Irreplaceable

"Irreplaceable"
Song

"Irreplaceable" is a song written by American singer-songwriters Ne-Yo and Beyoncé, and Norwegian songwriters Mikkel S. Eriksen, Tor Erik Hermansen, Espen Lind, and Amund Bjørklund for Knowles' second studio album B’Day. Produced by Norwegian production team Stargate and Beyoncé, the song was released as the album's third single domestically, and the second single outside North America in October 2006. The track "Freakum Dress" was initially the third single for US single and the second international single, however due to the underperformance of the single "Ring The Alarm" "Irreplaceable" was rush released because of its high popularity. "Irreplaceable" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on December 16, 2006, making it Beyoncé's eighth Billboard number-one, and her fourth as a solo artist (her first without a guest rapper). It has sold over two million copies in digital sales. It was the last U.S. #1 of 2006 and the first of 2007.

"Irreplaceable" was the Billboard Hot 100 number-one single for ten weeks, and has received world wide critical acclaim. In the United States, it has become the most successful song of her solo career. In December of 2006, a Spanish-language version of "Irreplaceable" entitled "Irreemplazable" was released. This remix has peaked on #4 on Billboard's Hot Latin Songs. It has also been faring fairly well on charts in Latin countries and was included in her re-release of B’Day.

In the UK the song was used, along with Knowles, in TV commercials for the Samsung Ultra Music SGH-F300 cell-phone. The song will be featured on her new Spamish Language EP, Irreemplazable.

Writing and inspiration

What started this song was a musical idea. Stargate Produced the track, using acoustic guitar parts made by Espen Lind and Amund Bjørklund, and then making it into a full track with drums, bass and strings. This beat was presented to Ne-Yo who loved the idea, and wrote lyrics and melody on the spot. The song was then played to Knowles and she recorded the song for her B´Day album.

According to Beyoncé, "Irreplaceable" is meant to empower her female fans by encouraging them to end bad relationships: "[Irreplaceable] is a secret weapon...It's a celebration of a breakup and makes women feel like they're worth more." The song is about putting out her boyfriend after he cheats and says that he was foolish to think that she won't find someone if he leaves.

Music and structure

"Irreplaceable" is an R&B song written in the key of B♭ major. It is written in common time and moves at a moderate 100 beats per minute. Knowles' vocal range spans nearly an octave and a half, from B♭₃ to E♭₅.

Critical reception

The song was well-received by critics. While many of the tracks from B’Day have been upbeat club-bangers, featuring heavy 808-driven beats, "Irreplaceable" has been praised by critics for its simple, guitar-driven melody. Bill Lamb of About.com gave the song four and a half stars, and characterized it as "one of the strongest" tracks from the album. He praised Stargate for the "simple, pop-oriented production" and the "subject matter of female strength and independence." Lamb ranked "Irreplaceable" the fourth best R&B song of 2006. Barry Schwartz of Stylus Magazine wrote that "[Irreplaceable] recaptured "Crazy in Love"’s near-perfection....[and features] her most genuinely emotional vocal to date, equal parts vulnerable, upset, pissed off, vindictive, resigned, and apathetic."

For Entertainment Weekly, Jody Rosen said the track was "a lilting tune unlike anything Beyoncé has ever performed," while Billboard magazine praised "Irreplaceable"'s simplicity and 'radio-friendliness,' noting that the "song dilutes the excessive instrumentation of B's first two singles in favor of smooth drum taps and guitar strumming" and "should blast off at radio." In their review of B'Day, the popular indie-oriented website Pitchfork Media declared "Irreplaceable" the album's best song, calling it "(Beyoncé's) most sophisticated and her most honest performance to date". Irreplaceable won the Soul Train Music Award for "Best R&B/Hip-Hop Single, Female," and the Nickelodeon Kid's Choice Award for "Favorite Song". Knowles also won Video of the Year at the 2007 BET Awards for Irreplaceable and also won Best Female R&B Artist of the Year.

Music video

File:Irreplaceable-beyonce.jpg

Knowles argues with a former lover in the music video.

The music video for "Irreplaceable" premiered on British music channel The Box on October 3, 2006. While it also premiered on various stations in United States during the week of October 16, 2006, the official edited video premiered on BET's 106 & Park countdown on October 19, 2006, where it was about twenty seconds shorter than the original version. A video edit was also created for the Spanish version "Irreemplazable".

Filmed by director Anthony Mandler in the week of September 11, 2006 in New York, the video is a simple story where Beyoncé's boyfriend is packing his belongings and leaving her house. Between cuts, she is seen dancing, looking at herself in the mirror, huge curlers, a high-waisted skirt, and lipstick, singing with her band, and enjoying herself. The video ends with Beyoncé's new boyfriend at her front door. The background music in the video varies from the album version; it contains more musical instruments. This video also featured a guest appearance by model Bobby Roache. During the video, Beyoncé is seen leaning on a 2007 Jaguar XK.

On MTV's Total Request Live, the video peaked at number one on the countdown. The video also peaked at number one on Yahoo! Music Top 100. The video was so popular at MTV, it was named the number-one video of 2006 by TRL. On January 18, 2007, Irreplaceable retired at #1 on MTV's Total Request Live, having spent 40 days on the countdown, with 11 days being #1, the most days at #1 for any Beyoncé video. This was also her third video to retire on TRL, the others being "Naughty Girl" back in 2004 and "Beautiful Liar" in 2007. Irreplaceable has been viewed more than 17 Million times on YouTube making it one of the most viewed Music Videos on the site.

The video for Irreplaceable has won been given many awards and nominations. It won the Video Of The Year Award at the 2007 BET Awards, a category in which "Beautiful Liar" was also nominated. On August 8th 2007, MTV announced that Irreplaceable was nominated for Video of the Year at the 2007 MTV Video Music awards, to be held in Las Vegas on September 9 2007. Knowles was also nominated in six other categories including Best Female. This made her the most nominated artist that year, tied with Justin Timberlake.

Chart performance

"Irreplaceable" entered various charts around the world, and became the most successful single from B’Day. The single debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 on the issue dated November 4, 2006 at position eighty-seven, and climbed the charts rapidly because of heavy airplay— it received the "Greatest Airplay Gainer" certification for seven weeks, six of which were consecutive. It also received the "Greatest Sales Gainer" for three consecutive weeks. It summited the Hot 100 on December 16, 2006, becoming Beyoncé's fourth number-one single, and her second in 2006, following "Check on It" (featuring Slim Thug). On the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, the song debuted at position forty-two, and it became her fourth number-one single. "Irreplaceable" became a belated favorite on adult contemporary radio stations, becoming the first Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart hit of Knowles' solo career (she made the adult contemporary chart as a member of Destiny's Child once, with the trio's remake of "Emotion" in 2001).

A commercial U.S. CD single of "Irreplaceable" was released on January 9, 2007 for purchase. As of February 2007, the song had sold over 1,900,000 copies in digital downloads and a further 180,000 across various other formats in the United States. "Irreplaceable" sold 267,000 copies in digital downloads in a week of January 2007, surpassing Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie", which sold 265,000 copies in a week in June 2006. Later in January 2007, Fergie's "Fergalicious" surpassed "Irreplaceable", selling 295,000 downloads in a single week. "Irreplaceable" was the most successful single of 2006 on the Billboard Hot 100, staying at number one for ten weeks, three weeks more than Justin Timberlake's "SexyBack". Overall, it had the longest run at number one on the Hot 100 since Kanye West's "Gold Digger" (featuring Jamie Foxx), which held the summit for ten weeks in 2005. The song surpassed Knowles' "Baby Boy" (featuring Sean Paul) to become her most successful single on the Hot 100 as a solo artist.

Much of the single's success depended on its considerable airplay. On December 11 2006, following "Check on It", "Irreplaceable" passed the 200 million audience impressions mark in the United States, according to Mediabase. This achievement made Beyoncé one of two artists to have two songs pass the 200 million impression mark in a single year; the other artist was Mariah Carey in 2005 (with "We Belong Together" and "Shake It Off"). "Irreplaceable" had major cross-over success, becoming the first song to simultaneously occupy the number-one position on twelve Billboard charts on the week ending December 30 2006, including the Hot 100, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, Pop 100, Mainstream Top 40, and Rhythmic Top 40 charts. "Irreplaceable" had the best radio audience week of Beyoncé's career and the second-best sum in the chart's history, with 201.9 million audience impressions. Only Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together" bested that total; it garnered 223 million impressions during a week in July 2005.

Outside the U.S., the song had major success. It reached number one on the Airplay Eurochart (based on airplay charts ffrom seventeen countries) in January 2007. In the United Kingdom, despite reaching a peak of number four "Irreplaceable" became Beyoncé's longest running top forty single. With sales of 206,000 copies, it is her third most successful single in the UK, only behind "Crazy in Love" and "Beautiful Liar". In Australia, "Irreplaceable" debuted at number eight on the singles chart and reached number one on December 31, becoming Beyoncé's first number-one single there; it remained at the top for three consecutive weeks, going Platinum. "Irreplaceable" stayed on the United World Chart for twenty-six weeks, spending twelve of those at the number-one spot.

On the Latin America Top 40 Airplay chart the single debuted at number thirty-four, and four weeks later it entered the top ten; it spent sixteen weeks on the chart. In Mexico, the song peaked at number fifty-four in early December 2006, and after falling out of the chart in early January, it re-entered in February 2007 because of the radio release of the Spanish version, "Irreemplazable" (both the English and Spanish version were counted as "Irreplaceable" on the chart). The song re-entered the chart at number ninety, climbing to number fifty-eight in March.

Charts

"Irreplaceable" has entered many charts around the world. The following table lists the various charts and peak positions.

Chart (2006) Peak position Australian ARIA Singles Chart 1 Austrian Singles Chart 11 Belgium Singles Chart 7 Brazil Hot 100 1 Brazil Top 40 Dance Club Play 1 Canadian BDS Airplay Chart 3 Canadian Hot 100 20 Chinese Singles Chart 1 Croatian Singles Chart 1 Czech IFPI Chart 4 Dutch Top 40 3 Danish Singles Chart 9 Denmark Top 20 Chart 2 Euro Top 20 3 France Singles Chart 10 German Singles Chart 11 Greece Singles Chart 1 Ibero-America Top 100 3 Israeli Singles Chart 2 Irish Singles Chart 1 Italian Singles Chart 10 Latin America Top 40 Airplay 3 New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart 1 Netherlands Singles Top 100 3 Norwegian Singles Chart 8 Polish Airplay Chart 1 Portugal Airplay Chart 2 Polish hit fm 1 Russia Top 100 7 Slovakia Airplay Chart 3 South Africa Singles Chart 3 Swedish Singles Chart 19 Swiss Singles Chart 9 UK Singles Chart 4 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 1 U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs 1 U.S. Billboard Pop 100 1 U.S. Billboard The Mainstream Top 40 1 U.S. Billboard The Rhythmic Top 40 1 U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Top 40 12 U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks 11 U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play 1 U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Airplay 5 U.S. Billboard Hot Latin Songs 4 United World Chart 1 United World R&B Chart 1

Track listings and formats

These are the formats and track listings of major single releases of "Irreplaceable".

• Canadian/U.S. CD single

1. "Irreplaceable" (Album Version)
2. "Irreplaceable" (Instrumental)
3. irreplaceable remix feat Trina [New York bonus track]

• UK CD 1

1. "Irreplaceable" (Album Version)
2. "Ring the Alarm" (Freemasons Club Mix Radio Edit)

• UK CD 2

1. "Irreplaceable" (Album Version)
2. "Ring the Alarm" (Freemasons Club Mix Radio Edit)
3. "Ring the Alarm" (Karmatronic Remix)
4. "Ring the Alarm" (Tranzformas Remix featuring Collie Buddz)
5. "Ring the Alarm" (Video)

• UK 12" vinyl single

1. "Irreplaceable" (Album Version)
2. "Irreplaceable" (Instrumental)
3. "Ring the Alarm" (Freemasons Club Mix Radio Edit)
4. "Ring the Alarm" (Album Version)

• Australian CD single

1. "Irreplaceable" (Album Version)
2. "Deja Vu" (Freemasons Club Mix)
3. "Deja Vu" (Remix)
4. Roc-a-fella mix feat foxy brown

• iTunes single

1. "Irreplaceable" (Ralphi & Craig Club Radio Remix)
2. "Irreplaceable" (Ralphi & Craig Club Voc Remix)
3. "Irreplaceable" (Ralphi Rosario Dub Remix)
4. "Irreplaceable" (Maurice Joshua Remix Edit)
5. "Irreplaceable" (Maurice Joshua Club Remix)
6. "Irreplaceable" (featuring Ghostface Killah)
7. "Irreplaceable" (DJ Speedy Remix)

See also

• Hot 100 number-one hits of 2007 (USA)
• R&B number-one hits of 2007 (USA)
• Pop 100 number-one hits of 2007 (USA)
• Hot 100 number-one hits of 2006 (USA)
• R&B number-one hits of 2006 (USA)
• Pop 100 number-one hits of 2006 (USA)
• Number-one singles in Ireland (2006)
• List of number-one songs on American Top 40 of 2007