Are You That Somebody?

Infobox Single
Name = Are You That Somebody?


Artist = Aaliyah
from Album = Dr. Dolittle soundtrack
Released = September 29, 1998
Format = CD single
Recorded =
Genre = R&B, hip hop, trip hop
Length = 4:25
Label = Blackground/Atlantic
Writer = Steve "Static" Garrett, Tim "Timbaland" Mosley
Producer = Timbaland
Chronology = Aaliyah singles
Last single = "Journey to the Past" (1997)
This single = "Are You That Somebody?" (1998)
Next single = "I Don't Wanna" (1999)
Misc = Extra chronology
Artist = "Dr. Dolittle"
Type = singles
Last single = "That's Why I Lie"
(1998)
This single = "Are You That Somebody?"
(1998)

"Are You That Somebody?" is a soundtrack to the 1998 comedy film "Dr. Dolittle" performed by American R&B singer Aaliyah. The lyrics for "Are You That Somebody?" were written by Steve "Static" Garrett and Timbaland. In addition to writing the song, Timbaland produced and performed a guest rap for it. The song was sent to radio stations in September of 1998.

Produced by Timbaland, and written by Timbaland and Steve "Static" Garrett of Playa, the up-tempo song could be interpreted as about the protagonist being a young starlet who wants to reveal her secret desire to a male, but doesn't know whether she can trust him or not, or as a famous woman not sure if the man she likes will be OK with the glitz and glamor. The baby giggling and cooing in the background is from a personal home video of Aaliyah as a child.

The song is listed as the 387th on the The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born, a list of songs compiled by Blender. [ [http://www.blender.com/guide/articles.aspx?ID=1758 The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born: 351-400] ] .

Music video

The music video for "Are You That Somebody?" was directed by Mark Gerard. At the beginning of the video Timbaland and a crew of men are riding on motorcycles to a cave where Aaliyah and other women are hiding. As Timbaland and the crew arrive Aaliyah sets up a hologram of a huge metal door in front of the cave. The men notice that the door is a hologram and drive right through it. The women are waiting in a large underground room where clips of "Dr. Dolittle" appear in the background.

Everyone begins dancing with scenes with just the women dancing, just the men dancing, both the women and men dancing, and Aaliyah performing herself. The video ends with Aaliyah and the other dancers flamenco dancing. Fatima Robinson directed the choreography. The video was the third most-played on MTV that year. [ [http://www.muvids.com/aaliyah_videos/are_you_that_somebody.html Are You That Somebody by Aaliyah music video & lyrics - MuVids ] ]

Charts performance

"Are You That Somebody?" was in the midst of its chart run when Billboard changed its policy to allow airplay-only singles to chart on the Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop charts.It climbed to number one on the Hot 100 Airplay chart and number one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart.

In New Zealand, it jumped from number forty-three to number one, being the song with biggest jump to number one [ [http://charts.org.nz/archive.asp?todo=show&day=11&month=10&year=1998&cat=s RIANZ Archive - October 11, 1998] ] . Netherlands] , it peaked at number one and stayed in the chart for twenty-two weeks, it also becomes one of her most successful song there [ [http://dutchcharts.nl/showitem.asp?interpret=Aaliyah&titel=Are+You+That+Somebody%3F&cat=s AALIYAH - ARE YOU THAT SOMEBODY? (NUMMER)] dutchcharts.com] .

The song was also successful in Belgium where it peaked at number forty-two and number three in the two charts of the country [ [http://www.ultratop.be/nl/showitem.asp?interpret=Aaliyah&titel=Are+You+That+Somebody%3F&cat=s AALIYAH - ARE YOU THAT SOMEBODY? (NUMMER)] ultratop.be] [ [http://www.ultratop.be/fr/showitem.asp?interpret=Aaliyah&titel=Are+You+That+Somebody%3F&cat=s AALIYAH - ARE YOU THAT SOMEBODY? (CHANSON)] ultratop.be] , in Switzerland where it peaked at number seven [ [http://hitparade.ch/showitem.asp?interpret=Aaliyah&titel=Are+You+That+Somebody%3F&cat=s AALIYAH - ARE YOU THAT SOMEBODY? (SONG)] hitparade.ch] and in Germany where it peaked at number thirty-one.

It reached the top twenty in United Kingdom, becoming her highest charting hit to this point in her career and the song also reached the top 10 Canada.

In MTV Asia Hitlist, the song was very successful there; peaking at number five. There was no CD single released there but video and radio airplay were strong so that is the reason why it became an instant success.

Remix

The remix features Twista, Danja and Supafriendz and is available on the CD single from the Dr. Dolittle soundtrack.

Peak positions

External links

* [http://www.aaliyah.com Aaliyah's official website]

References