Till the World Ends
"Till the World Ends" is a song by American singer Britney Spears from her seventh studio album, Femme Fatale (2011). It was written by Kesha, Dr. Luke, Alexander Kronlund, and Max Martin, while the production was handled by Luke, Martin and Billboard. It was released as the second single from the album on March 4, 2011. "Till the World Ends" is an uptempo dance-pop, electropop and Eurodance song with an electro beat. It opens with sirens, and has elements of trance and Eurodance. The song features a chant-like chorus, and lyrics in which Spears sings about dancing until the end of the world. "Till the World Ends" received universal acclaim from critics, who deemed it a catchy dance track and complimented its anthemic nature.
This article is about the Britney Spears song. For the Three Dog Night song, see Til the World Ends (Three Dog Night song)."Till the World Ends"
"Till the World Ends" was treated with different remixes, most notably the Femme Fatale Remix, featuring rapper Nicki Minaj and Kesha, which was released on April 25, 2011. The remix adds a rap verse by Minaj at the beginning, new vocals by Kesha, and a dubstep breakdown. The Femme Fatale Remix received positive reviews from critics, with most complimenting the diversity of the group and Minaj's rap. "Till the World Ends" attained international success, charted on the top-ten in several major music markets, including Australia, France, Ireland, New Zealand, Sweden and Switzerland. Spears's solo version reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100. The Femme Fatale Remix propelled the single to the top five on the Canadian Hot 100 and the US Billboard Hot 100.
An accompanying music video for the "Till the World Ends" was released on April 6, 2011. It portrays Spears in an underground dance party set on December 21, 2012. Critics noted the similarities with the music video for "I'm a Slave 4 U" (2001), and predominantly gave positive reviews for it. A choreography cut was released on April 15, 2011. The video was also nominated for two categories at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, and went on to win Best Pop Video. Spears has performed "Till the World Ends" on television shows Good Morning America and Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and performed it with Minaj at the 2011 Billboard Music Awards. She has also performed the song as the encore of the Femme Fatale Tour (2011), Britney: Piece of Me (2013–2017), Britney: Live in Concert (2017) and Piece of Me Tour (2018).
Composition[edit]
"Till the World Ends" is an uptempo dance-pop and electropop song,[13][14] with an electro beat and elements of trance and Eurodance.[6][12][1] The song opens with sirens and a "sizzling" bassline.[15][16] Spears delivers confident and breathy vocals, in lyrics such as "If you want this good shit / Sicker than the remix / Baby let me blow your mind tonight."[6][17] In the chorus, the song slows down while Spears sings "I can't take it take it take no more / Never felt like felt like this before / Come on get me get me on the floor / DJ what you what you waiting for?". The melody's 4:3 cross-rhythm continues into a chant-like segment, in which "whoa-oh-oh-oh" is repeated.[16][17] The bit was compared by Scott Shettler of AOL to the "rapid word repetition" of Kesha.[6][17] Keith Caulfield of Billboard said the chorus "comes on hard like it's the sexy spawn" of American recording artist Usher's "OMG" (2010) and Italian band Baltimora's "Tarzan Boy" (1985).[18]
Gerrick Kennedy of the Los Angeles Times stated that like her previous single "Hold It Against Me", "Spears's main intention with her new single seems to be keeping the dance floor pulsating with sweaty bodies".[19] Jason Lipshutz of Billboard said the song recalls past hits by English recording artist Taio Cruz, Swedish recording artist Robyn and Spanish recording artist Enrique Iglesias.[7] Allison Stewart of The Washington Post felt the song was comparable to Iglesias' "Tonight (I'm Lovin' You)" (2010).[20] Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine and a reviewer from Popjustice compared it to Kesha's "Blow" (2011).[21][22] According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Kobalt Music Publishing Inc., "Till the World Ends" is set in the simple quadruple meter time signature, with a moderate dance beat infused metronome of 132 beats per minute.[23] It is composed in the key of C minor; Spears' vocals range from the low-key of Bb3 to the high-note of C5.[23] Lyrically, the song talks about dancing until the end of the world.[14]
Chart performance[edit]
"Till the World Ends" sold 117,000 copies after its first three days of sales in the United States, debuting at number twenty on the Billboard Hot 100 on the week of March 19, 2011.[52] It became the fifth highest debut of her twenty-five entries on the chart.[53] It also debuted at number ten on the Hot Digital Songs chart, and at number sixty-eight on the Radio Songs chart; on the latter chart, the song debuted at number sixty-eight with 16.8 million impressions on 145 stations.[52][53] On the issue dated March 17, 2011, "Till the World Ends" sold 158,000 downloads (up 36%), peaking at number five on the Hot Digital Songs chart. On the Hot 100, it climbed to number nine, becoming her tenth top ten hit. The song also jumped to number forty-seven on the Radio Songs chart with 26 million impressions (up 56%), and debuted at number twenty-six on the Pop Songs chart.[54] It later peaked at number four.[55] The following week, "Till the World Ends" dropped out of the top ten of the Hot 100; it returned three weeks later at number eight, on April 13, 2011.[55] Following the release of the remix featuring Nicki Minaj and Kesha, the song peaked at number three on the Hot Digital Songs chart, with combined sales of 246,000 downloads (up 102%).[56] The remix accounted for 167,000 copies (68%) of the total sales. "Till the World Ends" also peaked at number three on the Hot 100, becoming Spears's eleventh top-ten hit and her third of 2011 after "Hold It Against Me" and the "S&M" remix with Rihanna.[57] In May 2011, the song peaked at number 4 on the airplay chart, her highest-charting song on the radio in her entire career.[58] "Till the World Ends" became Spears' seventh number-one dance song when it topped the chart in May 2011.[59] On the week of July 10, 2011, the song surpassed two million downloads in the United States.[60] As of March 2015, "Till the World Ends" has sold over three million copies in the United States.[61]
The single debuted at number sixteen on the Canadian Hot 100, and climbed to number seven the next week.[62] Following the release of the remix, "Till the World Ends" peaked at number four.[63] On March 14, 2011, the song debuted at number nineteen on the ARIA Charts of Australia. It climbed to number eight on the week of April 25, 2011, where it stayed for two consecutive weeks. "Till the World Ends" stayed for sixteen weeks on the chart.[64] It has since been certified 2× Platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for sales of 140,000 units.[65] In New Zealand, the song debuted at number ten on March 14, 2011. It stayed for seventeen weeks on the chart.[66] On March 10, 2011, "Till the World Ends" debuted at number seven on the Irish Singles Chart. In the United Kingdom, "Till the World Ends" debuted at number fifty-five on March 7, 2011, and moved to number twenty-one the following week.[67] It became her second lowest peaking single behind "Radar" (2009) and her lowest peaking second single from a studio release.[68] Across Europe, the song has peaked at number two in Norway; number four in Sweden; number six in Belgium (Wallonia) and Finland; number seven in Denmark and Switzerland; number eight in France and Slovakia; and the top twenty in Brazil, Belgium (Flanders), Czech Republic, Greece and Spain.[69]
Music video[edit]
Development[edit]
The music video for "Till the World Ends" was directed by Ray Kay and filmed inside a basement in Los Angeles, California.[70] On March 17, 2011, Spears posted on her Twitter account, "Day 1 of the #TTWE Videoshoot. Just wrapped my first big dance number. Taking a well deserved break people!" She also tweeted a picture of her on set, wearing ripped tights, a Burberry Prorsum studded leather jacket and matching fingerless leather gloves.[71][72] The making-of was chronicled on the special Britney Spears: I Am the Femme Fatale, which aired on MTV on April 3, 2011, at 21:00 EST (02:00 UTC). In the special, Spears is seen watching the playback, as she later explained, "[It is] just to make sure it's right and that the costume looks right and the dancers are together and we all look in unison. It's an energy and it looks fresh. It has a certain vibe with it and it makes sense." She also went on to describe the set as "grimy and gross [...] It was sweat and it was disgusting sometimes". At a point in the shoot, Spears changed her heels to Ugg boots during the shots that did not show her feet, stating that "[Dancing in heels] hurts ... but it looks good. It wasn't a full-length shot, so a girl's about comfort when it's not showing." Spears said that she did not feel the need to top herself, saying that "I've made so many videos that I'm at the point that I genuinely want to enjoy myself, and I have such a good team of people with me. [...] I had never worked with Ray Kay before. I was really happy with the work we did."[70] The video was choreographed by Brian Friedman.[73] On April 4, 2011, it was announced that two different versions of the music video would be released, a director's cut and a choreography cut. The same day, Spears tweeted a 30-second preview of the video, announcing, "#TillTheWorldEnds video premieres THIS Wednesday on VEVO. Cant wait to share it with you guys!"[74]