"Beggin' on Your Knees" is a song performed by the ''Victorious'' cast featuring American singer

Victoria Justice Victoria Dawn Justice (born February 19, 1993) is an American actress and singer. She has received several accolades, including two Young Artist Awards and nominations for three Imagen Awards, an NAACP Image Award, and three Kids' Choice Awar ...

. It was produced by Kristian Lundin and Shellback, who also co-wrote the song with

Savan Kotecha Savan Harish Kotecha is an American songwriter and record producer from Austin, Texas. Kotecha is of Indian (Gujarati) descent. He was also the executive music producer of the 2020 film '' Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga'', for ...

, for '' Victorious: Music from the Hit TV Show'' (2011), the soundtrack to the Nickelodeon television series, ''

Victorious ''Victorious'' (stylized as ''VICTORiOUS'') is an American sitcom created by Dan Schneider (TV producer), Dan Schneider that originally aired on Nickelodeon, debuting on March 27, 2010, and concluding on February 2, 2013 after four seasons. Th ...

''. It was released as the album's second single on April 1, 2011 through

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

in association with

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

. Musically, the song runs through a

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 ...

oriented beat with teen pop lyrics, and the lyrics speak of vengeance against a cheating boyfriend. The song was met with generally positive reviews from critics, with the majority of them praising its message. "Beggin' on Your Knees" has currently charted on the ''

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 ...

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...

at number fifty-eight, remaining as the second highest peaking song from the soundtrack. The accompanying music video portrays Justice following her unfaithful boyfriend while in the carnival having fun with the ''Victorious'' cast. The music video premiered on March 12, 2011 on Nickelodeon, during the TV movie '' Best Player''.

Background

"Beggin' on Your Knees" is the second single released from the soundtrack '' Victorious: Music from the Hit TV Show'' (2011), for the television series of the same name on Nickelodeon. It was first heard on the series' second season debut episode, "Beggin' on Your Knees", which premiered on April 2, 2011 in North America, a day after the single's release. The song was performed by Justice with backup dancers in the episode. After learning of her new partner's agenda, Tori Vega (Justice) enlists the help of Andre Harris ( Leon Thomas III) to write and produce the song. The scene where the song was performed features Justice with her partner Ryder Daniels (

Ryan Rottman Ryan may refer to: People and fictional characters *Ryan (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) *Ryan (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) Places Australia * Division of Ryan, an elector ...

) on stage. As Ryder is about to start singing, he recognizes that his microphone is not functioning. Tori continues singing, making gestures at him with the spotlight flashing on him the entire time, indicating who the song is written about. Tori and Andre wrote the song after learning that Ryder was using her and other girls to pass his school grades, and the song was made to make him fail the singing exam and expose him as a heartbreaking liar. The song was written by

and Shellback. Shellback also produced the track along with providing all the instruments and programming for it. He also provided the recording for the song, which took place at Maratome Studios in

Stockholm, Sweden Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropoli ...

. Kristian Lundin also recorded the song at CMK Island Studios and Westlake Studios, both in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. The mixing for the song was provided by Serban Ghenea took place at MixStar Studios in

Virginia Beach, Virginia Virginia Beach is an independent city located on the southeastern coast of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The population was 459,470 at the 2020 census. Although mostly suburban in character, it is the most populous city ...

with the engineering provided by John Hanes and assistance provided by Tim Roberts.

Composition

"Beggin' on Your Knees" is an electronic rock song that contains influences of Hi-NRG, teen pop and

dance-pop Dance-pop is a popular music subgenre that originated in the late 1970s to early 1980s. It is generally uptempo music intended for nightclubs with the intention of being danceable but also suitable for contemporary hit radio. Developing from a ...

. The song runs through a dance-oriented beat and features a lighter sound than the preceding single, "

Freak the Freak Out "Freak the Freak Out" is the second single by Victoria Justice from the soundtrack album '' Victorious: Music from the Hit TV Show'' (2011). It was produced by The Super Chris and Michael Corcoran, who also co-wrote the song with C.J. Abraham, N ...

". The theme of this song is center around vengeance and coming of age. The lyrics are about a seeking vengeance on her boyfriend after learning of his relationship with another girl. Victoria Justice's vocal range spans almost two octaves from the low note of A₃ to the high belted note of F₅.

Critical reception

Jessica Dawson of ''Common Sense Media'', the website that rates music for parents approval for children's listening, rated the song three out of five stars, praising its playful and child-friendly nature, while warning parents of the main message, commenting that "The lyrics are playful but could be construed as menacing: "You messed with me, and messed with her, so I'll make sure you get what you deserve" and "Watch your back, you don't know when or where I could get you."" Joe DeAndrea of ''AbsolutePunk'' praised the song, along with "Freak the Freak Out", for its catchy nature, further commenting that "They will get stuck in your head and you'll probably feel a little ashamed, but no worries: it's the good type of ashamed! Like eating chocolate cake in a bathtub alone on a Friday night. But really, it's easier to accept it when you realize that the songs aren't all that worse than what is currently on the radio." Bob Hoose and Steven Isaac of ''Plugged In Online'', a site that rates music for children's listening, condemned the song for its objectionable content, mainly noting "the singer has payback schemes on her mind: "You mess with me/and messed with her/ … So watch your back/'Cause you don't know when or where I could get you/ … I'll have you crawlin' like a centipede.""

Chart performance

"Beggin' on Your Knees" debuted at number 83 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 on the April 16, 2011 chartBillboard.co
Top 100 Music Charts The week of April 16, 2011
. Accessed 26 September 2015. and peaked at number 58 in the next week.

Music video

The

video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syste ...

was directed by Marcus Wagner. The video was shot at the pier, in the city of Santa Monica. In the video, Justice is a girl having fun with her friends at a carnival when she finds out that her boyfriend has cheated on her with another girl (

Halston Sage Roy Halston Frowick (April 23, 1932 – March 26, 1990), known mononymously as Halston, was an American fashion designer who rose to international fame in the 1970s. His minimalist, clean designs, often made of cashmere or ultrasuede, were ...

). So, she watches her boyfriend, remembering the good times they had, looking for the right moment to confront him about his other girlfriend. In the end Justice decides to whisper in the other girl's ear, to tell her that the boyfriend is cheating and so both girls dump the boyfriend. Justice moves on and decides to forget the boyfriend and have fun.

Performances

On April 2, 2011, the day after the song was officially released as a single, Justice performed a short version of the song in the "Countdown to Kids' Choice", shown one hour before the

2011 Kids' Choice Awards The 24th Annual Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards was held on April 2, 2011, at the Galen Center at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California, US's University Park neighborhood due to renovations disallowing use of tradition ...

. The song was also performed on the season two premiere of ''

'', which also starred

who appeared as Sadie.

Credits and personnel

– vocals, songwriting * Shellback – songwriting, production, recording, programming, instrumentation *

– songwriting * Kristian Lundin – production, recording *Serban Ghenea – mixing *John Hanes – engineering *Tim Roberts – assistant engineering Credits are taken from ''Victorious''

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes. Origin Liner notes are desce ...

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{authority control 2011 singles 2011 songs Victoria Justice songs Victorious Songs written by Savan Kotecha Songs written by Shellback (record producer) Song recordings produced by Shellback (record producer) Columbia Records singles Songs about infidelity Songs from television series