Partition (song)
"Partition" is a song recorded by American singer Beyoncé for her self-titled fifth studio album released in 2013. Beyoncé co-wrote and co-produced the song with Justin Timberlake, Timbaland, Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon, Dwane "Key Wane" Weir, and Mike Dean, with extra writing from The-Dream and extra production from Jordy "Boots" Asher. The song was sent to urban contemporary on February 25, 2014 as the third single from Beyoncé by Columbia Records.
"Yoncé" redirects here. For the Italian drag queen, see Tanissa Yoncè."Partition"
February 25, 2014
2013
5:19
- Beyoncé Knowles
- Terius Nash
- Justin Timberlake
- Timothy Mosley
- Jerome Harmon
- Dwane Weir
- Mike Dean
- Knowles
- Timbaland
- Jerome Harmon
- Timberlake
- Dwane Weir
- Mike Dean
- Boots
The song consists of two parts, individually titled "Yoncé" and "Partition". "Partition" has been described as "electro-R&B" that moves "from a sweet, girl-group pop sound to Dirty South hip-hop". Its production musically consists of a sparse synthesized arrangement, a thrusting bassline and a heavy drumbeat. Exploring the deep, sexual nature of Beyoncé, "Partition" depicts sexual intercourse in the back of a limousine. The closing minute of the song features a spoken word interpolation taken from the French dub of the 1998 film The Big Lebowski, a speech originally spoken by Julianne Moore.
Following the album's release, "Partition" picked up airplay on United States urban contemporary radio stations. It has since peaked at number 23 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, number nine on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and number one on the US Hot Dance Club Songs chart.
Accompanying music videos for "Yoncé" and "Partition" were released on December 13, 2013, on Beyoncé. The former clip was directed by Ricky Saiz and filmed on the streets of Brooklyn, New York, while the latter was directed by Jake Nava and shot at the Parisian cabaret club, Crazy Horse. Both "Yoncé" and "Partition" were added to the setlist and performed live during the second European leg of The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour (2013–14) and later during the On the Run Tour (2014), The Formation World Tour (2016), and the Renaissance World Tour (2023). Both of the songs were performed at the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards as part of a medley of the singer's eponymous album.
Chart performance[edit]
On the US Billboard Hot 100, "Partition" debuted at number 86 for the week ending January 25, 2014 without being released as a single. Following several weeks of spending different positions on the chart, it moved from 97 to its peak position of 23 for the week ending March 15, 2014 in its eighth week of charting.[42][43] The song spent a total of 21 weeks on the chart and it was last seen at the position of 44.[44] "Partition" became Beyoncé's tenth number-one on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, extending her record for the most leaders among women.[45] It also became Beyoncé's twentieth number-one on the US Hot Dance Club Songs chart for the issue dated May 17, 2014, making her the third artist with the most number-ones on the chart, behind Madonna (43) and Rihanna (22).[46] In August 2022, it was certified 4× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) denoting sales and streams of 4,000,000 units in that country.[47]
In the United Kingdom, "Partition" entered the UK Singles Chart and the UK R&B Chart, at numbers 90 and 15 respectively on March 8, 2014.[48][49] The following week, it moved to 74 and 12 on the charts respectively, which eventually became its peak positions.[50][51] In Ireland, the single entered the Irish Singles Chart at its peak position of number 57 for the week ending March 13, 2014.[52] The next week, which also marked its last, it fell to the position of 83 spending a total of two weeks on the chart.[53] Elsewhere, "Partition" charted on the Ultratip charts in both regions of Belgium, (Wallonia and Flanders), in France and in South Korea.[54][55]
Cover versions[edit]
On January 9, 2014, Azealia Banks posted an unofficial remix of the song to her SoundCloud account, featuring Busta Rhymes. Their remix of the song has an extended intro lasting 90 seconds with the rappers singing "dirty" bars.[112] Reviewers were critical of Rhymes' contribution to the remix, with Spin's Marc Hogan calling it "conventionally porny",[113] and Hayden Manders of Refinery29 suggesting it "take[s] the tease of the original's writing and turn[s] it into sleaze."[114] Banks' effort was contrastingly hailed for "delivering the ratatat wordplay that brought her to acclaim while wisely avoiding trying to beat either of the track's other artists for sheer bawdiness" by Hogan[113] and "working perfectly with the deep, subdued beat of Beyoncé's original" by Carolyn Menyes from the website Music Times.[115]
Upon the release of the album and "Partition", the song has been covered by multiple dance crews on YouTube.[116] Writing for Billboard, William Gruger and Jason Lipshutz thought that the dance videos uploaded to YouTube helped "Partition" to appear on charts such as the Hot 100, although there were no official videos released as well as the audio was not available via digital retailers such as Spotify or Pandora.[116] They further compared "Partition" to "Harlem Shake", which performed well on charts due to viral videos, later created the meme with the same name.[116] However they also noted the differences that "Partition" was mostly covered by professional choreographers, unlike "Harlem Shake".[116] On March 13, 2014, Vanessa Hudgens posted a video where she performed a choreography for "Yoncé" by Michelle "Jersey" Maniscalco, along with four female dancers.[117]