Love Yourself
"Love Yourself" is a song recorded by Canadian singer Justin Bieber for his fourth studio album Purpose. The song was released as the album's third official single on November 9, 2015. It was written by Ed Sheeran and Benny Blanco, and produced by the latter. A pop song, "Love Yourself" features an electric guitar and a brief flurry of trumpets as its main instrumentation. During the song, Bieber uses a husky tone in the lower registers. Lyrically, the song is a kiss-off to a narcissistic ex-lover.
On the US Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart, the song became Bieber's third consecutive number-one, wherein the United States it spent 24 non-consecutive weeks in the top ten and was also Bieber's first number one on the Adult Contemporary chart, while in the United Kingdom, it spent six weeks at the top. "Love Yourself" topped the charts in fifteen countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, New Zealand, and Sweden. "Love Yourself" was nominated for two Grammy Awards: Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance. It was the seventh-best-selling song of 2016 in the US.
The music video for the song was released along with the Purpose: The Movement project on November 14, 2015. It features dancers Keone & Mari Madrid doing an interpretive dance in a house. Bieber promoted the song with performances on TV shows, as well as awards shows throughout 2015–16 while adding it on the set list of his Purpose World Tour.
Background and release
Ed Sheeran and Benny Blanco co-wrote the song and all lyrics on a tour bus in 2015. The melody was the first part written, followed by the lyrics, which Sheeran said would be "a modern-day Mrs. Robinson." Blanco responded, saying, "I feel like it should be about some real shit... Is there any relationship shit, or nothing right now?" to which Sheeran replied, "I don't really want to write a song about it." Blanco then suggested, "So why don't you write it about that?" after which, Sheeran worked on writing the song with Blanco producing, with the entire outline of the song being completed on the tour bus.On September 29, 2015, Justin Bieber announced in an interview with Australia's Sunrise morning show that British singer and songwriter Ed Sheeran had written a song for his then-upcoming album. Later, during an interview for Capital FM, Bieber revealed details about the song, saying: "It's just me and a guitar. Basically that's how I started, playing on the street with a guitar." About Sheeran, he said: "I think he's one of the most talented writers in the game right now, so just to have his input and his stories and our stories and match them up together and say 'What have you been through?,' and telling the same story." In another interview for the same radio network, he commented about the collaboration, stating: "It was a process. Just getting us together, you know, in the same room cause we did a lot of it separate. He is a good guy, super talented. Really good songwriter so just to be able to work with that calibre of songwriter was really, really awesome." In 2017, Sheeran revealed that "Love Yourself" was written for his album ÷. He said in an interview that the track would have been scrapped before Bieber took the song.
On November 9, 2015 "Love Yourself" premiered on Beats 1 along with "The Feeling". The song was also made available on iTunes in the same day as a promotional single of Purpose, and later it was announced as the album's official third radio single. When talking to Ryan Seacrest, Bieber said "Love Yourself" is "definitely about someone in my past, someone who I don't want to put on blast," he described the song as "cool because so many people can resonate with that because how many women do we bring back that mom doesn't really necessarily like?".
Composition and lyrics
"Love Yourself" was written by Ed Sheeran, Benny Blanco and Justin Bieber, with production being done by Benny Blanco, who was also responsible for the song's instrumentation and programming. It features lyrical vocals by Bieber and background vocals by Sheeran. According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, the song is composed in the key of E major with a moderate tempo of 100 beats per minute and a time signature of. Bieber's vocals range from the note of B2 to B3. It is an acoustic pop, folk and blue-eyed soul song, featuring just vocals and an electric guitar, and a brief flurry of trumpets, which was considered "the most subdued and least electronic of Bieber's new tracks."Lyrically, "Love Yourself" is a kiss-off to a narcissistic friend who did the protagonist wrong, with Bieber singing in a snappy tone while criticizing "a girl for loving herself too much." In the pre-chorus, he sings with a husky tone in the lower registers: "My mama don't like you, and she likes everyone," "in a style that molds well to Sheeran's," according to Rolling Stone Brittany Spanos. "And I like to admit that I was wrong. And I've been so caught up in my job, didn't see what's going on, and now I know, I'm better sleeping on my own," he continues. In the chorus, Bieber sings, "Cause if you like the way you look that much, oh baby, you should go and love yourself," which according to Digital Spy's Amy Davidson, "'love yourself' means 'go f**k yourself' in this context." On March 7, 2017, Sheeran revealed on The Howard Stern Show that he had Rihanna in mind for the song at first, and the original lyric was indeed "fuck yourself". In the song's bridge, Bieber uses a "brass-and-vocalese" style.
Critical reception
Andrew Unterberger of Spin called it "an earth-salting, cruelly chuckling kiss-off track, it features an unprecedented-for-Bieber caliber of lyrical detail, and its minimal arrangement allows every lyrical barb to pop like one of the song's palm-mutes. For such sour grapes, though, 'Love Yourself' still sounds exultant; one of many reminders this year that for all his insistence on being a good person, Bieber may ultimately be best served as a Top 40 heel." Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly complimented the track as one of her favourites from the album, naming it "the world's first campfire-folk diss track". Amy Davidson of Digital Spy agreed, calling it a 'deliciously evil poison-pen ballad'. Sheldon Pearce of Complex praised "Sorry" and "Love Yourself" for "display the best of Bieber in tandem: the full scope of his pop stylings—blue-eyed soul fleshing out both electronic and acoustic spaces." Kenneth Partridge of Billboard wrote that Bieber "overplay his renewed spirituality... mak like John Mayer doing Sam Smith," citing the track as an example. Josh Gonzalez of Music Times thought the song was "a cool change of pace and nod musically to his 2014 duet with Cody Simpson 'Home to Mama'," adding: "Bieber is a great vocalist and does well on acoustic tracks."For Consequence of Sound editor Janine Schaults, "all the credit goes to Sheeran's cherubic magic powers. Refreshingly, just a guitar and a lonely trumpet interlude accompany Bieber's coy delivery." Michelles Geslani of the same publication opined that the track "sounds exactly what you'd expect from a meeting of these two minds", considering it "'Thinking Out Loud' crossed with low-key, lovelorn Bieber." Kitty Empire, writing for The Observer, appreciated the song for "strip everything back very effectively to a guitar line and a vocal". Annie Zaleski of The A.V. Club was mixed, noting that "despite being a nicely deadpan kiss-off to a snobby ex, is generic acoustic-pop." In a less favorable review, Pitchfork's Brad Nelson wrote that, lyrically, "it's needlessly mean, neither funny nor clever, and it doesn't do much to justify the severity of its perspective." Al Horner of NME noted that the song is "more traditionally Bieber, and big pop hook out of place amidst the forward-thinking electronic scuttle." Sam C. Mac of Slant Magazine called the lyrics "unintentionally hilarious". Alex Macpherson of The National called it "a cloying Ed Sheeran collaboration". Billboard ranked "Love Yourself" at number 34 on their "100 Best Pop Songs of 2016" list.
Chart performance
United States
In the United States, the song debuted at number four on the Billboard Hot 100, giving Bieber his ninth top-ten song and his third consecutive top-ten debut from Purpose. It debuted at number two and four on the Digital Songs and Streaming Songs charts respectively, with 141,000 downloads and 17.4 million streams. The following week, it descended to number seven on the Hot 100. Two weeks later, it ascended from seven to five on the Hot 100, meanwhile Bieber's "Sorry" and "What Do You Mean?" were at number two and four respectively. Thus, as he did three weeks prior when "Love Yourself" debuted at number four, Bieber had three concurrent songs in the Hot 100's top five, becoming the third act to achieve it since 50 Cent in 2005. Bieber and The Beatles are the only acts to earn the honor as a lead artist on all three songs. On the chart dated February 6, 2016, "Love Yourself" ascended from three to two on the Hot 100, meanwhile Bieber's "Sorry" was at number one. With the feat, Bieber became the 17th act in the Hot 100's history to rank at numbers one and 2 simultaneously. He was also the 11th act to hold the Hot 100's top two as a lead artist on both songs.The following week, "Love Yourself" replaced "Sorry" at number one, becoming his third consecutive number-one single. Thus, Bieber was the 12th artist to succeed himself in the Hot 100's 57-year history; the last artist before Bieber was The Weeknd, who is also from Canada. Additionally, Bieber's Purpose became the first album by a male artist to produce three number-one songs since Justin Timberlake's FutureSex/LoveSounds did so in 2006–07. After being replaced at the top of the Hot 100 by Zayn's debut single as a solo artist, "Pillowtalk", for one week, it returned to the number one position the following date. Also, "Love Yourself" replaced "Sorry" at the top of the Radio Songs chart with a 144 million weekly audience, becoming Bieber's second number-one song on the chart. However, the next week, "Love Yourself" was replaced at the top by Rihanna's "Work" and descended to number two. By the middle of 2016, the song had sold 1.6 million copies in the U.S. On the chart dated 7 May 2016, "Love Yourself" spent its 23rd consecutive week in the Hot 100's top ten, breaking the record for the most consecutive weeks logged in the top 10 from a song's debut, previously set by Nicki Minaj's "Starships", Maroon 5's "Sugar" and Bieber's both "What Do You Mean?" and "Sorry". It has since been passed by The Chainsmokers's "Closer", which spent 32 weeks in the top 10. And then later passed by Post Malone's "Circles" with 33 weeks. Additionally, the song spent an eleventh week at the top of the Radio Songs chart. Additionally, on the chart dated 14 May 2016, "Love Yourself" became Bieber's first chart-topper on the Adult Contemporary chart. The song was the most-played song in the United States in 2016, with nearly 4 billion audience impressions.
During 2016, "Love Yourself" sold 1.8 million copies in the US, thus being listed seventh on the best-selling songs of the year list. Overall, it has sold 2.7 million copies in the country.
"Love Yourself" finished at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End of 2016 released in December 2016, becoming Bieber's highest-charting song on Hot 100 Year-End to date, surpassing "Boyfriend" on the Hot 100 Year-End of 2012. This made him the youngest artist to date to receive a No. 1 single on a Hot 100 Year-End chart in Billboard's history.