"2012 (It Ain't the End)" is a song by British singer

Jay Sean Kamaljit Singh Jhooti (born 26 March 1981), better known by the stage name Jay Sean, is a British singer and songwriter. He debuted in the UK's Asian Underground scene as a member of the Rishi Rich Project with "Dance with You", which reached ...

taken from the compilation album, ''Hit the Lights''. It features rapper and labelmate

Nicki Minaj Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty (; born December 8, 1982), known professionally as Nicki Minaj ( ), is a Trinidadian-born rapper based in the United States. She is known for her musical versatility, animated flow in her rapping, alter egos and accent ...

and is the album's lead single. The song was produced by OFM production team J-Remy and

Bobby Bass Bobby Bass (occasionally Bob Bass) (August 6, 1936 in California – November 7, 2001) was an American actor, stunt performer, and stunt coordinator/second unit director. Early life Bass, a graduate of Morningside High School in Inglewood, Californ ...

. It was released to US radio stations and was available for digital download on 3 August 2010. The title is a reference to the

2012 phenomenon The 2012 phenomenon was a range of eschatological beliefs that cataclysmic or transformative events would occur on or around 21 December 2012. This date was regarded as the end-date of a 5,126-year-long cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count cale ...

Critical reception

'2012' received mixed reviews by About.com and Digital Spy. Bill Lamb from

About.com Dotdash Meredith (formerly About.com) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, home, food, finance, tech, beauty, l ...

rated the single 4 out of 5 stars commenting on "The powerful vocal kickoff", "Expansive world party atmosphere" and "

on guest raps". Lamb noted that the song was similar to that of " Down" and concluded that "2012 (It Ain't the End) feels like a wise move for

capitalising on the party success of his two prior hits "Down" and "

Do You Remember Do You Remember(?) may refer to: * "Do You Remember" (Jay Sean song), 2009 * "Do You Remember" (Jarryd James song), 2015 * "Do You Remember?" (The Beach Boys song) * "Do You Remember?" (Phil Collins song), 1990 * ''Do You Remember?'' (album), ...

" while moving into an even more expansive sound". Robert Copsey from

Digital Spy Digital Spy (DS) is a British-based entertainment, television and film website and brand and is the largest digital property at Hearst UK. Since its launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television programmes, ...

rated the song with 3 out of 5 stars, commenting that: "'2012' finds him recreating the USA-slaying

synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...

/ R&B sound of his breakthrough – and there's no denying it's catchy as an October cold. Of course, no one expects lyrical innovation from a song about partying, but lines like "We gonna party like it's 2012" and "Party like it's the end of the world" are so timeworn that even Nicki Minaj struggles to breathe fresh life into it".

Chart performance

"2012 (It Ain't the End)" debuted at number 50 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 for the chart week of 13 August 2010, later peaking at number 31. It peaked at number 34 on the US

Pop Songs Pop Airplay (also called Mainstream Top 40, Pop Songs, and Top 40/ CHR) is a 40-song music chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' Magazine that ranks the most popular songs of pop music being played on a panel of Top 40 radio stations in the Un ...

chart and climbed for a few weeks from its debut at number 92 to its ultimate height at number 23 on the

Canadian Hot 100 The Canadian Hot 100 is a music industry record chart in Canada for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. The Canadian Hot 100 was launched on the issue dated March 31, 2007, and is currently the standard record chart in Canada; a n ...

. The single also debuted at number 40 on the

ARIA Charts The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

for the chart week of 26 August 2010 and at number nine on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

, on the issue of 24 October 2010.

Track listing

Music video

The music video for "2012 (It Ain't the End)" was shot in Los Angeles on 19 July 2010, with Nicki Minaj. The video is set to many flashing lights and a typical hip-hop club scene environment. But in post-production, Sean says the music video's director Erik White would be zooming out to show parties in three cities around the world. "There's all these wonderful ideas the director Erik White has been telling me

bout Bout can mean: People *Viktor Bout, suspected arms dealer *Jan Everts Bout, early settler to New Netherland *Marcel Bout Musical instruments * The outward-facing round parts of the body shape of violins, guitars, and other stringed instrumen ...

" 'They are gonna zoom out, and it's gonna zoom into Tokyo! And the world is gonna spin around!' And I'm like, 'Really? That's amazing!' So for me, I'm looking forward to seeing those effects." "The concept of the video is basically all about throwing the biggest party, celebrating life. It's basically going around the world, from London to Tokyo to New York, seeing people celebrating good times." The video should have a premiered on 8 August 2010 on MTV, however the same day Sean confirmed on Twitter that the premiere has been rescheduled. The video was leaked on 14 August 2010, but Jay Sean confirmed that the leaked version of the video wasn't the final version. The video features a cameo appearance from former Spice Girl

Melanie Brown Melanie Janine Brown (born 29 May 1975), commonly known as Melanie B or Mel B, is an English singer, songwriter, and television personality. She rose to fame in the 1990s as a member of the girl group Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed S ...

, Cash Money Records CEO Birdman, writer Jared Cotter, producers J-Remy and Bobby Bass, and Thara. On 24 August 2010 was the final version of the video was released to

VEVO Vevo ( , an abbreviation for "Video Evolution", stylized as VEVO until 2013) is an American multinational video hosting service, best known for providing music videos to YouTube. The service is also available as an app on selected smart TVs, di ...

. The prelude and the music video of his song "Break Your Back" can be heard and seen in the end of the music video, but the full version is yet to be released. The video won Best Video in the 2011

UK Asian Music Awards The UK Asian Music Awards, also known by the abbreviation UK AMA, was an awards show that was held annually in the United Kingdom from 2002 to 2012. The awards show has been produced and broadcast by B4U Music since 2008. Awards winners were deci ...

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2012 (It Ain't The End) 2010 singles Jay Sean songs Nicki Minaj songs Cash Money Records singles Songs written by Jay Sean Songs written by Nicki Minaj Songs written by Jared Cotter 2010 songs 2012 phenomenon