The Hills (song)
"The Hills" is a song by the Canadian singer-songwriter the Weeknd. It was released on May 27, 2015, as the second single from his second studio album, Beauty Behind the Madness (2015). The song was written by the Weeknd alongside producers Emmanuel "Mano" Nickerson and Illangelo, with Belly receiving additional writing credits.
"The Hills"
- English
- Amharic
May 27, 2015
2014
4:02
- Abel Tesfaye
- Emmanuel Nickerson
- Carlo Montagnese
- Ahmad Balshe
- Illangelo
- Mano
In the United States, "The Hills" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, replacing his own "Can't Feel My Face", and topped the chart for a total of six weeks. On June 28, 2019, the song received a diamond certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for selling more than ten million copies in the United States, becoming his first diamond-certified record.[2]
Elsewhere, "The Hills" reached number one in his native Canada, and charted in multiple territories, including the top ten in the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, and Ireland. "The Hills" has two official remixes, both released on October 10, 2015, one with the rapper Eminem, and another with the rapper Nicki Minaj.
Background[edit]
The Weeknd premiered a demo at a South by Southwest party in 2015.[3]
Music and recording[edit]
In an interview with Paul Tingen, Illangelo stated that the song was their way of going back to the style of the Weeknd's first mixtapes with "a pop arrangement and chords in a faster tempo". revealed the process behind the recording of "The Hills". Written, recorded, produced, and mixed in the Weeknd's home studio in Toronto, Ontario, the initial demo for the song was created by producer Emmanuel "Mano" Nickerson. Nickerson sent the demo to the Weeknd, which Illangelo began work on. Shortly after, the Weeknd had an idea for the song's top line. Illangelo wanted the vocals to be "very spacey and lo-fi", taking out a lot of low end, and wanting everything to come together at the song's chorus. The bridge and the outro were the last sections of the song to be written.[4]
The song's sheet music, published by Sony/ATV Music Publishing at Musicnotes, shows that the song is written in the key of C minor in common time with a tempo of 113 beats per minute. The vocals in the song span from C3 to E♭5.[5]
Plagiarism allegation[edit]
On December 9, 2015, Cutting Edge Music filed a lawsuit against Tesfaye, the producers of the track, and the labels who released the song, for allegedly using the bassline from the score of the film The Machine. The complaint also alleges that a producer who worked on the piece, Emmanuel “Mano” Nickerson, sent a message to the score's composer on Twitter stating that he had sampled the composer's work and that it might appear on the next Weeknd album. [16] As of July 2022, the case remains unsettled. [17]
Commercial performance[edit]
In the United States, "The Hills" entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 20 for the chart dated June 13, 2015, and was the week's highest debut.[18] Its debut was overwhelmingly powered by first-week digital download sales of 109,000 copies and 5.2 million domestic streams, aided by the simultaneous premiere of its music video on the single's release date.[19] The following week, the single declined by one position but earned the largest gain in streams on the chart.[20] It has since become the Weeknd's second number-one single in the United States on the issue dated October 3, 2015, replacing the singer's own "Can't Feel My Face", becoming the first artist since Taylor Swift to replace themselves at the top spot.[21] "The Hills" spent six consecutive weeks at number one before being replaced by Adele's "Hello" on the issue dated of November 14, 2015. It remained in the chart's top ten for 21 consecutive weeks before finally dropping out on January 16, 2016, and also ending the Weeknd's 45-consecutive weeks in the top 10. As of June 2016, "The Hills" has sold 2,946,000 copies in the country.[22]
In the UK, "The Hills" entered the UK Singles Chart at 51, for the week ending June 6, 2015. For the week ending September 10, 2015, it climbed from 35 to 29. For five more weeks, the song reached 23, before skyrocketing to number 5 the week later. On the week ending October 29, 2015, it reached number 3 on its 20th week, being held off by Perfect by One Direction (at number 2) and Turn the Music Louder (Rumble) by KDA (at number 1). The song spent 7 weeks altogether in the top 10 and 12 in the top 20 and was number 25 on the end of year chart.
Live performances[edit]
"The Hills" was performed live for the first time during the Weeknd's set, on April 11, 2015, at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.[30]
Other versions[edit]
On October 10, 2015, two remixes of the song were released online. One featured American rapper Eminem and the other featured Trinidadian-American rapper Nicki Minaj.[31] The remix by Minaj was performed on Saturday Night Live along with the Weeknd. The Eminem remix was a personal request from Tesfaye,[32] and a virtual music video was released for it.[33] American rapper Lil Wayne remixed the song for his mixtape No Ceilings 2.[34]
On August 9, 2016, a remix was released by the Belgian DJ duo, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, as one of the free downloads of their "Summer of Madness" tracks.[35] Another remix was released on Tesfaye's YouTube channel by RL Grime.