"Heartbreaker" is a song recorded by American singer Mariah
Carey for her ninth studio album,
Rainbow(1999). Written by Carey, the track features a
guest appearance from American rapper Jay-Z. The singer wrote
the song, initially planning for it to be featured in a movie
project. However, the project was postponed, making Carey
include it on her then-upcoming album.
The track was released in 1999, as the album's lead single
to mixed reviews from music critics. Nevertheless, it was
another commercial success for Carey, reaching the top ten in
most major markets, while achieving the top of the charts in
the United States, Canada and New Zealand. In the United
States, the song became Carey's 14th number 1 single and
brought other new feats to her career. Its music video portrays
a cinematic plot where the singer is shown as two different
women. It is one of the most expensive ever made, with a cost
of US$2,500,000 and remains as one of her fan favorites to
date.
After the release of Carey's first compilation album,
#1's(1998), the singer began to work on her seventh
studio album,
Rainbow(1999). According to her, the album took three
months to be recorded and she spent most of that time working
on its first single, "Heartbreaker". The song was originally
intended for the soundtrack of
All that Glitters—a movie project which had been in
development for two years, in which she starred as the main
character. Due to the fact the movie had been postponed, the
singer decided to include it on her latest studio album because
she "didn't want to wait on putting it out."
Produced by New York mixtape DJ Clue, it has a guest
participation from rapper Jay-Z, who makes a featured rap over
the song, with lines written by himself. In an interview with
MTV News, Carey revealed her thoughts about the track:
"It's pretty much [in] the classic style of my up-tempo
classics like 'Fantasy' or 'Dreamlover,' [...] But it's kind of
fun and has a new edge to it, I think, and definitely having
Jay-Z takes it to a whole 'nother level. And [DJ] Clue makes it
really fun and stuff."
"Heartbreaker" is a moderately slow pop track, with hip-hop
and R&B influences. Written in the key of D♭ major, the
beat is set in common time and moves at a moderate 92 bpm. The
song has a "midtempo" and a "percolating beat" over which Carey
sings with a nasal, silken and declarative voice.
"Hearbreaker" samples R&B—dance singer Stacy Lattisaw's
"Attack of the Name Game." An article in Entertainment Weekly
claims there is a sample of the Tom Tom Club's Genius of Love,
however this cannot be verified from the album credits. This
drew criticism at the time due to the fact that Carey had
already used this sample in a previous single, "Fantasy".
Entertainment Weekly's Tom Sinclair pointed out her lack
of originality when claiming she was "recycling" early
material.
The lyrics are constructed in the verse-pre-chorus-chorus
form. Carey starts with the hook "Gimme your love, gimme your
love," repeated eight times in a row. It follows the
verse-pre-chorus-chorus-hook-verse-pre-chorus-chorus and then
giving way to the Jay-Z's rap—with mostly of its lines
initiated by "She wanna". Carey repeats the chorus four times,
ending the song with a final "Gimme your love, gimme your
love."
Released as
Rainbow's lead single, "Heartbreaker" was premiered on
the official site of Microsoft's Windows Media on August 16,
1999. The site had a 12-hour exclusive on the tune before its
release to radio. Its commercial release, however, only
happened in the United States on September 21, 1999. It was
released in the United Kingdom on November 2, 1999, two months
later than the American release.
"Heartbreaker" received mixed reviews from music critics,
although most of them agreed it was a good song. Some, however,
pointed negatively at strong resemblances to Carey's previous
releases. Arion Berger of
Rolling Stonedeclared that the singer was at her most
insinuating: "nasal, silken, declarative, riding the
percolating beat," and MTV Asia said that she exuded as much
sentiment as hollowed-out driftwood, describing the track as an
"airy ditty." A negative review came from Tom Sinclair of
Entertainment Weekly, who said the song is a "rehash" of
her 1995 hit "Fantasy". At the end,
Billboardconcluded: "Yes, it's a hit, and her voice is
in fine form [...] radio will be eager to introduce audiences
to the latest from one of the staple artists of the '90s, even
if this single doesn't represent a creative step forward."
Jay-Z's guest appearance on the track, however, was received
with favorable reviews. Jose Promis of Allmusic stated that his
rap embellished it further, and added that it was "comical".
Elysa Gardner of
Los Angeles Timesdescribed it as a "sly rap". Arion
Berger of
Rolling Stoneclaimed he ran a "funny litany" of Carey's
bad behavior on the song.
Entertainment Weekly's Danyel Smith observed that she
smartly used Jay-Z's rap as "tart counterpoint to her creamy
tones", while
Billboardrecognized that it had added to the song's
radio appeal.
The song's main remix is the Desert Storm Remix that
features female rappers Da Brat & Missy Elliott and it's
the first Mariah Carey remix that was produced by Desert Storm
Records producer & rapper DJ Clue, who made a intro on the
remix. This remix is the 7th track of the album. The remix and
Da Brat's first verse was sampled from "Ain't No Fun (If the
Homies Can't Have None)" by Snoop Dogg. There is a music video
of the remix that the video was filmed in black & white,
Snoop Dogg makes a cameo appearance in the video.
"Heartbreaker" entered the Hot 100 on September 4, 1999 at
number 60. However, when the song was commercially available,
it sold 273,000 copies—the second biggest first-week sales of
her career—and then achieved the summit of the chart. It was
Carey's 14th number 1 single, and also her 59th week at the top
of the chart with a single. When the track stayed another week
at number-one, Carey surpassed rock and pop band The Beatles
for the act with most total weeks spent at number-one, and with
the song reaching number-one in 1999, the singer was also the
only artist to have had a number-one single for every year of
the 1990s. When commenting about all these new feats to her
career, Carey had stated:
"When you're doing the work, you hope that people will
respond, [...] but you never think that things will reach such
incredible heights. Personally, I don't know how creative I
could be if I spent time thinking about sales figures and stuff
like that."
Internationally, it received similar responses, topping the
charts in Canada and New Zealand. In the United Kingdom,
"Heartbreaker" was Carey's ninth top five when it debuted at
the fifth position, failing to reach a new peak in the
following weeks. The single peaked inside the top ten in most
others major markets, including Australia, France and the
Netherlands.
Directed by Brett Ratner, the song's music video was
reported to be the 7th most expensive ever made, with a cost of
U$2,500,000. Furthermore, it remains a fan favorite.
The music video puts the singer in two roles: an innocent
and sweet blond Carey and an "evil" brunette Carey, named
Bianca. Located in a movie theater, the blond Carey is
convinced by her friends to catch her boyfriend (played by
Jerry O'Connell) cheating on her, then discovering that he is
in a date with the brunette Carey. When the blond one tries to
confront the brunette about stealing her boyfriend, the two end
up with a catfight in the theater's bathroom inspired by 1973
American martial arts film
Enter the Dragon. The story ends with the blond Carey
pouring a drink in the lap of her former boyfriend.
During the part of the song where Jay-Z raps, an animated
sequence featuring cartoon versions of Carey and her friends
was shown instead—an idea decided by the singer herself and
Brett Ratner. The part where Carey and her friends have fun on
the bed was inspired by the 1978 musical film "Grease". It
happened because the rapper was contractually obligated to
restrict video appearances during two weeks. The version of
"Heartbreaker" video, which included Jay-Z himself, premiered
on the MTV show
Making the Videoon August 30, 1999.
There is another version of the video with alternate scenes
and Jay-Z in the video as he is in a hot tub smoking, with
Mariah dancing in the background.
(Released: September 21, 1999)
(Released: September 21, 1999)
Side A
Side B
(Released: September 21, 1999)
