Stronger (Britney Spears song)
"Stronger" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by Britney Spears | ||||
from the album Oops!... I Did It Again | ||||
B-side | "Walk On By" | |||
Released | October 31, 2000 | |||
Recorded | November 1999 | |||
Studio | Cheiron Studios (Stockholm, Sweden) | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 3:23 | |||
Label | Jive | |||
Songwriter(s) | ||||
Producer(s) |
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Britney Spears singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"Stronger" on YouTube |
"Stronger" is a song by American singer Britney Spears from her second studio album, Oops!... I Did It Again (2000). It was released on October 31, 2000, by Jive Records as the third single from the album. After meeting with producers Max Martin and Rami in Sweden, Spears recorded several songs for the album, including "Stronger". The dance-pop, synth-pop and teen pop song features self-empowerment lyrics about a girl who is tired of her cheating boyfriend and decides to move on without him. It received acclaim from music critics, who described the song as being both musically and lyrically innovative, with some deeming it the best track on Oops!... I Did It Again.
"Stronger" was a global success, reaching the top five in Austria, Germany and Sweden, while reaching the top ten in Finland, Ireland, Switzerland and United Kingdom. "Stronger" peaked at number 11 in the United States' Billboard Hot 100, and was later certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for selling over 1,000,000 units of the single. An accompanying music video was directed by Joseph Kahn, who considered it as a thematic departure from Spears' previous music videos. The music video received a nomination on the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards for Best Pop Video.
Spears has performed "Stronger" in a number of live appearances, including at the Radio Music Awards of 2000, American Music Awards of 2001, a Fox special titled Britney Spears: There's No Place Like Home, and in two of her concert tours, the Oops!... I Did It Again Tour (2000–2001) and the Dream Within a Dream Tour (2001–2002). In 2013, Spears performed the song for the first time in eleven years on her Las Vegas residency concert Britney: Piece of Me (2013–2017). She also performed it at the Britney: Live in Concert (2017) and the Piece of Me Tour (2018). In 2010, "Stronger" was covered by actor Kevin McHale for an episode of TV series Glee titled "Britney/Brittany". The cover received positive reviews from contemporary music critics. In 2023, "Stronger" was ranked at number 37 on Rolling Stone's "The 50 Most Inspirational LGBTQ Songs of All Time" list.[1]
Background and composition
In 1999, Spears began work on her second studio album
"Stronger" is a
Critical response
"Stronger" received acclaim from music critics. Stephanie McGrath of
Writing for
Chart performance
In the United States, "Stronger" entered the top 40 at number 29 on December 30, 2000.
"Stronger" also achieved commercial success worldwide, reaching number one in Mexico and was the number-one best-selling single in 2001, and reaching number four in Austria and Sweden,
Music video
The music video for "Stronger" was shot on October 5–7, 2000 at Syncro Aviation Hangar at
Kahn revealed that Spears' referenced Janet Jackson's "The Pleasure Principle" and "Miss You Much" music videos for the video's chair routine, saying her idea was inspired by "Janet Jackson's 'Pleasure Principle' — the iconic chair sequence in that".[33] A review of the video also commented "Ms. Spears gives us her best Janet Jackson impression ("Miss You Much") with a dizzying chair-dance routine."[36] Spears also referenced and draws inspiration from Jackson in several other music videos, including "Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know".[37]
Synopsis
The video begins with a closed caption that reads "Britney Spears – Stronger", amidst the sound of a storm. It then cuts to a close up of Spears looking at her boyfriend, who is smiling with another woman (played by Angela Sarafyan) holding him. She realizes she is better without him and walks away, after saying, "Whatever", to the audience. There is a shot of the tower hotel they are in, in an apparent semi-futuristic world, having a party in the restaurant in the hotel tower at the top, and then the hotel tower explodes and blows up. At the beginning of the first verse, Spears starts dancing with an Emeco 1006-style chair in front of a black background.[33] The second half of the video finds Spears driving away from the party in a classic Ford Mustang car during a thunderstorm; however, before long, her car goes into a spin out after she swerves to avoid a chair tossed in front of her from the storm, then stops on the very edge of the bridge. After recovering from the shock of it, she is forced to continue walking on in the rain. Cuts of her dancing with a cane, transformed from the chair, are also included. The video ends with Spears walking across a bridge.[33] Two versions of the video exist, one in which Spears stands in mid-air above the spinning chair during the bridge alongside additional brief choreography shots during the first chorus, and the other replacing the footage with a close-up of her singing. Nuzhat Naoreen of MTV praised the music video, saying, "few performers can work an entire routine on and around a chair as well as Britney did in 'Stronger'".[38] The music video received a nomination on the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards for Best Pop Video.[39]
Live performances and covers
Spears performed "Stronger" for the first time during her
"Stronger" was covered by Kevin McHale on TV series Glee, on an episode titled "Britney/Brittany", that was dedicated to the singer. In the episode, McHale's character Artie has a hallucination of himself singing "Stronger" during a dental visit.[49] The cover received positive reviews from contemporary music critics. Raymund Flandez of The Wall Street Journal enjoyed the cover version, appreciating the twist of having males sing a feminist empowerment song,[50] while Tim Stack of Entertainment Weekly deemed "Stronger" his favorite performance of the episode, as well as the best incorporation of Spears' music, as the song served Artie's storyline.[49]
Track listings
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|
Credits and personnel
- background vocals
- background vocals
- Rami Yacoub – production, songwriting, keyboards
- background vocals
- John Amatiello – Pro Tools engineering
- Tom Coyne – audio mastering
Source:[7]
Charts
Weekly charts
|
Year-end charts
|
Certifications
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Australia (ARIA)[29] | Gold | 35,000^ |
Canada (Music Canada)[100] | Gold | 40,000‡ |
Denmark (IFPI Danmark)[101] | Gold | 4,000^ |
France ( SNEP)[30]
|
Gold | 250,000* |
Germany (BVMI)[31] | Gold | 250,000^ |
Sweden (GLF)[102] | Gold | 15,000^ |
United Kingdom (BPI)[103] | Gold | 400,000‡ |
United States (RIAA)[104] | Platinum | 1,000,000‡ |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. |
Release history
Region | Date | Format(s) | Label(s) | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
United States | October 31, 2000 | Contemporary hit radio | Jive | |
France | November 7, 2000 | Maxi CD | Virgin | |
Germany | November 13, 2000 | BMG | ||
France | November 21, 2000 | CD | Virgin | |
United Kingdom | December 4, 2000 |
|
RCA | |
Japan | December 6, 2000 | Maxi CD | Avex Trax | |
United States | December 12, 2000 |
|
Jive | |
January 2, 2001 | CD |
Notes
References
- ^ "The 50 Most Inspirational LGBTQ Songs of All Time". Rolling Stone. June 28, 2023.
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