"Alien" is a song recorded by American singer

Sabrina Carpenter Sabrina Annlynn Carpenter (born May 11, 1999) is an American singer and actress. Carpenter made her acting debut with an appearance in the television crime show ''Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'' and had a recurring role on Fox Broadcasting ...

and British DJ and record producer

Jonas Blue Guy James Robin (born 2 August 1989), known professionally as Jonas Blue, is an English DJ, record producer, songwriter, and remixer based in London. He is known for recruiting young artists for his dance-pop and tropical house productions, wh ...

, taken from both the Japanese editions of Blue's debut album ''

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when obs ...

'' and Carpenter's album '' Singular: Act I''. The track was written by Carpenter,

Janee Bennett Janée Bennett, known professionally as Jin Jin, is an English musician, singer and songwriter from Manchester. She is known for predominantly writing songs with Jess Glynne, RAYE and Jax Jones. Career As a child Bennett became interested in m ...

and its producer Blue. The song was released by

Hollywood Records Hollywood Records is an American record label of the Disney Music Group. The label focuses in pop, rock, alternative, hip hop, and country genres, as well as specializing in mature recordings not suitable for the flagship Walt Disney Records l ...

on March 16, 2018. "Alien" describes what it is like to be lost in someone's feelings and how alienating it can be. The song reached number one on ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

''s

Dance Club Songs Dance Club Songs is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. It is a national look over of club disc jockeys to determine the most popular songs being played in nightclubs across the country. It was launched as t ...

. It was accompanied by a music video directed by Carly Cusson premiered on her

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 ...

channel on March 29, 2018.

Background and recording

The idea for the song came about during a weekend meeting in London between the two artists. According to Sabrina, she describes what it’s like to be lost in someone’s feelings and how alienating that can be, hence the song's title.

Composition and lyrical interpretation

Musically, "Alien" is a two minutes and fifty-four seconds song. In terms of

music notation Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

, "Alien" was composed using common time in the

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

B flat minor B-flat minor is a minor scale based on B, consisting of the pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A. Its key signature has five flats. Its relative major is D-flat major and its parallel major is B-flat major. Its enharmonic equivalent, A-sharp m ...

, with a moderate

tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (often ...

of 106

beats per minute Beat, beats or beating may refer to: Common uses * Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area ** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols ** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men * Battery ( ...

. The song follows the chord progression of Gmaj7-A-Bm(add4)-Asus in the verses and Carpenter's vocal range spans from the low note A3 to the high note of D5, giving the song one octave and three

notes Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to: Music and entertainment * Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music * Notes (album), ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian * ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) sho ...

of range.

Music videos

It was first released a vertical music video directed by Alexandra Gavillet through

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

on March 16, 2018 and later on

and

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

on April 11, 2018. The music video was released through

and

on March 30, 2018 and was directed by Carly Cusson.

Track listing

Credits and personnel

Recording and management *Mastered at The Erchange Mike Marsh Mastering (

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

, England) *Seven Summits Music/Pink Mic Music, Universal Music Publishing Ltd, Universal Songs Of PolyGram Int., Inc. Personnel *

– lead vocals,

songwriting A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

– songwriting *

– songwriting,

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

, mixing, arrangement, programming, vocals * Mike Marsh – vocals, mastering Credits adapted from '' Blue (Japanese edition)'' liner notes.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history

References

{{authority control 2018 songs 2018 singles Jonas Blue songs Sabrina Carpenter songs Hollywood Records singles Songs written by Jonas Blue Songs written by Jin Jin (musician) Songs written by Sabrina Carpenter Vertically-oriented music videos