2 song, "Hollaback Girl" had only 104.1 million impressions)

As for Mediabase, "We Belong Together" has reached more than 254.6 million weekly audience impressions (till 13 July, 2005), which is the highest in the history of Mediabase, breaking the record previously held by Usher's "Yeah." It is only one of a handful of songs that has hit #1 on the 3 major component charts of CHR/Pop, CHR/Rhythmic, CHR/Urban. The song later broke new records when it became the first song ever in Mediabase history to hit #1 on CHR/Pop, CHR/Rhythmic, CHR/Urban, and Urban AC.

With its continued record breaking success, critics and industry experts have been hailing "We Belong Together" as one of the biggest hits of Carey's career, and it has even been named the biggest single in the history of both Carey and her record company, Island Def Jam.

The song debuted at #1 on Australia's ARIA Singles Chart on June 27, making this her first single since 1995's Fantasy to top the charts and only her second #1 single overall in Australia. In the UK, the song debuted at #2 being prevented from the top spot by 2Pac and Elton John's duet, "Ghetto Gospel." Although "We Belong Together" had sold much more physical singles than "Ghetto Gospel," digital downloads are now counted towards the UK Singles charts too, and with relatively weak downloads in the UK, "Ghetto Gospel" was able to beat "We Belong Together" by 400 singles (combined total of physical singles and downloads).

The song's successful run at the #1 position on the Hot 100 was briefly interrupted by American Idol winner Carrie Underwood, with her new single, "Inside Your Heaven." This debut at the top distinguishes it as one of the few singles to debut at the peak position. This interruption was due to its strong first week sales, but its airplay was only moderate. Also, it is not a surprise for an American Idol winner's single to debut at the top, as this was displayed in the past few years with previous winners, like Fantasia and Kelly Clarkson. The following week (ending July 2, 2005), however, Carey's smash song returned to the top. This return to the zenith of the Hot 100 continues the reigning comeback of Mariah Carey, with a total of nine non-consecutive weeks at the top so far. (This is Carey's first #1 single to have a non-consecutive run at #1)

When "We Belong Together" went to #1 on The Billboard Hot 100, the Hot 100 Airplay, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, the Pop 100, Pop 100 Airplay, Mainstream Top 40, Rhythmic Top 40, and the Adult R&B Billboard Radio Monitor chart, it became the only song in Billboard history to top all 9 charts concurrently. The song was recently certified 3N for detections of over 300,000 detections on monitored Billboard/BDS stations.

The remixes

The DJ Clue remix of "We Belong Together" (produced by DJ Clue and Jovonn Alexander) was released on May 17, 2005 on iTunes. The remix includes raps from Jadakiss and Styles P.

The hope was that the remix would help propel the song into the #1 spot (and based on sales data, it appears that that task has been accomplished). Although the remix was initially an exclusive track for iTunes, it has now been released to other legal downloading services like Rhapsody and Napster. It has even received some radio airplay, such as on New York's Z-100. DJ Clue also shouts a bit on the record, and although not created as a featured artist on the tracklisting of the CD or vinyl singles of the song, he was given credit when the song charted on the Hot Digital Tracks chart.

Promotional copies of remixes by Peter Rauhofer and Atlantic Soul have been released, and the UK CD singles were released July 5th. The 12" Vinyl Maxi Single was released on July 19th in the USA causing the song to chart on the Hot 100 Singles Sales and the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Sales charts. Although these positions may seem low compared to the rest of the chart positions of "We Belong Together," as noted from above, the song has only been released on the 12" Vinyl Maxi Single format (a format which only sells a few thousand copies at best per week)

Music video

The music video was directed by Brett Ratner, who also directed some of Carey's other videos including "Heartbreaker," "I Still Believe," "Thank God I Found You," and this video's predecessor, "It's Like That". Initially, Mariah had wanted Paul Hunter to direct the video, but he was apparently busy. Carey, who is a close friend of Ratner, was reluctant at first, as he had stopped directing music videos and mostly directed movies, but after hearing a proposed treatment, she approved.

The video serves as the dramatic sequel and conclusion to "It's Like That." (The two music videos were filmed simultaneously). In "It's Like That", Mariah's character was seen at a party the night before her wedding when a guest removed his mask revealing himself as an ex-beau of Mariah's. It is revealed that he knew about Mariah's engagement and came to see her one last time. Without saying anything, he tosses her a flower, which she clenches onto dearly.

The "We Belong Together" video starts the next morning. Mariah wakes up and is shown getting ready for the wedding. She looks forlorn as she wonders where her heart really belongs. As the wedding begins, Mariah nervously walks down the aisle to the smiles of her husband-to-be, played by Eric Roberts. However, Mariah's ex-beau, played by Wentworth Miller, is watching the wedding from afar. He catches eye contact with Mariah, placing her with a difficult decision: to become the wife of the man she is seconds away from marrying or to run away with her true love. Mariah decides that she and her ex "belong together." She runs from the wedding into his arms, and they jump into his car. Mariah's wedding dress is shown trailing out of the car as the couple drives away. Meanwhile, her husband-to-be is shown heartbroken over Mariah leaving him at the altar.

The music video triggered much publicity from critics and the media as the wedding dress seen in the video is the same wedding dress that Mariah wore at her 1993 wedding to Tommy Mottola. While many have speculated that Mariah used the dress as a publicity stunt to help promote her new album, Mariah insists that she had no ulterior motives and there was no deeper meaning or symbolism to her wearing the dress. The video treatment called for a wedding dress, and she simply had one in her possession. Parallels have also been made by the media comparing the Roberts character to Mottola and the Wentworth Miller character to Derek Jeter (an ex-boyfriend of Mariah). The parallels can be seen as the Roberts character, like Mottola, was overcontrolling and Mariah believed she loved him when she did not. The parallels can also be seen in the Miller character as both he and Jeter are multiracial, and Jeter was often believed to be the "true love" of Mariah.

The "We Belong Together" video was successful on several music video countdowns. It reached #1 on VH1's Top 20 Video Countdown, #1 on BET's 106 & Park, and #1 on MTV's TRL (for 10 days). On July 8, 2005, the video retired at #1 from TRL after spending 50 days on the countdown. "We Belong Together" is Mariah's second video to retire, the other being Heartbreaker. Carey's "We Belong Together" is also Yahoo Music's most watched video of 2005 with 7.5 million streamed performances.

The music video has not been released on home video.

Track listings of major single releases

• UK CD Single/European CD Single

1. We Belong Together (Album Version)
2. We Belong Together (Remix) featuring Jadakiss And Styles P.

• UK CD Maxi Single

1. We Belong Together (Album Version)
2. We Belong Together (Reconstruction Radio Mix)
3. We Belong Together (Reconstruction Club Mix)
4. We Belong Together (Atlantic Soul Vocal)
5. We Belong Together (Atlantic Soul Instrumental)

• European CD Maxi Single

1. We Belong Together (Album Version)
2. We Belong Together (Reconstruction Radio Mix)
3. It's Like That (Remix) featuring Fat Joe
4. We Belong Together (Video - Enhanced CD)

Chart trajectory

Comprehensive charts

"We Belong Together" Debuted at #81 on The Billboard Hot 100
"We Belong Together" Was Ranked #TBA on The Billboard Hot 100 Year End Charts (2005)
"We Belong Together" Remained in The Billboard Hot 100 for 17+ weeks

"We Belong Together" was Mariah's 16th #1 single on The Billboard Hot 100 (the most for a female artist)
"We Belong Together" was Mariah's 11th #1 single on The Billboard Hot 100 Airplay
"We Belong Together" was Mariah's 1st #1 single on The Billboard Pop 100
"We Belong Together" was Mariah's 1st #1 single on The Billboard Pop 100 Airplay
"We Belong Together" was Mariah's 9th #1 single on The Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks
"We Belong Together" was Mariah's 6th #1 single on The Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Airplay
"We Belong Together" was Mariah's 10th #1 single on The Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play
"We Belong Together" was Mariah's 5th #1 single on The Billboard Mainstream Top 40 (the most for any artist at that format)
"We Belong Together" was Mariah's 6th #1 single on The Billboard Rhythmic Top 40
"We Belong Together" was Mariah's ??? #1 single on The Billboard Adult R&B
"We Belong Together" was Mariah's 1st #1 single on The Billboard Hot Ringtones
"We Belong Totgether" was Mariah's ??? #1 single on The Billboard Hot Videoclips

• USA

"We Belong Together" was Carey's 2nd #1 single on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart

• International

Official remixes/versions list

• We Belong Together (Album Version)
• We Belong Together (Instrumental)
• We Belong Together (Remix) featuring DJ Clue, Jadakiss, & Styles P.
• We Belong Together (Remix Instrumental) (From 12" Vinyl Only)
• We Belong Together (Atlantic Soul Vocal)
• We Belong Together (Atlantic Soul Radio Edit)
• We Belong Together (Atlantic Soul Instrumental)
• We Belong Together (Reconstruction Club Mix)
• We Belong Together (Reconstruction Radio Mix)

Overview

• Mariah Carey singles
• 2005 singles
• Number One singles