Just Look Up

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"Just Look Up"
Single by Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi
from the album Don't Look Up (Soundtrack from the Netflix Film)
ReleasedDecember 3, 2021
Recorded2021
GenrePop[1][2]
Length3:22
Label
Composer(s)
Lyricist(s)
Producer(s)Nicholas Britell
Music video
Just Look Up on YouTube

"Just Look Up" is a song by American singer Ariana Grande and American rapper Kid Cudi. The song was written by both artists, alongside American film composer Nicholas Britell and American songwriter Taura Stinson, for the 2021 satirical science fiction film Don't Look Up (which both artists star in).[3] The song was issued on December 3, 2021 for streaming and digital download prior to the soundtrack's release.[4][5]

Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi star in the film as pop music power couple Riley Bina and DJ Chello, respectively. In satire fashion, news about their fluctuating relationship dominates the media, eclipsing news of the inevitable destruction of the Earth. "Just Look Up" starts off as a love song, then transforms into a rallying cry to listen to the scientists' message that humankind hasn't much time left on this planet.[6]

Composition[edit]

Nicholas Britell read a draft of the script and had talked to the film's director Adam McKay for some time. He went to his piano and came up with a melody "for the chorus where I wanted it to feel like it was going upward". He played the song to Grande, who asked if she could "go into the booth and try some things out [...] And she basically laid down the entire vocal top line of the song with no lyrics, just improvising this whole thing." Britell said he then found it difficult to "write lyrics for a song that has to start as a love song and pivot to a song about blowing up" and make it "convincing", so asked Taura Stinson for help, who said she was "intimidated" at first but hearing Grande's melody helped her write. Kid Cudi insisted on writing his verse on his own.[7]

Stinson said the song can be taken as being "about pollution or climate change or the vaccine. As I sat around the holidays with my family and a mask, it wasn't hard to fathom that." Britell was impressed upon receiving Stinson's lyrics, calling it "such a tricky thing to pull off. [... I]t's a sincere, real song that happens to express this absurd explanation of what is happening."[7]

Reception[edit]

McKay praised Grande's performance of the song. During a run-through of the duet with her co-star and Republic Records label-mate Kid Cudi, she began ad-libbing and improvising lyrics to which McKay referred to as "comedic gold".[8][9] During the film scene where Grande's character performs the song, McKay went on to say that "Ariana sang it live. Every single take that we shot, she sang it live from beginning to end. It was an incredible thing."[10]

Jazz Tangcay, an editor for Variety, praised the song on Twitter, calling it "a banger and a ballad." She added that the song is "crashing into the Original song #Oscars race."[11] The song also received praise for its satirical and message and for Grande's vocals on the tune, with AwardsWatch founder Erik Anderson calling the song "fucking hilarious."[11]

Nicholas Gaudet of MusicTalkers called the song “cheesy, and wonderfully so. It’s a power-ballad done anew, all the while being so familiar.”[12] Mitchell Peters of Billboard, wrote the song “finds Grande steering some romantic balladry with a gorgeous tone and open heart, while Cudi takes a few seconds to fully deploy his croon but sounds comfortable when it arrives.“[13]

Live performances[edit]

Ariana Grande performing during The Honeymoon Tour in 2015
Kid Cudi in New York City in 2010.
In Don't Look Up, the song "Just Look Up" is performed by Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi.

On December 14, 2021, Cudi and Grande appeared on the season finale of American singing competition series The Voice, where they performed the song together live for the first time.[14]

Accolades[edit]

The song has been nominated for Best Original Song by Chicago Indie Critics,[15] Hollywood Music in Media Awards,[16] Critics' Choice Movie Awards,[17] Denver Film Critics Society,[18] DiscussingFilm Critics Awards,[19] Georgia Film Critics Association,[20] and Hawaii Film Critics Society,[21] among others. It won the 2022 Society of Composers & Lyricists Award for Outstanding Original Song for a Comedy or Musical Visual Media Production.[22]

Commercial performance[edit]

"Just Look Up" peaked at number seven on the NZ Hot Singles chart[23] and at 198 on the Billboard Global 200.

Personnel[edit]

Credits for "Just Look Up" adapted from AllMusic.[24]

  • Nicholas Britell – composer, organ, piano, producer
  • Ariana Grande – composer, primary artist
  • Billy Hickey – engineer, mixing
  • Kid Cudi – primary artist
  • Randy Merrill – mastering engineer
  • Scott Mescudi – composer
  • Taura Stinson – composer
  • Casey Stone – engineer
  • William Sullivan – engineer

Charts[edit]

Chart performance for "Just Look Up"
Chart (2021) Peak
position
Global 200 (Billboard)[25] 198
New Zealand Hot Singles (RMNZ)[23] 7

Release history[edit]

List of release dates, showing region, release format, and label
Country Date Format Label Ref
United States December 3, 2021
Republic [26]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Ariana Grande improvised some of the lyrics to Don't Look Up song". MSN. December 31, 2021. Retrieved January 13, 2022.
  2. ^ Tangcay, Jazz (December 3, 2021). "Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi Release 'Just Look Up,' Best Original Song Contender From 'Don't Look Up'". Variety. Retrieved January 13, 2022.
  3. ^ "How Ariana Grande, Kid Cudi and Team Wrote a Love Song for the End of the World in 'Don't Look Up'". Yahoo.com. 10 December 2021. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  4. ^ Skinner, Tom (December 3, 2021). "Hear Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi's new collaboration, 'Just Look Up'". NME. Retrieved December 14, 2021.
  5. ^ "Just Look Up: Ariana Grande & Kid Cudi to release new single from film Don't Look Up on December 3". Pinkvilla.com. Archived from the original on 2 December 2021. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  6. ^ "Hear Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi Join Forces on 'Just Look Up'". Rolling Stone. 3 December 2021.
  7. ^ a b Pond, Steve (10 December 2021). "How Ariana Grande, Kid Cudi Wrote a Love Song for the End of the World". TheWrap. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  8. ^ DILLO, NANCY (December 31, 2021). "Ariana Grande Improvised Best Line in 'Don't Look Up' Parody Song with Kid Cudi". Rolling Stone.
  9. ^ Gularte, Alejandra (December 31, 2021). "Adam McKay Clearly Hasn't Seen Victorious". Vulture.com.
  10. ^ "#DontLookUp director Adam McKay says Ariana Grande wrote/improvised lyrics on "Just Look Up"". December 7, 2021 – via Twitter.com.
  11. ^ a b "The Voice: Ariana Grande's New Song 'Just Look Up' Praised by Critics". Screen Rant. 20 November 2021.
  12. ^ "Review: Just Look up – Ariana Grande & Kid Cudi". 8 December 2021.
  13. ^ "Fans Choose Ariana Grande & Kid Cudi's 'Just Look Up' as This Week's Favorite New Music". Billboard.
  14. ^ "Watch Kid Cudi Join Ariana Grande for Performance of "Just Look Up" on 'The Voice' Finale". Complex Networks. December 15, 2021.
  15. ^ "2021 AWARDS". Chicago Indie Critics. 28 October 2019. Retrieved January 4, 2022.
  16. ^ "2021 MUSIC IN VISUAL MEDIA NOMINATIONS". hmmawards.com. November 3, 2021. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  17. ^ Nolfi, Joey (December 13, 2021). "West Side Story, Belfast storm Oscar race with 11 Critics Choice Awards nominations each: See the full list". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on February 14, 2015. Retrieved February 14, 2015.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  18. ^ "The 2021 Denver Film Critics Society (DFCS) Nominations". Next Best Picture. January 10, 2022. Retrieved January 10, 2022.
  19. ^ "The 2021 DiscussingFilm Critic Award (DFCA) Nominations". Next Best Picture. December 7, 2021. Retrieved January 4, 2022.
  20. ^ "The 2021 Georgia Film Critics Association (GFCA) Nominations". Next Best Picture. January 7, 2022. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
  21. ^ "The 2021 Hawaii Film Critics Society (HFCS) Nominations". Next Best Picture. January 7, 2022. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
  22. ^ Anderson, Erik (March 9, 2022). "Society of Composers and Lyricists (SCL) winners: 'Encanto,' Billie Eilish and 'The White Lotus'". AwardsWatch. Retrieved March 9, 2022.
  23. ^ a b "NZ Hot Singles Chart". Recorded Music NZ. December 13, 2021. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
  24. ^ "Just Look Up - Kid Cudi - Credits - AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  25. ^ "Ariana Grande Chart History (Global 200)". Billboard. Retrieved December 29, 2021.
  26. ^ "Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi Release New Song From 'Don't Look Up'". Etonline.com. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
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