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Revision as of 12:19, 25 April 2008

"Break the Ice"
Song
B-side"Everybody"

"Break the Ice" is a song by American pop singer Britney Spears. Written by Nate "Danja" Hills, Marcella "Ms. Lago" Araica, Keri Hilson and James Washington, it was produced by Danja for Spears' fifth studio album Blackout (2007). The track was released as the third single from the album in the first quarter of 2008. Its accompanying music video features an animated version of Spears.

Background

Spears collaborated with Hills, Araica, Hilson and Washington for "Break the Ice", who were behind her comeback single "Gimme More" (2007). The production team worked on the track when Spears was pregnant with her second child.[1] They arranged the vocals in Spears' house at Beverly Hills, California, three weeks before she gave birth,[1] and was recorded at the Palms Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was mixed by Araica in Chalice Recording Studios in Los Angeles. A demo of the song leaked as "Been a While" onto the internet, but it later appeared as "Break the Ice" on Blackout's final tracklisting.[2]

Composition

Template:Sound sample box align left Template:Multi-listen start Template:Multi-listen item Template:Multi-listen end Template:Sample box end "Break the Ice" is an uptempo-oriented electro track.[3][1] The song runs for three minutes and sixteen seconds. It is composed in the key of A♭major,[4] and is set in common time.[4] It is constructed in the common verse-chorus form. The spoken intro contains a dual meaning. She whispers "It's been a while. I know I shouldn't have kept you waiting. But I'm here now," which serves as an apology for being gone so long in the music industry, as well as away from her love interest in the song.[1] The song speaks about a girl and a boy, with the former saying: "You're a little cold. Let me warm things up and break the ice."[1] Spears' breathy vocals are layered when she sings "Hot Hot Hot Hot" in the choruses and sound similar to that of her 2001 single "I'm a Slave 4 U." She sings of the intensity of "breaking the ice", lyrically stating "You've got my heart beating like an 808". Midway through the song, she halts, "I like this part...", mimicking Janet Jackson's style in "Nasty".[1] The heavy drum line drops and the song finalizes in a repeated chorus, with ad-libs included by Spears.

Reception

"Break the Ice" received positive responses from the critics. Kelefa Sanneh of The New York Times described it as a "rave-inspired flirtation."[5] All Music Guide's Stephen Thomas Erlewine referred to the song as a "stuttering electro-clip."[3] Darryl Sterdan noted in Canadian-based website Jamcanoe.ca: "...[Spears] brought a choir and one of Madonna's old synth-pop leftovers with her."[6] Digital Spy's Nick Levine awarded the song four stars out of a possible five, calling it Spears' "third cutting edge pop gem in a row".

Music video

File:Break the ice1.JPG
Britney's animated self in the video.

Robert Hales directed Spears' first animated music video. The video was heavily inspired by Japanese anime (created in South Korea) and her "Toxic" video. The music video premiered on the website BlackoutBall.com,[7] a site designed to "serve as a virtual black tie premiere party" for the video.[8] The video debuted on MTV's Total Request Live on March 17, as well as various British music channels. The video also premiered on MuchOnDemand in Canada on March 15th.[citation needed]

The video opens with a close-up of the animated Spears mouthing the words "it's been a while." After, a clone of Spears is shown inside a liquid cocoon. Scenes of a futuristic city illuminate the night skies and the superheroine Spears is seen on top of a skyscraper with a full moon behind. She jumps off the building and crashes into an amber glass ceiling. She lands in an indoor water fountain and begins fighting demonic-looking men dressed in business suits. She fights the men under the surveillance of similar men in a state of the art security room. A breach of the security system sounds and an army of men equipped with goggles, shields, and sticks attempt to attack Spears as she enters the highly secured laboratory. She gains access and walks through aisles of clones held in liquid cocoons. She nears one of the tanks and kisses her goodbye then plants a timed bomb on the tank. She jumps out of a window of the blasted building. A wide shot of the exploding building is shown and the word "Victory" is depicted on the side of the structure. The video ends with the words "to be continued".

Chart performance

"Break the Ice" charted on the Billboard Pop 100 at seventy-five and on the Billboard Hot Digital Songs at seventy-two, prior to the single's official release. The single debuted at one hundred on the Hot 100 on March 15, and has so far peaked at forty-six due to rising airplay and digital sales.[9] Also in North America, Break The Ice has reached nine in its ninth week on the Canadian Hot 100.[10]

The single is doing well on European charts; it debuted at eleven at number nine in Sweden, its first chart appearance outside North America. In addition, the single debuted in Ireland at thirty-seven, reached sixteen the following week and eventually peaked at number seven. On the UK Singles Chart, the single debuted at thirty-six and has peaked at fifteen with the physical release, becoming her lowest charting single in the UK.

In New Zealand, the single debuted at thirty-seven on April 7 2008.[11] Three places lower than "Piece of Me", which debuted at thirty-four in late December 2007. The single fell out of the chart the next week. The song re-entered the chart on April 21, two weeks after it first debuted, at number thirty-four.

It has also debuted at number forty on the United World Chart on the week-ending of April 19 and has since reached twenty-two.

Formats and track listings

Major commercial releases for "Break the Ice":

  • International 2-track single/UK single
  1. "Break the Ice" [Main version] - 3:16
  2. "Everybody" - 3:16
  • Australian CD single
  1. "Break the Ice" [Main version] - 3:16
  2. "Break the Ice" [Instrumental] - 3:08
  • European maxi single
  1. "Break the Ice" [Main version] - 3:16
  2. "Everybody" - 3:16
  3. "Break the Ice" [Kaskade Remix] - 3:59
  4. "Break the Ice" [Tracy Young Mix] - 3:42
  5. "Break the Ice" [Music video by Robert Hales]

Official versions and remixes

Release history

Region Date Format
United States 3 March 2008 Radio
United States 28 March 2008 Digital [12]
United Kingdom[13] 14 April 2008 CD
Germany[14][15] 2 May 2008 CD
Australia[16] 5 May 2008 CD

Charts

Chart (2008) Peak
position [17]
Australian ARIA Digital Track Chart 31
Austrian Singles Top 75[18] 74
Canadian Hot 100 9
Croatian Airplay Chart[19] 20
European Hit Radio (Latvia)[20] 5
Eurochart Hot 100[21] 35
Finnish Singles Top 20 8
Irish Singles Chart 7
Israeli Singles Chart[22] 10
Maltese Airplay Chart[23] 5
New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart 34
Philippines Hot 100[24] 44
Polish National Top 50[25] 30
Romanian Top 100[26] 56
Russian Airplay Chart[27] 36
Swedish Singles Chart 11
Swiss Singles Top 100[28] 67
Thailand Singles Chart[29] 19
Turkish Top 20 Chart[30] 11
UK Singles Chart 15
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 46
U.S. Billboard Pop 100 21
U.S. Billboard Hot Digital Songs 35
U.S. Hot Dance Club Play 27
United World Chart 22

Personnel and credits

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Vineyard, Jennifer (October 12, 2007). "Britney Spears' New Album, Blackout: A Track-By-Track Report". MTV Canada. CTV Globe Media. Retrieved 2008-01-20. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ Friedman, Roger ((October 11, 2007)). "Britney Spears' 'Blackout' Hits Internet". FOX News Network, LLC. Retrieved 2008-01-20. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ a b Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Album review: Blackout". All Music Guide. Macrovision Corporation. Retrieved 2008-01-20.
  4. ^ a b "Break the Ice". Sheetmusicdirect.us. Retrieved 2008-04-10.
  5. ^ Sanneh, Kelefa (October 29, 2007). "'Miss Bad Media Karma' Sings, Too". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved 2008-01-20. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ Sterdan, Darryl. "BLACKOUT Britney's back with a thud". Jam Canoe. Canoe Inc. Retrieved 2008-01-20.
  7. ^ Daniel Kreps (2008-03-12). "Britney Spears' "Break The Ice" Video To Premiere Today, Fandemonium Ensues". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2008-03-13.
  8. ^ Natalie Finn (2008-03-12). "Britney Drawn to Perfection". E! News. Retrieved 2008-03-13.
  9. ^ Billboard Magazine. "Britney Spears: Billboard Chart". Billboard. Billboard Magazine. Retrieved 2008-04-17.
  10. ^ http://www.theofficialcharts.com/top40_singles.php
  11. ^ http://www.rianz.org.nz/rianz/chart.asp
  12. ^ http://www.britney.com/blog/quotbreak-icequot-grabs
  13. ^ "Break The Ice (2008)". HMV. Retrieved 2008-04-03.
  14. ^ "Break the Ice/Basic [Single]". Amazon.de. Retrieved 2008-04-03.
  15. ^ "Break the Ice/Premium [Single]" (in German). Amazon.de. Retrieved 2008-04-03.
  16. ^ "Break the Ice (Spears, Britney)". Herald Sun HiT. Retrieved 2008-04-03.
  17. ^ http://finnishcharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Britney+Spears&titel=Break+The+Ice&cat=s
  18. ^ http://www.austriancharts.at/showitem.asp?interpret=Britney+Spears&titel=Break+The+Ice&cat=s
  19. ^ [1]
  20. ^ http://www.europeanhitradio.com/topi
  21. ^ http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/esearch/chart_display.jsp?cfi=349&cfgn=Singles&cfn=European+Hot+100+Singles&ci=3093986&cdi=9745880&cid=04%2F26%2F2008
  22. ^ http://www.charts.co.il/charts.asp?id=14
  23. ^ http://euro200.eu.mialias.net/EU-nation.htm
  24. ^ http://www.freewebs.com/billboardphilippines/hot100.htm
  25. ^ http://euro200.eu.mialias.net/Polish-Top50.htm
  26. ^ http://www.rt100.ro/top-100-edition.html
  27. ^ Russian Top100 Chart
  28. ^ http://swisscharts.com/weekchart.asp?cat=s
  29. ^ [2] MTVThailand.com Accessed Week 17 / 19 - 25 April 2008
  30. ^ Turkish Airplay Chart


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