"Cherry Pop" is a song recorded by Romanian singer

Alexandra Stan Alexandra Ioana Stan (born 10 June 1989) is a Romanian singer. Born in Constanța, she made her worldwide breakthrough with the 2010 single " Mr. Saxobeat", which was written and produced by Marcel Prodan and Andrei Nemirschi. They had previou ...

for her second studio album '' Unlocked'' (2014). It was made available for digital download on 28 May 2015 through

Roton In theoretical physics, a roton is an elementary excitation, or quasiparticle, seen in superfluid helium-4 and Bose–Einstein condensates with long-range dipolar interactions or spin-orbit coupling. The dispersion relation of elementary excita ...

as the record's second single. The track was written by the singer, Lukas Hällgren and Erik Lidbom, while production was handled by the latter two. "Cherry Pop" was recorded at the Fonogram Studios in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

, Romania, with additional engineering being done at Lidbom's Hitfire Production. Musically, "Cherry Pop" is of the

J-pop J-pop ( ja, ジェイポップ, ''jeipoppu''; often stylized as J-POP; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively also known simply as , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1 ...

genre, but is also influenced by

Eurodance Euro-Dance (sometimes referred to as Euro-NRG, Euro-electronica or Euro) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s in Europe. It combines many elements of hip hop, techno, Hi-NRG, house music, and Euro-Disco. This ...

and

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music, and has a

dubstep Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken be ...

breakdown. An accompanying music video for the track was uploaded on 28 May 2015 on Stan's

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 ...

channel; Khaled Mokhtar was both the clip's director and director of photography. It was shot in

Buftea Buftea () is a town in Ilfov County, Muntenia, Romania, located north-west of Bucharest. One village, Buciumeni, is administered by the town. The film studios MediaPro Pictures and the Buftea Palace of the Știrbei family are located in Buftea ...

, Romania, and portrays Stan and her background dancers performing choreography created by performer Emil Rengle. The song reached number 64 on the

Japan Hot 100 The ''Billboard Japan'' Hot 100 is a record chart in Japan for songs. It has been compiled by ''Billboard Japan'' and '' Hanshin Contents Link'' since February 2008. The chart is updated every Wednesday at Billboard-japan.com ( JST) and every Thur ...

and became the most-sought ringtone on the largest Japanese profile site,

Recochoku is a Japanese entertainment conglomerate led by founder Max Matsuura and headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1988, the company manages J-pop talents like Ayumi Hamasaki and internet sensation PikoTaro. It has also shifted into other busi ...

Background and composition

"Cherry Pop" was written by Stan herself, Lukas Hällgren and Erik Lidbom, while production was handled by both Hällgren and Lidbom. It was recorded at the Fonogram Studios in

, Romania and was additionally mixed and engineered at Lidbom's Hitfire Production in

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inha ...

, Sweden. Further's work on the track was done during FonoCamp2013, the first Romanian international songwriting camp held in

Azuga Azuga is a small resort town in the mountains of Prahova County in the historical region of Muntenia, Romania. It is located at the foot of the Baiu Mountains and contains several ski slopes, including the longest ski run in Romania, the Soric ...

. Fellow Romanian and international singers were also present at the two-weeks event, such as

Delia Matache Delia Matache (born 7 February 1982), commonly referred to as simply Delia, is a Romanian singer and songwriter. She has established herself as one of the most successful Romanian artists, releasing multiple hit singles on native record charts, ...

Mohombi Mohombi Nzasi Moupondo (born 17 October 1986) is a Congolese-Swedish musician, singer, composer and dancer. He grew up in Norsborg and Kista near Stockholm. Mohombi was RedOne's first signing to 2101 Records in joint venture with Universal Mu ...

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and

Deepcentral Deepcentral is a Romanian pop duo with house music influences formed in 2009 by Romanian DJ George Călin (now known as Manuel Riva) and vocalist Doru Todoruț. Călin, the DJ of the duo had begun his musical career with the band Demmo, that als ...

. Stan described "Cherry Pop" as a

song, noting that while she had not worked with the genre " tfits my style", as she finds J-pop music "very energetic, it's got such a positive vibe to it." She also noticed influences to

. An administrator of IasiFun commended the recording as being influenced by

, while also describing the song's instrumentation as "electric" and "vibrant". Anthony Easton, a writer for

The Singles Jukebox ''Stylus Magazine'' was an American online music and film magazine, launched in 2002 and co-founded by Todd L. Burns. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog. Addi ...

, described the song as a "popluxe", while Ian Mew compared it to "

Bubble Pop! ''Bubble Pop!'' is the first extended play (EP) by the South Korean singer Hyuna, a member of South Korean girl group 4Minute. It was released on July 5, 2011, by Cube Entertainment. Release and reception On June 30, 2011, the lead single, "A Bit ...

" by South Korean singer

Hyuna Kim Hyun-ah (born June 6, 1992), better known by the mononym Hyuna (stylized HyunA), is a South Korean singer-songwriter, rapper and model. She debuted as a member of the girl group Wonder Girls in February 2007. After leaving the ensemble sho ...

. According to Popdust, "Cherry Pop" uses

for its breakdown. The main idea for the song was based on Stan's first kiss which, according to her, "tasted like candy".

Critical reception

"Cherry Pop" received generally mixed reviews from music critics upon release. The Singles Jukebox gave the song an overall rating of 5/10, with one of the writers, Andy Hutchins, confessed that "a better title for the song might have been '

Dr Pepper Dr Pepper is a carbonated soft drink. It was created in the 1880s by pharmacist Charles Alderton in Waco, Texas, and first served around 1885. Dr Pepper was first nationally marketed in the United States in 1904. It is now also sold in Euro ...

'". Website Popdust described the song as "outdated", but at the same time catchy and funny. Hitfire praised the song's refrain as being "earwhormy" and "trashy". They went on saying that "Cherry Pop" "doesn't reach the standards like of her previously launched songs, '

Mr. Saxobeat "Mr. Saxobeat" is a song by Romanian singer Alexandra Stan, released on 12 September 2010 as the second single from her debut studio album, ''Saxobeats'' (2011). The track was written and produced by Marcel Prodan and Andrei Nemirschi, and was rec ...

', '

Get Back (ASAP) "Get Back (ASAP)" is a song recorded by Romanian singer Alexandra Stan, released on 28 March 2011 by Play On / Jeff Records as the third single from her debut studio album, ''Saxobeats'' (2011). The track was written and produced by Marcel Prodan ...

' and '

Lemonade Lemonade is a sweetened lemon-flavored beverage. There are varieties of lemonade found throughout the world. In North America and South Asia, cloudy still lemonade is the most common variety. There it is traditionally a homemade drink using le ...

'". Music website Pop Shock described the single as a "grower track", while Robin Catling of Everything Express criticized "Cherry Pop" for being "irritating". He went on saying that "the verse let down by an horrific chorus and a truly nasty backing track". Website Addictivoz praised overall her album ''Unlocked'', mentioning also that the song is "ironic". Another article called the song ″rather obvious″ but ″perfect for the summer″. In a 2019 retrospective for ''Unlocked'', writer Jan Bran from R&BJUNK praised Stan's ability to navigate a variety of subgenres, citing ″Cherry Pop″ as an example.

Commercial performance

According to the biggest Japanese profile site,

, "Cherry Pop" became the most sought ringtone on their website within two hours. The news that "Cherry Pop" achieved so much success in Japan came to Stan when she was on tour in Turkey. There, the organizers of her show displayed the sentence "Congratulations, Alexandra Stan, you're number 1!" on the main screen of the club. The song entered the

at number 64 on 5 July 2014. It subsequently left the chart after just one week. "Cherry Pop" also peaked at number 82 on the native

Airplay 100 Multiple record charts have been inaugurated in Romania since the 1990s. The Romanian Top 100 was the country's national chart until 2012. Founded in 1995, it was a ranking based on the compilation of charts submitted by local Romanian radio stat ...

chart, and reached number two on the Turkish Number One Top 20 compiled on 6 September 2014.

Music video

An accompanying music video for "Cherry Pop" was uploaded onto Stan's

channel on 28 May 2014, where it has since amassed a total of 5 million views. The clip was shot by Khaled Mokhtar in

, Romania in a set built specially for this project. The accompanying choreography was choreographed by Romanian performer Emil Rengle and the eight "shiny and glam" different outfits used for the video were designed by Andra Moga. Particularly, Stan described the video as incorporating "both a futuristic and a retro point of view". The video opens with Stan and some of her male back-up dancers being presented in a dark white room. Subsequently, the room becomes enlightened and Stan is seen wearing transparent sunglasses, a white sweatband and a silver jacket. Following this, she retrieves a

tennis racket A racket, or racquet, is a sports implement used for striking a ball or shuttlecock in games such as squash, tennis, racquetball, badminton and padel. In the strictest sense a racket consists of a handled frame with an open hoop across which a ...

from one of her background dancers and holds it in front of her face before returning the racket to a nearby dancer. Next, Stan performs the pre-refrain of the song, while two female performers clutch a hair dryer in their hands. For the refrain, she and ten other female background dancers are performing synchronized dances, with them having

wigs A wig is a head or hair accessory made from human hair, animal hair, or synthetic fiber. The word wig is short for periwig, which makes its earliest known appearance in the English language in William Shakespeare's ''The Two Gentlemen of Verona' ...

on, and dressing white clothing and red accessories. Following this, Stan is presented standing on a yellow plate which is kept in the air by two threads. She wears a silver leotard and a multicolored wig. Next, Stan is shown walking into a tennis field, whereon she plays a tennis match against herself. For the breakdown of "Cherry Pop", the video gets introduced into a dark-lighted room. There, her previously shown male background dancers are presented; the video continues with Stan dancing accompanied by her dancers. The clip finally ends with a pink

tennis ball A tennis ball is a ball designed for the sport of tennis. Tennis balls are fluorescent yellow in organised competitions, but in recreational play can be virtually any color. Tennis balls are covered in a fibrous felt which modifies their aerodyna ...

dropping out of the ceiling, while the screen becomes black.

Live performances

On 12 December 2014, Stan performed both "Cherry Pop" and " Vanilla Chocolat" on an episode of ''

Vocea României ''Vocea României'' (; English: ''The Voice of Romania'') is a Romanian reality television, reality singing competition broadcast on PRO TV. Based on the original ''The Voice of Holland'', the concept of the series is to find new singing talent ...

''. Shortly after her performance, juror

Tudor Chirilă Tudor Chirilă (born 28 May 1974 in Bucharest, Socialist Republic of Romania, Romania) is a Romanian actor, musician, composer, and producer. He was the lead singer of the band Vama Veche (band), Vama Veche, after which he founded the band Vam ...

expressed how he was very disappointed by Stan's act, as she did not provide live vocals. In an interview with ''Cancan'', Stan confessed that " erconditions of appearance at Vocea României were previously discussed with the producers of the show, so no one should have been surprised about erperforming playback". "Cherry Pop" was included on the track list of her Unlocked Tour (2014) and her Cherry Pop Summer Tour (2014).

Track listings

*Digital download #"Cherry Pop" – 3:11 *Spanish digital remix EP #"Cherry Pop" (DJ Kone & Marc Palacios radio edit) – 3:33 #"Cherry Pop" (Geo Da Silva & Jack Mazzoni radio remix) – 3:15 #"Cherry Pop" (CryDuom remix radio) – 3:13 #"Cherry Pop" (DJ Kone & Marc Palacios remix) – 6:24 #"Cherry Pop" (Geo Da Silva & Jack Mazzoni remix) – 4:17 #"Cherry Pop" (CryDuom remix extended) – 4:06

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of '' Unlocked'' and ''The Collection''. Visual credits *Ema Băniță – styling assistant *Mihai Codleanu – editing *Georgeta Nicoleta Cîmpeanu –

make-up artist A make-up artist, also called a makeup artist, and often shortened to MUA, is an artist whose medium is the human body, applying makeup and prosthetics on others for theatre, television, film, fashion, magazines and other similar productions inc ...

, hair styling assistant *Irina Iancius – make-up artist, hair styling assistant *Oana Imbrea – production coordinator *Alex Iftimov – hair styling, make-up artist, script *Andra Moga – styling, script *Khaled Mokhtar – director,

director of photography The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the photographing or recording of a film, television production, music video or other live action piece. The cinematographer is the ch ...

, script *Laurent Morel –

colorist In comics, a colorist is responsible for adding color to black-and-white line art. For most of the 20th century this was done using brushes and dyes which were then used as guides to produce the printing plates. Since the late 20th century it is ...

*Emil Rengle – choreography Recording and vocal credits * Recorded at Fonogram Studios in

, Romania. * Mixed and engineered at Hitfire Production in

, Sweden. *Alexandra Stan – lead vocals Technical and songwriting credits *Lukas Hällgren – songwriting, additional producing *Erik Lidbom – songwriting, producing *Alexandra Stan – songwriting

Charts

Release history

References

External links

* {{authority control 2014 songs Alexandra Stan songs English-language Romanian songs Dance-pop songs Romanian songs 2014 singles Songs written by Erik Lidbom Songs written by Alexandra Stan Songs written by Lukas Hällgren