Beautiful (Eminem song)

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"Beautiful"
Single by Eminem
from the album Relapse
Released August 11, 2009 (2009-08-11)
Format Digital download, CD single
Recorded 2007
Genre Alternative hip hop, rap rock
Length 6:32 (album version)
4:00 (radio edit)
Label Shady, Aftermath, Interscope
Writer(s) M. Mathers, L. Resto, J. Bass, D. Black, A. Hill
Producer Eminem, Jeff Bass (co)
Eminem singles chronology
"Old Time's Sake"
(2009)		 "Beautiful"
(2009)		 "Forever"
(2009)

"Beautiful" is the third and final official single from American rapper Eminem. It was released on May 12, 2009 on iTunes as a digital download.[1] "Beautiful" entered the UK Singles Chart on May 17, 2009 at #38 and re-entered at #31 due to massive airplay and was released as the third UK single after "We Made You". Since then the song has peaked at #12 so far. It became Eminem's 21st Top 40 single in the UK but also his second official single to miss the Top 10. In the U.S., it debuted at #17 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was on the A-List of the BBC Radio 1 playlist. In the week of July 23, 2009 it re-entered the Hot 100 at #98.[2]

Contents

[edit] Critical reception

The song has received very high acclaim and much positive reception. Rolling Stone called it a "touching attempt at an inspirational ballad". It samples "Reaching Out", originally written by the supergroup Rock Therapy. This version of "Reaching Out" is taken from the Queen + Paul Rodgers's live show opener on the 2005–06 tour, which used Eminem's "Lose Yourself" as the house music. Pitchfork Media claim that "Relapse hits something of a stride with 'Beautiful'". Much speculation has followed as to who sang the chorus of the song, suggesting it was Paul Rodgers, but in fact it was Eminem himself.[3] "Beautiful" scored Eminem his ninth straight Top 40 single on the Billboard Hot 100, going back to "Smack That" with Akon. Billboard called the song "epic" and described it as "Part confessional ("I'm just so fucking depressed," begins the track's explicit version) and part "Lose Yourself"-style motivational anthem, "Beautiful" encapsulates the introspective nature of "Relapse" but deviates from the shock tactics that dominate the album" adding that "The song is as much a lighters-in-the-air, arena rock power ballad as it is a lyrical showcase".[4] The song was nominated at the 52nd Grammy Awards in the Best Rap Solo Performance category, but lost to Jay-Z's "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)".[5]

[edit] Music video

The video was shot in Detroit and it was directed by Anthony Mandler. It premiered on July 2, 2009 on Yahoo! music.[6]

The video opens with a captions stating that "in 1950, Michigan was 1 of 8 states in America that collectively produced 36% of the world's GNP" and that "Detroit was the greatest manufacturing city in the world". It then cuts to present-day images of the city, featuring Eminem walking through three abandoned structures from that era that symbolized the "Arsenal of Democracy" (Michigan Central Station, the former Packard plant, and Tiger Stadium, including demolition footage of the latter), joined by several people appropriate to each building (an older woman with a suitcase, several autoworkers holding their lunchboxes and tools, and a neighborhood youth baseball team respectively). Although the original song contains three verses, the music video only features the first two.

There are two versions of the video, the shorter of the two editing out the Detroit statistics and coarse language.[citation needed]

On August 26, 2011, "Beautiful" received 100 million YouTube views on EminemVEVO, making this the 3rd song from EminemVEVO to reach 100 million views (after "Not Afraid" and "Love the Way You Lie").

[edit] Awards and nominations

Year Nominated work Award Result
2010 Grammy Awards Best Rap Solo Performance Nominated
Much Music Video Awards International Video of the Year Nominated

[edit] Track listing

Digital download
No. Title Writer(s) Sample(s) Length
1. "Beautiful" (album version) M. Mathers, L. Resto, J. Bass, D. Black, A. Hill 6:32
Promotional single
No. Title Writer(s) Producer(s) Length
1. "Beautiful" (clean version) M. Mathers, L. Resto, J. Bass, D. Black, A. Hill Eminem, co-produced by Jeff Bass 4:04
2. "Beautiful" (explicit album version) C. Bradbury, L. Resto, J. Bass, D. Black, A. Hill Eminem, co-produced by Jeff Bass 6:33
Digital download – Music video
No. Title Writer(s) Director(s) Length
1. "Beautiful" (music video — shortened version) M. Mathers, L. Resto, J. Bass, D. Black, A. Hill Anthony Mandler 4:21
German CD single
No. Title Writer(s) Producer(s) Length
1. "Beautiful" (radio edit) M. Mathers, L. Resto, J. Bass, D. Black, A. Hill Eminem, co-produced by Jeff Bass 4:00
2. "3 a.m." (Travis Barker remix) A. Young, D. Parker, M. Batson, M. Mathers, M. Elizondo, T. Lawrence Dr. Dre, Travis Barker 5:20
Digital E.P.
No. Title Writer(s) Producer(s) Length
1. "Beautiful" (radio edit) M. Mathers, L. Resto, J. Bass, D. Black, A. Harris Eminem, co-produced by Jeff Bass 4:00
2. "Beautiful" (album version) M. Mathers, L. Resto, J. Bass, D. Black, A. Hill Eminem, co-produced by Jeff Bass 6:32
3. "Beautiful" (instrumental) M. Mathers, L. Resto, J. Bass, D. Black, A. Hill Eminem, co-produced by Jeff Bass 6:37
4. "3 a.m." (Travis Barker remix) A. Young, D. Parker, M. Batson, M. Mathers, M. Elizondo, T. Lawrence Dr. Dre, Travis Barker 5:20

[edit] Musical personnel

Credits adapted from Relapse digital booklet.

  • Songwriters: M. Mathers, L. Resto, J. Bass, D. Black, A. Hill
  • Recorded by: Mike Strange at 54 Sound in Ferndale, Michigan
  • Assistant engineers: Tony Campana at 54 Sound in Ferndale, Michigan
  • Mixed by: Eminem and Mike Strange at Effigy Studios
  • Keyboards by: Jeff Bass and Luis Resto
  • Bass and guitar by: Jeff Bass
  • Samples: Contains excerpts from "Reaching Out" by Queen + Paul Rodgers, written by Don Black and Andy Hill

[edit] Charts

Chart (2009) Peak
position
Australian Singles Chart[7] 33
Austrian Singles Chart[8] 11
Canadian Hot 100[9] 8
Danish Singles Chart[10] 40
Eurochart Hot 100 Singles[11] 26
German Singles Chart[12] 39
Irish Singles Chart[13] 5
New Zealand Singles Chart[14] 4
Swedish Singles Chart[15] 47
Swiss Singles Chart[16] 8
UK Singles Chart[17] 12
U.S. Billboard Hot 100[18] 17
U.S. Billboard Pop Songs 35

[edit] Year-end charts

Chart (2009) Position
New Zealand Singles Chart[19] 40
UK Singles Chart[20] 173

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Eminem's 'Beautiful' Hits iTunes". http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1611174/20090512/eminem.jhtml. Retrieved May 13, 2009. 
  2. ^ "Music Albums, Top 200 Albums & Music Album Charts" (in (Dutch)). Billboard.com. http://www.billboard.com/charts/billboard-200#/charts/hot-100?begin=91&order=position. Retrieved 2012-01-09. 
  3. ^ Cohen, Ian (2009-05-19). "Eminem: Relapse | Album Reviews". Pitchfork. http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/13034-relapse. Retrieved 2012-01-09. 
  4. ^ [1][dead link]
  5. ^ "And the 2010 Grammy Nominees Are…". Rap-Up.com. http://www.rap-up.com/2009/12/02/and-the-grammy-nominees-are/#more-33041. Retrieved 2012-01-09. 
  6. ^ "Eminem – Beautiful Official Music Video". WeLiveThis.com. http://www.welivethis.com/newsfeed/2009/07/02/eminem-beautiful-official-music-video-2/. Retrieved July 2, 2009. 
  7. ^ "Australia Singes Top 50". Australian Recording Industry Association. acharts.com. July 27, 2009. http://acharts.us/australia_singles_top_50/2009/31. Retrieved 2009-07-26. 
  8. ^ "oe3.ORF.at / Woche 43/2011". Charts.orf.at. http://charts.orf.at/oe3/single. Retrieved 2012-01-09. 
  9. ^ "Information Not Found". Billboard.com. http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/chart_display.jsp?f=Canadian+Hot+100&pageNumber=Top+1-10&g=Singles. Retrieved 2012-01-09. 
  10. ^ Steffen Hung. "Eminem - Beautiful". danishcharts.com. http://www.danishcharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Eminem&titel=Beautiful&cat=s. Retrieved 2012-01-09. 
  11. ^ "Music Charts, Most Popular Music, Music by Genre & Top Music Charts". Billboard.com. http://www.billboard.com/charts#/charts/european-hot-100?begin=21&order=position. Retrieved 2012-01-09. 
  12. ^ "Die ganze Musik im Internet: Charts, News, Neuerscheinungen, Tickets, Genres, Genresuche, Genrelexikon, Künstler-Suche, Musik-Suche, Track-Suche, Ticket-Suche". musicline.de. http://musicline.de/de/chartverfolgung_summary/artist/Eminem/single. Retrieved 2012-01-09. 
  13. ^ "Ireland Singles Top 50 - Music Charts". Acharts.us. 2012-01-05. http://acharts.us/ireland_singles_top_50. Retrieved 2012-01-09. 
  14. ^ Steffen Hung. "Eminem - Beautiful". charts.org.nz. http://charts.org.nz/showitem.asp?interpret=Eminem&titel=Beautiful&cat=s. Retrieved 2012-01-09. 
  15. ^ Steffen Hung. "Eminem - Beautiful". swedishcharts.com. http://swedishcharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Eminem&titel=Beautiful&cat=s. Retrieved 2012-01-09. 
  16. ^ Steffen Hung. "Swiss Charts - Singles Top 75 08.01.2012". swisscharts.com. http://www.swisscharts.com/weekchart.asp?cat=s. Retrieved 2012-01-09. 
  17. ^ "Eminem - Beautiful - Music Charts". Acharts.us. http://acharts.us/song/43643. Retrieved 2012-01-09. 
  18. ^ "Top 100 Music Hits, Top 100 Music Charts, Top 100 Songs & The Hot 100". Billboard.com. http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/chart_display.jsp?f=The+Billboard+Hot+100&pageNumber=Top+11-50&g=Singles. Retrieved 2012-01-09. 
  19. ^ "The Official New Zealand Music Chart". Rianz.org.nz. http://www.rianz.org.nz/rianz/chart_annual.asp. Retrieved 2012-01-09. 
  20. ^ "Charts Plus Year end 2009" (PDF). Charts Plus. http://www.ukchartsplus.co.uk/UKChartsPlusYE2009.pdf. Retrieved 2010-07-19. 

[edit] External links

Eminem singles discography
The Slim Shady EP
The Slim Shady LP
The Marshall Mathers LP
The Eminem Show
8 Mile soundtrack
Encore
Curtain Call: The Hits
Eminem Presents: The Re-Up
Relapse/Refill
"Crack a Bottle" · "We Made You" · "3 a.m." · "Old Time's Sake" · "Beautiful" · "Hell Breaks Loose" · "Elevator"
Recovery
Collaborations
Other songs
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