"We Belong Together" is a song recorded by Mariah Carey for
her tenth studio album
The Emancipation of Mimi(2005) and released as the
album's second single in 2005. Written and produced by Carey,
Jermaine Dupri, Manuel Seal, and Johntá Austin, the song was
inspired by 1980s R&B and soul. Its arrangement is built on
simple piano chords and an understated backbeat, and its lyrics
chronicle a woman's desperation for her former lover to return
after their separation. Billboard magazine named it the most
popular song of the 2000's and most successful song by a female
artist in Billboard history.
Following a career-decline between 2001 and 2005, Carey
achieved major worldwide success with "We Belong Together" as
the song topped the charts in Australia and the United States
(for 14 non-consecutive weeks). In the U.S., the song also
repeatedly broke many BDS Airplay records and was warmly
received by critics. It won Carey a number of industry awards,
including two Grammy Awards in 2006.
Billboardmagazine listed "We Belong Together" ninth on
The Billboard: All-Time Hot 100 Top Songs and the most
successful song of the 2000s decade.
"We Belong Together" was not composed until late into the
production of
The Emancipation of Mimi. Following an unsuccessful
career period between 2001 and 2003, Carey began production on
the album in 2004. By November of that year she had considered
the album complete, but some of what became its more popular
tracks had yet to be written. L. A. Reid, the chairman of
Island Def Jam Music Group, encouraged Carey to attempt
additional studio sessions with producer Jermaine Dupri. "L.A.
was like, 'You and Jermaine Dupri make magic together, why
aren't you in the studio with him?'" she recalled. "'I said, 'I
love Jermaine, is he free? I know he's doing a million things.'
[...] But Jermaine said, 'Come on down.'"
Carey flew to Dupri's Atlanta studio and after two days,
they composed two tracks for
The Emancipation of Mimi("Shake It Off" and "Get Your
Number") and she returned to New York City; however, at this
point "We Belong Together" was still not written. Reid was
impressed with the album's new material and decided that Carey
should return to Atlanta to compose more tracks.
In another two-day studio stint Carey, Dupri, Seal and
Austin produced the album's first single "It's like That" as
well as "We Belong Together". The composers discussed the
song's melody at length, and subsequently simplified the
arrangement in order to accentuate Carey's vocals.
"We Belong Together" is a pop ballad that exhibits strong
influences from hip hop and R&B. The song is propelled by a
programmed Roland TR-808-styled kick and hi-hat, which is
prominently utilized in hip hop music.
Carey adopts a reserved, rap-flavored singing style, which
garnered approval from the critics who admonish her ornate,
melismatic singing style. Reviewer Jennifer Vineyard comments
that Carey's spare and understated singing approach gives the
song more power, which would not have been achieved if Carey
had belted. Besides hip hop, the song incorporates 1980s
retro-soul music by "cleverly" referencing Bobby Womack's "If
You Think You're Lonely Now" (1981) and The Deele's "Two
Occasions" (1987, with Babyface). In the second verse of "We
Belong Together," Carey sings: "Bobby Womack's on the radio/
Singing to me, 'If you think you're lonely now'." She then
flips across a radio dial: "So I turn the dial, tryin’ to catch
a break/ And then I hear Babyface/ 'I only think of you...'."
Due to the inclusion of the lyrics from both songs, the
songwriters were given co-writing credits on "We Belong
Together."
"We Belong Together" comprises a very simple and understated
musical arrangement: it is set in C major and is composed in
4/4 time. Similarly, within the song, Carey's vocal range spans
from G
3to A
5. Carey's vocal range is demonstrated with a
greater emphasis in the ending chorus, where the chorus is
raised an octave higher, lying from G
4to A
5. As such, Carey ends with an anticipated coda,
completing both the chorus and the entire song with a potent
and unequivocal belted note of C
5for approximately four semibreves. It follows the
common verse-chorus form and is structured into three sections
that portray the protagonist in a range of emotions; from
doleful and resigned in the first section, to desperate and
agitated in the second. In the last section the song climaxes
with an octave raise, which not only emphasizes the
protagonist's heightened desperation, but her determination to
be with her lover.
Carey has often recorded remixes for some of her more
popular songs, some of which have become more successful than
their original counterparts. For "We Belong Together," she
recorded the DJ Clue remix, which was produced by DJ Clue and
features rappers Jadakiss and Styles P, and the Peter Rauhofer
Reconstruction Mix/Atlantic Soul Vocal Mix. The remixes are
fundamentally different from the album version and contain more
distinct elements of hip hop music. The Atlantic Soul Vocal
Mix, for example, features a synthetic bass line, a piano and
guitar line, and distinctive hi-hats that produce a more
up-tempo, hard-hitting beat.
Both remixes were offered as downloads in May 2005, and
achieved success: the Atlantic Soul Mix reached number 1 on the
U.S. Hot Dance Club Songs chart, while the DJ Clue version
peaked at number 5 on the Hot Digital Songs chart.
The song's music video was directed by Brett Ratner and
filmed in Los Angeles. It serves as the sequel to the video for
"It's like That," the first single released from
The Emancipation of Mimi. Beginning with the "It's like
That" video, the protagonist is at her bachelorette party,
where one of the guests reveals himself as a former lover
(played by Wentworth Miller). The video for "We Belong
Together" begins the following morning, when the protagonist
remembers her former boyfriend, as she is preparing for her
wedding. As she marches down the aisle, the protagonist debates
whether she belongs with her former boyfriend or her fiance
(played by Eric Roberts). Once she reaches the altar, she
catches sight of her former lover who is watching the wedding
from a distance. She runs from the ceremony and into his arms,
shocking everyone at the wedding. The video is noted for the
fact that Carey wore the same Vera Wang wedding dress that she
wore at her wedding to Tommy Mottola in 1993.
The video reached number 1 on several video-chart
countdowns, including BET's
106 & Park, MTV's
TRL(where it retired after it remained on the countdown
for fifty days), MuchMusic's
Countdown, and VH1's
Top 20 Video Countdown. VH1 named the song number 1 on
its "Top 40 Videos Of 2005" in December of that year. By July
25, 2005 it was Launchcast's most-watched video of the year,
with 7.5 million streamed performances. The video was nominated
for "Best R&B Video" and "Best Female Video" at the 2005
MTV Video Music Awards.
"We Belong Together" became a "career re-defining" song for
Mariah Carey at a point when many fans and critics had
considered her career over.
Unlike most of Carey's more recent singles, "We Belong
Together" received generally positive reviews from critics,
most of whom hail the song as a "return to form," following
reviews of
Charmbracelet(2002) that suggested Carey had lost her
signature vocal range and power. A review for Slant Magazine
writes, "the...diva [keeps] cool with breathy, rapid-fire
verses until the final full strong-voiced climax that... proves
that 'The Voice' has indeed returned." They also said that "The
song is as 'innovative' as Mariah has been in years" Other
critics commended Carey on her novel singing style which,
according to Kelefa Sanneh of
New York Times, gives the song its propulsion.
Similarly,
Billboardmagazine and Johnny Loftus of
Metrotimescharacterized the song as "perfect," "classy,"
and "sublime," while Pitchfork Media gave it four stars and a
half.
Billboardlisted "We Belong Together" ninth on The
Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Songs and second on Top
Billboard Hot 100 R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.
Blenderranked it fifteenth on its 100 Greatest Songs of
2005 list. Slant Magazine ranked it 2nd on their best songs of
2005 list. In Australia, the song finished 14th on ARIA Top 100
Singles of 2005 Chart.
Between 2001 and 2003, Carey's popularity had substantially
declined and many had considered her career over. However,
after being released to North American radio on March 26, 2005,
"We Belong Together" became the biggest success of Carey's
career and for her label. The song spent fourteen
non-consecutive weeks at number 1 on both the U.S. Billboard
Hot 100 — after making its debut at number 81 — and on the Hot
R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. It had major cross-over success,
becoming the first song to simultaneously occupy the number 1
position on nine
Billboardcharts on the week ending August 6, 2005: the
Hot 100, Billboard Hot 100 Airplay, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs,
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, Pop 100 Airplay, Top 40
Mainstream, Rhythmic Airplay Chart, Hot Dance Club Songs, and
the Hot Ringtones charts. One week earlier, it had become the
first song to top eight charts concurrently. According to
Mediabase and Nielsen BDS, "We Belong Together" broke several
airplay records in the United States: it gathered both the
largest one-day and one-week audience total in BDS history,
reaching 32.8 million and 223 million impressions respectively.
To date, "We Belong Together" has been listened to more than 8
billion times in the U.S alone. It was certified 2x Platinum by
the RIAA. On Billboard Hot 100 Year-end Chart of 2005, the song
was declared the number 1 song, a career first for Carey. It's
also ended at 2 on
Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Year-end chart of
2005. The song was also declared the most popular song of the
2000's by Billboard magazine.
"We Belong Together" achieved success in several major
non-U.S. markets. It debuted at the top of the Australian
chart, where it remained for two weeks. It reached a peak
position of number 2 for three weeks in New Zealand. Promotion
for the song was strongest in the UK, where it debuted at
number 2 behind Tupac Shakur's "Ghetto Gospel", selling 39,436
copies, only missing the top spot by 392 physical and digital
sales. Across Europe the song was a moderate success. It
reached the top five in Spain, Ireland, Netherlands, Denmark
and Switzerland, top ten in Norway, and top twenty in France,
Belgium, Sweden, Italy and Germany. On the Australia's ARIA Top
100 singles end of the year chart of 2005, "We Belong Together"
was ranked 17 and 10 on the Urban singles end of the year
chart. It was certified 2x platinum in Australia by ARIA and
platinum in New Zealand by RIANZ.
European CD single
Japanese CD single
Australian CD maxi-single
European CD maxi-single
UK CD maxi-single