Green Light (Beyoncé song)

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"Green Light"
A brunette woman walks along a path. She wears a leotard compound of a white blouse with long sleeves and black boots. She holds a bicycle with her right hand, and above it, the word "Beyoncé" is written in white, while "Gre", "Enl", and "Ight" are written in green, yellow and red capital letters, respectively.
Single by Beyoncé
from the album B'Day
ReleasedJuly 27, 2007 (2007-07-27)
RecordedApril 2006
StudioSony Music Studios (New York City, New York)
Genre
Length3:29
LabelColumbia
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
Beyoncé singles chronology
"Get Me Bodied"
(2007) 		"Green Light"
(2007) 		"Until the End of Time"
(2007)
Music video
"Green Light" on
YouTube

"Green Light" is a song recorded by American singer

love interest the permission to move out. The song also finds Beyoncé using fairly aggressive tone. A remix of the song features American rapper Young Buck, and was produced by Swizz Beatz
.

"Green Light" was well received by music critics who universally praised the beat, bass, groove, and angry tone used by Beyoncé in the song. The single performed moderately on charts, peaking at number twelve on the

Robert Palmer's 1985 music video "Addicted to Love". Beyoncé considered the video, which is her second to feature her all-female tour band called the Suga Mama, her toughest shoot. The song was a part of the set list on her world tour the Beyoncé Experience
(2007).

Background and release

After filming Dreamgirls in which Beyoncé landed a major role, she went on a month-long vacation. On the break she went to the studio to start working on her second solo album, B'Day.[1] She was inspired by her role and she "had so many things bottled up, so many emotions, so many ideas".[1] Beyoncé contacted American singer-songwriter Sean Garrett, who had worked with her in Destiny's Child and on her 2006 single "Check on It".[2] Together with Pharrell, who had also previously collaborated with Beyoncé, Garrett was booked to Sony Music Studios in New York City, each had studio to work in.[2] The track was co-produced by Beyoncé and The Neptunes, along with "Kitty Kat", and was recorded by Jim Caruana and mixed by Jason Goldstein at the same studio.[3]

In June 2006, Beyoncé invited Tamara Coniff of

Freemasons, was made available on July 27, 2007 as an online digital download.[7]

Music and lyrics

"Green Light"
A 21-second sample of "Green Light", a song with futuristic funk elements.[8] The song uses repetitive vocal lines, as well as the line, "Give it to mama".
Problems playing this file? See media help.

"Green Light" is an

verse-chorus form. The song starts with an intro in which Beyoncé sings, "Give it to mama".[9] Jaime Gill of Yahoo! Music commented that "Green Light" seems to be all "slink and minimalism before a surging come-on of a chorus."[15] It follows the verse-chorus-verse-verse-chorus pattern giving way to the bridge.[9] Beyoncé repeats the chorus, ending the song.[9]

Critical reception

"Green Light" received highly positive reception from critics. Eb Haynes of

Fox News Channel considered "Green Light" as his second choice as the song having the greatest potential to become a massive hit after "Irreplaceable" (2006).[18] Thomas Inskeep of Stylus Magazine gave a mixed review for the song commenting that it's one of the "tired random-percussion tracks [...] that goes nowhere."[19]

Commercial performance

With the album version of the song being available digitally as soon as the album was released, "Green Light" debuted on the UK Singles Chart at number 152 after the video aired in early July 2007,

Mega Single Top 100 on September 22, 2007.[30]

Music video

Seven women are formed while they hold her hands up. From left to right, the first woman wears a leather jacket and jeans of the same material, and high heel shoes. All the other women, that are similarly dressed, wear short leather suits and heels.
Beyoncé with her back-up dancers on their toes; she considered the scene her toughest shoot, giving her blistered feet and muscle spasms.

The

Robert Palmer's 1985 music video "Addicted to Love" with its "stone-faced models pretending to play guitars".[33] "Green Light" was considered by Beyoncé as a modern version of the video because they used the instruments as props, where she pretended as a rock star.[33]

Beyoncé also revealed that the scenes reminded her of Vanity 6.[33] A short "Kitty Kat" clip opens the "Green Light" video. Beyoncé considered "Green Light" the "toughest video" to shoot.[33] Besides from dressing in latex rubber clothing, she and her back-up dancers had to wear ballet-pointe heels.[33] The shoes blistered her feet and gave muscle spasms due to the 18-hour session.[33] Beyoncé invited her all-female tour band, Suga Mama, to make their second appearance in a video after their debut performance on the music video for "Irreplaceable" (2006).[34][33] The video was posted on the MTV Overdrive on March 28, 2007.[35]

Live performances

A musical group of women, composed of at least eighteen of them, is performing a song on stage. They play drum kits, keyboards and saxophones, while other females sing and dance.
Beyoncé singing "Green Light", backed with her performing ensemble, during The Beyoncé Experience world concert tour (2007).

On September 6, 2006, Beyoncé promoted the album

Today Show, to promote the deluxe edition of B'Day, which was released the following day.[37] Beyoncé sang the Spanglish version of "Irreplaceable" and "Green Light".[37] The song was included as a part of her set list on The Beyoncé Experience.[38][39] On August 5, 2007, Beyoncé performed the song at the Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, wearing a sparkly silver dress with a long train.[14][40] For the performance, Beyoncé also brought out her squad of six female dancers.[40] According to Shaheem Reid of MTV News, all the women moved with the precision "of a Navy Seal strike force", slaying the crowd with their synchronized dances.[40] Jon Pareles of The New York Times praised the performance, stating: "Beyoncé needs no distractions from her singing, which can be airy or brassy, tearful or vicious, rapid-fire with staccato syllables or sustained in curlicued melismas. But she was in constant motion, strutting in costumes [...]".[14] According to Tonya Turner of The Courier-Mail, the performance of "Green Light", "moved fans to screams of endearment."[41] In Los Angeles, Beyoncé gave a full-length performance of the song, dressed in a sparkly silver dress with a long train. It was executed with several female backup dancers, and live instrumentation.[42] "Green Light" was included as on her live album The Beyoncé Experience Live (2007).[43][44]

Track listings and formats
  1. "Green Light" – 3:29
  2. "Green Light" (Freemasons Remix) – 3:19
  3. "Green Light" (Remix featuring Young Buck) - 4:19
  • UK Freemasons Digital EP[7]
  1. "Green Light" (Freemasons Remix) – 3:19
  2. "Beautiful Liar" (Freemasons Club Remix) (featuring Shakira) – 7:31
  3. "
    Déjà Vu" (Freemasons Radio Mix) (featuring Jay-Z
    ) – 3:15
  4. "Ring the Alarm" (Freemasons Club Mix Radio Edit) – 3:26

Credits and personnel

Credits are taken from B'Day's liner notes.[3]

Charts

Release history

Release dates and formats for "Green Light"
Region Date Format(s) Label(s) Ref.
Australia July 27, 2007 Digital download Sony BMG [57]
Spain Digital download (EP)
[58]
United States
[59]
United Kingdom July 30, 2007 Digital download RCA [6]

References

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External links

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