Girlfriend (Alicia Keys song)

Infobox Single
Name = Girlfriend


Artist = Alicia Keys
Album = Songs in A Minor
Released = 2002
Format = CD single, 12" maxi single
Recorded = Southside Studios
(Atlanta, Georgia)
Genre = R&B, hip hop soul
Length = 3:34 (album version)
3:27 (KrucialKeys Sista Girl Mix)
Label = J
Writer = Alicia Keys, Jermaine Dupri, Joshua Thompson
Producer = Alicia Keys, Jermaine Dupri
Certification =
Last single = "Gangsta Lovin'"
(2002)
This single = "Girlfriend"
(2002)
Next single = "You Don't Know My Name"
(2003)
Misc = Extra track listing
Album = Songs in A Minor
Type = studio
prev_track = "Piano & I"
prev_no = 1
this_track = "Girlfriend"
track_no = 2
next_track = "How Come You Don't Call Me"
next_no = 3 Extra album cover 2
Upper caption = Alternate covers
Type = single


Lower caption = European CD single cover Extra album cover 2


Lower caption = UK promo CD single cover

"Girlfriend" is an R&B–hip hop soul song written by American singer-songwriter Alicia Keys, American rapper-producer Jermaine Dupri, and Joshua Thompson for Keys' debut album, "Songs in A Minor" (2001). Released as the album's fourth and final single, it was produced by Keys and Dupri. Despite Keys' debut single "Fallin'" being sent to radio stations first, "Girlfriend" started receiving airplay from American R&B radio stations in 2001, prior to its official single release in 2002. The song charted only on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart at number eighty-two and missed the "Billboard" Hot 100 as it was not released as an official single in the United States, being restricted to Europe, Asia, and Australia. Although managing to outpeak previous single "How Come You Don't Call Me" in the United Kingdom and Australia, it failed to make impact elsewhere. The song's KrucialKeys Sista Girl Mix, which appears on the re-release "Songs in A Minor: Remixed & Unplugged", is used in the video and was serviced to radio instead of its album version.

ong information

In "Girlfriend," Keys cannot help but think that her boyfriend is having a relationship with his close female friend. She says she knows that the woman is only a friend of him, but she cannot stop thinking that her boyfriend may leave her. Keys then proceeds to say that she thinks she jealous of his "girlfriend".

The song contains an interpolation from Ol' Dirty Bastard's 1995 song "Brooklyn Zoo".

Music video

The video for "Girlfriend" was directed by Patrick Hoelck and shot on location in East London, England. The video starts in Keys' bedroom where her boyfriend is talking to the his close female friend on the phone. She gets frustrated so she leaves the house to take a long walk through the city. While walking, she sees her boyfriend also on a walk with his female friend across the street. Keys then walks into a clothing store, performing in the fitting room. Strolling through clothing aisles, she spots a pair of red leather pants—at the same time the female friend had seen them. Keys yanks the hanger into her own hands. After the second verse is performed, the video shifts to a large, empty basement where she plays a musical piece on the piano. The video then goes back to the store, where Keys leaves out of to perform choreography with three other dancers at the corner of a street. Shortly after, she returns home to discover that her boyfriend and his female friend had been planning a surprise party for her all along.

Personnel

Musicians

*Alicia Keys – lead vocals, backing vocals, piano
*Bryan-Michael Cox – keyboards

Production

*Alicia Keys – producer, arranger, vocal arranger
*Jermaine Dupri – producer
*Phil Tan – mixing

Charts

References