"I Gotta Feeling" is the second single from The Black Eyed Peas' fifth studio album The E.N.D., produced by the French DJ David Guetta.[1] The song was released on May 21, 2009[2] and debuted at number two on the Canadian and Billboard Hot 100 on the week of June 27, 2009, behind the group's "Boom Boom Pow", making the group one of 11 artists who have occupied the top two positions of the Billboard Hot 100 at the same time. The song later reached number one on the US charts and 20 charts worldwide. The song was nominated for Record of the Year at the 52nd Grammy Awards and won the Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.[3] "I Gotta Feeling" was 5th on the Billboard Hot 100 Songs of the Decade.[4] The song was also nominated as Song of the Year at the 2009 World Music Awards and is the most downloaded song on iTunes. According to Nielsen SoundScan, the song has sold over 6,000,000 copies in the United States making it the highest selling digital single in the US ever, surpassing "Low" by Flo Rida.[5]
Themes
The song is set in Common time and composed in the key of G major with a moderate tempo of 128 beats per minute.[6] The group's vocal range spans from G3 to A5.[6] The group dedicated the song "to everyone who is getting ready to go out. It's the song to listen to when you drive to the club or party. It's the song to listen to after a long day or week at work. It's the song to that makes me wanna throw my stress away..."[7]
Critical reception
Billboard gave the song a positive review, saying "The Black Eyed Peas proved with their massive international chart-topper "Boom Boom Pow" that they're a group still to be reckoned with The official follow-up single "I Gotta Feeling" may be their most mainstream release yet. Over a pop-throbbing beat, courtesy of the famed club hitmaker David Guetta, the Peas trade off on a simple, yet effective melody and message: "Tonight's gonna be a good night." Having already shown what they can do at the peak of a party, now they're out to prove they can get it started even earlier".[8] Bill Lamb of About.com gave the song 4 out of 5 stars, commenting on the feel-good mood and distinct change of pace, finding it as a great choice for summer. Overall, he thinks that "Boom Boom Pow" and "I Gotta Feeling" deliver contributions that make it obvious The Black Eyed Peas are still a four-person group .[9] Critics find I've got a Feeling is every bit as quirky as its preceptor. Built around a sample from David Guetta's 'Love Is Gone', it begins in a relatively restrained fashion before suddenly morphing into a throbbing rave-up... and proceeds to flit between tempos for the rest of its five-minute duration. A bit like Girls Aloud's 'Biology', it's a random, rather barmy mish-mash of musical ideas that only really makes sense after a few listens, but there's no doubt the Peas still know how to get us dancing.[10] However, comedy website Cracked.com gave the song a rather scathing review, with Hate By Numbers host Gladstone finding the repetition of the chorus 'tonight's gonna be a good night' for roughly a minute and a half cumbersome. He felt that "I don't care how many gangly superfluous band members you float in the air, at this point you need to start the song." The review also criticized the use of auto-tune, lyrics, rhyming the same word with itself ("Up" and "Up"), naming days of the week (which was seen as comparable to "Naming the Alphabet") and Jewish religious phrases being used out of context.[11] In episode 12 of series 24 of music panel show Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Noel Fielding prefaced his performance of the song's introduction in the Intros Round by saying "This is music that makes me want to kill myself", illustrating the subsequent recital with mime of wrist slashing and noose tightening.[12]
Chart performance
"I Gotta Feeling" was the group's highest debut on the Billboard Hot 100, entering the charts at number two. As of the end of 2009, the song has sold 4,500,000+ copies.[13] "I Gotta Feeling" ended the 12 week run on number one of the band's previous single "Boom Boom Pow", when it reached number one on the Hot 100 during the week of July 11, 2009 making it was their second single to do so.[citation needed] It also makes The Black Eyed Peas the fifth group to replace themselves at number one in the chart's history, following The Beatles, Boyz II Men, OutKast, Usher and T.I. and the second to do it in the digital download era. "I Gotta Feeling" remained number one on the Hot 100 for 14 weeks, extending the band's run at number one on the Hot 100 to 26 consecutive weeks straight and becoming the band's biggest hit to date.[citation needed] The song was knocked off the top of the chart to number 5 on October 17 by "Down". Being the longest running #1 hit of 2009, the tune is tied with five other songs as the second longest running Hot 100 number one. It is also tied with Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together" as the longest running Hot 100 number one of the 2000s.[citation needed] Apart from that, the group holds the record for longest consecutive run at Billboard's Hot 100 number one. The Black Eyed Peas are also the third artist to have multiple songs spend 12 weeks atop the Hot 100. Boyz II Men and Mariah Carey are the only other artists to have achieved this.[14]I Gotta Feeling is the highest-charting hip-hop song on the adult contemporary chart. The song has become the group's most successful digital single selling 5,179,513 copies as of February 2010. As of July 25, 2010, it has become the best-selling song in digital history with 6,000,000 units sold in the US.[15] The song topped the AT40 chart for seven weeks tying with Lady Gaga's "Poker Face". The song peaked at #1 on the countdown on August 22, 2009, and ended its long-week run at the top on October 3. On the next week, October 10, "I Gotta Feeling" fell to #4, and Taylor Swift took over the top spot with "You Belong With Me".[citation needed]. The song is currently the second longest-charted single on the AT40 Hot AC chart. (64 weeks as of October 23, 2010.) "I Gotta Feeling" has become The Black Eyed Peas' most successful single of their career, topping over 25 charts internationally. It replaced "Boom Boom Pow" at number one on the Canadian Hot 100 and Australian ARIA Chart. In New Zealand the song debuted at number seven on June 15, 2009, reaching number one two weeks later, making the song their fifth number-one single in New Zealand. The song spent nine consecutive weeks at number one, becoming their longest-running number one single there. It was certified double platinum after 22 weeks on the chart, selling over 30,000 copies.[16] In Ireland, on its third week on the chart "I Gotta Feeling" jumped from number 18 to two due to strong download sales, outpeaking their last single "Boom Boom Pow", which had reached number three. The next week, it climbed to number one giving them their fourth number-one single there. The song spent 12 non-consecutive weeks at the top of the charts in Ireland. In the United Kingdom the song debuted at number 70 in June 2009 and entered the top 40 of the UK Singles Chart on the week ending July 11, 2009. It slowly worked its way up the chart and in its eighth week (August 2, 2009), peaked at number one on downloads alone (with its physical release being August 10). This gave the group their second consecutive number one hit from The E.N.D., their third number one overall and their ninth top ten hit in the country. On the same week it reached the summit of the UK singles chart, "I Gotta Feeling" became the new number one on the UK R&B Chart. Although it was knocked off the number one spot of the UK Singles Chart by Tinchy Stryder the following week, it regained its position on August 16 marking The Black Eyed Peas second (and consecutive) song to have had two separate runs at number one, and one of only six songs to have managed the feat in the 21st century (including "I Gotta Feeling" and "Boom Boom Pow").[17] The song appeared in the top 10 of the UK Singles Chart for 17 weeks, and stayed in the top 40 for over half a year, finally dropping to #41 on the first chart of March 2010. It has now spent 72 weeks in the official UK Top 75, making it the 5th longest runner of all time (63 of these are consecutive, which is the all time longest unbroken run), and 86 in the Top 100.[17] "I Gotta Feeling" has sold over a million copies in the United Kingdom, ultimately outselling the biggest selling single of 2009, Lady Gaga's "Poker Face". It was also announced as the 18th best selling single of the decade. "Boom Boom Pow" was the 7th best selling single of the year with around 600,000 copies sold,[17] and "Meet Me Halfway" was the tenth best selling, with over 500,000 copies. I Gotta Feeling is the first song to be downloaded more than a million times.[18] The song was the third most successful song of the decade in Australia, as announced on January 7, 2010.[19] The decade-end chart also revealed the song to be the most successful song of 2009. As of February 2010, "I Gotta Feeling" holds the record as the most downloaded song on iTunes of all time.[20] As of May 3, 2010, "I Gotta Feeling" has spent 47 consecutive weeks in the ARIA top 50 chart, tying with The Living End's "Prisoner of Society/Second Solution" single as the song with the most weeks in the Aria top 50 ever. "I Gotta Feeling" spent over a year (56 weeks) on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.[21] "I Gotta Feeling" spent over a year (76 weeks) on the Canadian Hot 100 chart. "I Gotta Feeling" spent over a year (76 weeks) on the German Singles Chart.[22]
Live performance
On September 8, 2009, the song was performed (with slight modification) by The Black Eyed Peas for the taping of the Kick-off Party for the 24th season of The Oprah Winfrey Show, with 21,000 fans performing a dance on the "Magnificent Mile" portion of Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois.[23] They also performed the song at the 52nd Grammy Awards nomination announcement ceremony known as The Grammy Nominations Concert Live!! — Countdown To Music's Biggest Night along with David Guetta (a remix edit by David Guetta appears on his latest album, One Love). Moreover, the group performed the song in a commercial for Target stores. The Black Eyed Peas also performed the song during a concert at Mont Kiara, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2009.
The official final version was released on June 2 on Dipdive and on June 16 on iTunes. There is both a censored version and an explicit version of the music video and a live performance of the explicit video. The video starts with scenes in Hollywood Blvd. and then showing will.i.am combing his hair and Fergie putting on make-up while wearing lingerie. It also shows Taboo checking his messages on Dipdive and apl.de.ap checking his text messages. Then it cuts to the party as the first verse starts. In the uncensored version, two women are kissing at the two minute mark, at which point the lyrics "Let's take it...off!" are heard, and a hand grabs the top of the dress of one of the women and pulls it down, exposing her left breast. All members of The Black Eyed Peas are shown dancing. Later, they are dancing with their faces and hands painted with phosphorescent paint. The video ends with a large sign with human-sized letters that reads "The E.N.D." The video is directed by Mikey Mee of Little Minx and features guest appearances by David Guetta, Kid Cudi, Katy Perry, Chantal Jones, members of the Indie rock band Gossip, the designer duo Dean and Dan Caten of Dsquared2 and a few well-known personalities of the LGBT community, including Ongina of RuPaul's Drag Race fame. A video was shown on Disney's Re-Micks featuring Minnie, Mickey and all of their friends.
It was covered on the Nickelodeon Mega Music Fest.
A video parody called "I Gotta Filling" was produced by The Madow Brothers and shown during TBSE 2011 at "The Joint" in The Hard Rock Hotel and Resort, Las Vegas, Nevada
The Black Eyed Peas version is played at Lambeau Field when the Green Bay Packers win.
^ abc"The Black Eyed Peas – I Gotta Feeling". Chart Stats. 2009-06-20. Retrieved 2009-12-10. Cite error: The named reference "chartstats" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
