Girl Crush
"Girl Crush" is a song written by Lori McKenna, Hillary Lindsey and Liz Rose, and performed by American country music group Little Big Town. It was released on December 15, 2014 as the second single from their sixth studio album, Pain Killer.[1] The song received mostly positive reviews from music critics, won five music awards, including two Grammys (Best Country Duo/Group Performance and Best Country Song), reaching number 3 on the Country Airplay charts and number one on the Hot Country Songs chart, ended up being the second-most played song of 2015 on the format, and is certified Quintuple Platinum in the US.
This article is about the Little Big Town song. For a close but non-sexual relationship between two or more women, see Womance. For the song by New Politics, see Vikings (album)."Girl Crush"
December 15, 2014
3:13
Commercial performance[edit]
"Girl Crush" debuted at number 48 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart for the week ending November 8, 2014, before it was released as a single. It reached number one and remained there for thirteen consecutive weeks until it was knocked off by "Kick the Dust Up" by Luke Bryan. It debuted at number 55 on Billboard's Country Airplay chart for the week ending December 27, 2014. "Girl Crush" sold 10,000 copies in its debut week of November 8, 2014.[6] The song reached more than two million in sales by early February 2016.[7] As of November 2019, "Girl Crush" had sold 2,550,000 copies in the United States.[8] In August, 2020 the single was certified 5x multi-Platinum.[9]
"Girl Crush" is Little Big Town's highest charting single on Billboard's all-genre Hot 100 chart, having peaked at number 18 for the week ending May 9, 2015 chart, besting the number 22 peak of "Pontoon" in 2012.[10] It is also their highest showing on the Canadian Hot 100, besting the number 39 position of "Pontoon" in 2012. It is also their longest-running number one single, 13 weeks atop Hot Country Songs. It broke the record set by The Browns' 1959 hit "The Three Bells" as the longest-running number one on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart by a group of three or more members.[11]
Some radio stations were reported to have pulled "Girl Crush" from their playlists, in response to concerns from listeners who interpreted the song to be about lesbianism. In response, Fairchild said, "That's just shocking to me, the close-mindedness of that, when that's just not what the song was about…But what if it were? It's just a greater issue of listening to a song for what it is." In addition, the label created a short commercial in which the band discusses the song and its actual meaning.[12] Billboard consulted several radio program directors on its panel and found only one who detailed a specific complaint from a listener; the magazine concluded that the controversy surrounding the song was mostly fabricated.[13]
Music video[edit]
The music video is in black-and-white.[14] It was directed by Karla and Matthew Welch and premiered in April 2015. The music video was filmed in Los Angeles, California and produced by Meritocracy Inc.[15] The music video is nominated for a 2016 Academy of Country Music Award for Video of the Year.[16]