“ Focus ” is a song by American singer Ariana Grande [1] .
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| Ariana Grande Single from the album Dangerous Woman (Japanese ed.) | |||||||
| Released | October 30, 2015 | ||||||
| Format | digital single | ||||||
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| Duration | 3:31 | ||||||
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| Label | Republic | ||||||
| Ariana Grande Singles Timeline | |||||||
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Released as a separate single in October 2015. The song Ariana Grande's third album Dangerous Woman, which appeared on the shelves in May next year, 2016, was not included. (More precisely, in Japanese and only in Japanese editions of the album, this song still exists, it is added as a bonus track.)
Songfacts website says:
 | Initially, it was assumed that the song “Focus” would be the lead single from the Dangerous Woman album (approx. Transl .: lead single is a single whose release precedes the release of the album where this song is included) , but then it was cut out and included only in its Japanese version as a bonus track. The lead single was replaced by the title track [of the album, the song “ Dangerous Woman ”]. |  |
Content
- 1 History of creation
- 2 Lyrics
- 3 Members
- 3.1 Record
- 3.2 Management
- 3.3 Staff
- 4 Music video
- 5 Live performances
- 6 notes
- 7 References
Creation History
Ariana Grande wrote this song with songwriters Shroud Kotechei (from the USA), Ilya and Peter Svensson (both from Sweden). Produced record Max Martin (also from Sweden) [1] [2] . (Earlier, Max Martin had already worked with Grande. In particular, on the hits “ Problem ”, “ Break Free ” and “ Love Me Harder ” [2] . Kotecha, Ilya and Martin were also co-authors of the song “Problem”, and Peter Svennsson, - former guitarist of Cardigans, co-author of the song “Love Me Harder” [1] .)
Lyrics
The music website Songfacts writes about the meaning that the singer puts in the first lines of the song:
| This impudent / impudent song opens with Grande singing: “I know what I came to do, and no one will change anything” ( I know what I came to do, and that ain't gonna change ). In one video blog, she explained that for her, these words are filled with real and strong meaning. “What I came to this world is not only to entertain, but also to love, share, listen, improve, learn, share music, share experience, share feelings, make people feel happy and feel their strength,” - said the singer. “Let people feel that they are not alone. If I didn’t use my voice to do this, I would feel emptiness inside, ”continued Grande [1] . |
And about the meaning that she puts in the chorus:
| In the chorus, Grande asks several times: “Focus / focus on me” ( Eng. Focus on me ). “When I say“ focus on me, ”I don’t ask that I be in the spotlight. I’m not asking you to focus on my face, my clothes or my body or my singing, ”she explained. Under the [words] “focus on me”, I literally ask you to focus on me. Focus on what I am and what I believe. ” “The more we focus on each other as people, not on how we look, what we are wearing, on our gender , our hairstyle, our sexual orientation, our skin color,” Grande continued, “ and we focus on each other at the soul level, the more we understand how much we have in common, the more we listen to each other, the more we become one ”” [1] . |
Record Members
Record
- Recorded at MXM Studios , Los Angeles , USA and Wolf Cousins Studios , Stockholm , Sweden
- Rolled Up at MixStar Studios, Virginia Beach , USA
- Mastering at Sterling Sound, New York , USA
Management
- All rights reserved by MXM (administered by Kobalt), Wolf Cousins ( STIM ), Warner Chappel Music Scand (STIM), Universal Music Corp./GRANDARIMUSIC (ASCAP)
Staff
- Ariana Grande - lead vocalist , songwriter
- Shroud Kotecha - songwriter, vocals
- Max Martin - songwriter, producer , programmer
- Ilya Salmanzade - songwriter, producer, guitar , bass, keyboards , programming, backing vocals
- Jonas Thunder - horn arrangement , saxophone
- Steffan Findin - Trombone
- Stefan Persson - Trumpet
- Jonne Bentlov - trumpet
- Peter Carlsson - percussion
- Peter Svensson - bass
- Jamie Foxx - backing vocals
- Sam Holland - Record
- Serban Ghenea - mixing
- Tom Coyne - mastering
- John Hanes - Information Assistant
Music video
The video was released on October 30, 2015. The music video was directed by Hannah Lux Davis , who also shot clips for the Grande song “ Love Me Harder ” and the single “ Bang Bang ” [3] . At the beginning of the video there is a hidden advertisement for the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 phone, in the scene where Ariana draws the phrase “focus on me” with a stylus on the screen [4] .
The music video received over 820 million views on YouTube , becoming the fifth most popular download to the site.
Live performances
Grande first performed the song at the Honda Stage at the iHeartRadio Theater in Los Angeles on October 30, 2015. [5] . She also performed a song at the 2015 American Music Awards on November 22, ranked by Billboard , as the best performance of the night. [6] According to Brun Nessif of E! Grande introduced the idea of "old Hollywood glamor" [7] . Grande performed “Focus” and a cover of “Zero to Hero” at a special Christmas parade at Disney Park ( Disney World's theme park) [8] , and the song was added to the set list for the second stage of Grande.
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 Focus by Ariana Grande Songfacts . Songfacts . Date of treatment May 21, 2017.
- ↑ 1 2 Love Me Harder by Ariana Grande Songfacts . Songfacts . Date of treatment May 21, 2017.
- ↑ ' Billboard Staff . Ariana Grande Drops New Single 'Focus' (unspecified) . Billboard (October 30, 2015). Date of treatment October 30, 2015. Archived March 3, 2018.
- ↑ Rathinavel, Pavithra Samsung Galaxy Note 5: Ariana Grande's Latest Music Video 'Focus' Flaunts The Powerful Phablet . International Business Times (November 4, 2015). Date of treatment November 10, 2015. Archived March 3, 2018.
- ↑ Mastrogiannis, Nicole Ariana Grande World Premiere Event On The Honda Stage at the iHeartRadio Theater LA . iHeartRadio (October 30, 2015). Date of treatment November 28, 2015. Archived March 3, 2018.
- ↑ Joe Lynch. AMAs 2015: All the Performances Ranked From Worst to Best . Billboard.com (November 22, 2015). Date of treatment November 24, 2015. Archived March 3, 2018.
- ↑ Nessif, Bruna 2015 American Music Awards: All of the Best & Worst Moments! . E! (November 22, 2015). Date of treatment March 3, 2018. Archived March 3, 2018.
- ↑ Iasimone, Ashley Ariana Grande Sings 'Zero to Hero' & 'Focus' on Disney's Christmas Day Special . Billboard (December 27, 2015). Date of treatment December 27, 2015. Archived March 3, 2018.
Links
- Lyrics for this song on MetroLyrics