''Despicable Me 2: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack'' is the

soundtrack album A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television show. The first such album to be commercially released was Walt Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' ...

for the 2013 film ''

Despicable Me 2 ''Despicable Me 2'' is a 2013 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Illumination Entertainment and distributed by Universal Pictures. The sequel to ''Despicable Me'' (2010), it is directed by Chris Renaud and Pierre Coffin, and wr ...

''; the sequel to ''

Despicable Me ''Despicable Me'' is a computer-animated media franchise centering on Gru, a reformed super-villain (who later becomes a father, husband, and secret agent), and his yellow-colored Minions. It is produced by Illumination and distributed by ...

'' (2010). The album was released on July 2, 2013, through

Back Lot Music Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...

. The original music was composed by

Heitor Pereira Heitor Teixeira Pereira () (born November 29, 1960), or Heitor TP, is a Brazilian composer, songwriter, musician, arranger, and record producer. In his career, Pereira has recorded with the band Simply Red and several famous musicians, such as Elt ...

and

Pharrell Williams Pharrell Lanscilo Williams (; born April 5, 1973) is an American record producer, rapper, singer, and songwriter. Alongside close colleague Chad Hugo, he formed the hip hop and R&B production duo the Neptunes in the early 1990s, with whom he ...

, whom previously scored for ''Despicable Me''. The soundtrack to the film featured 24 tracks – eight songs and the remainder of the album, consists of original score tracks. Out of the eight songs, three original tracks, written by Williams, were featured in the album as well as the tracks "Another Irish Drinking Song", "

I Swear "I Swear" is a song written by Gary Baker and Frank J. Myers that became a hit for American country music artist John Michael Montgomery in 1993, and for American R&B group All-4-One in 1994. Released in November 1993 as the lead single from ...

" and "

Y.M.C.A. YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...

" were incorporated into the album. Besides that, two tracks from Despicable Me: "Fun, Fun, Fun" and the titular track is also featured in the soundtrack. The track "

Happy Happiness, in the context of mental or emotional states, is positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. Other forms include life satisfaction, well-being, subjective well-being, flourishing and eudaimonia. Sinc ...

" served as the only single from the album released on November 21, 2013 by Back Lot Music, and was also part of Williams' second studio album ''

Girl A girl is a young female human, usually a child or an adolescent. When a girl becomes an adult, she is accurately described as a ''woman''. However, the term ''girl'' is also used for other meanings, including ''young woman'',Dictionary ...

'' (2014). A visual presentation of the track, being advertised as "the world's first 24-hour music video" coincided the single, featuring Williams and directed by We Are from LA, and went viral upon release. Besides, topping the charts in over 19 countries, it was the best-selling song of 2014 in the United States and United Kingdom. The song also received an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

-nomination for

Best Original Song This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

at the

86th Academy Awards The 86th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2013 and took place on March 2, 2014, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. ...

, but lost the award to "

Let It Go "Let It Go" is a song from Walt Disney Animation Studios, Disney's 2013 computer-animated feature film ''Frozen (2013 film), Frozen'', whose music and lyrics were composed by husband-and-wife songwriting team Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert L ...

" from '' Frozen''. Eight years after the single release, the track "Just a Cloud Away" was released in March 2022.

Background

The co-director of ''Despicable Me 2'',

Chris Renaud Chris Renaud (born December 1966) is an American film producer, director, illustrator, designer, animator, and voice actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for the 2006 animated short ''No Time for Nuts'', which featured the character Scrat ...

had recalled the "distinctive music of the first film" that born out of the collaboration between Pereira and Williams, leading them to work for its sequel. Pereira attributed that for El Macho, being a Mexican wrestler and the main antagonist, had to implement "full choir with a latin flair to emphasize his presence". Pereira also created new themes for the characters, including for the minions, whose themes needed to be "more threatening and menacing". Williams and Pereira discussed about several main themes for the album, and went ahead with the overarching theme, which was not about the characters but much about the air of the film. He added that the "continuity was honestly based on lifting people up emotionally". Williams wrote three original songs, including the popular track "

" that was released as a single on November 21, 2013 to wider commercial success. In a 2014 interview to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', Williams recalled that the song was rejected nine times, by the producer

Chris Meledandri Christopher Meledandri (; born May 15, 1959) is an American film producer and founder and CEO of Illumination. He previously served as President of 20th Century Fox Animation, and has worked as the producer of the ''Despicable Me'' franchise ...

, before finally being approved. While writing the track, did not write the melodic portions, but only just the chorus part of the film. He finished writing the song within 20 minutes. The song was initially intended to be written for

CeeLo Green Thomas DeCarlo Callaway - Burton (born May 30, 1975), known professionally as CeeLo Green (or Cee Lo Green), is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, record producer and actor. He is known for his work in hip hop and R&B, including the Gnarls ...

(who earlier sang another track "Scream"), but due to conflicts with CeeLo's record company

Elektra Records Elektra Records (or Elektra Entertainment) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, founded in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt. It played an important role in the development of contemporary folk and rock music between the 1 ...

, as he was on the verge of releasing his 2013 Christmas album, Williams himself sang the track, instead. Speaking on the integration of the film songs into the score, Pereira said "Unless there is a reason in the story, you don't want it to be a surprise, so you have to tease the ears with what is going to come in the song before it begins".

Promotions and marketing

As a part of promotions, Williams came up with a website 24hoursofhappy.com, launched to coincide with the single release, featuring a visual presentation of "Happy" advertised as being "the world's first 24-hour music video", directed by the French directing team We Are from LA. The video went viral upon its premiere, and attributed to the massive success of the song. The four-minute video edit of the song released on

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 November 21, and as of March 2018, it crossed over 1 billion views. Eight years after the film's release, Williams released the lyrical song "Just a Cloud Away" on March 25, 2022 to wider commercial response.

Track listing

Commercial performance

" topped the musical charts in over 19 countries. It topped the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 for the week ending March 8, 2014, and the following week, and also topped the

Hot 100 Airplay The Radio Songs chart (previously named Hot 100 Airplay until 2014 and Top 40 Radio Monitor until 1991) is released weekly by ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' magazine and measures the airplay of songs being played on radio stations throughout ...

chart. It holds the record for the second-highest audience peak for a week on the Hot 100 Airplay, with 225.9 million impressions, only behind

Robin Thicke Robin Alan Thicke (born March 10, 1977) is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. He is best known for his 2013 hit single " Blurred Lines", which is one of the best-selling singles of all time. At the 56th Annual Grammy Awards, h ...

's "

Blurred Lines "Blurred Lines" is a song by American singer Robin Thicke featuring American rappers T.I. and Pharrell Williams from the former's sixth studio album of the same name (2013). Solely produced by Williams, it was released as the album's lead si ...

". It also topped the

New Zealand Singles Chart The Official New Zealand Music Chart ( mi, Te Papa Tātai Waiata Matua o Aotearoa) is the weekly New Zealand top 40 singles and albums charts, issued weekly by Recorded Music NZ (formerly Recording Industry Association of New Zealand). The Music ...

holding the first position for 12 consecutive weeks, since January 2014, and broke the 36-year-long record for most weeks spent at #1, which was previously held by

Boney M. Boney M. was a German-Caribbean vocal group that specialized in disco and funk created by German record producer Frank Farian, who was the group's primary songwriter. Originally based in West Germany, the four original members of the group's o ...

's 1970 single "

Rivers of Babylon "Rivers of Babylon" is a Rastafari song written and recorded by Brent Dowe and Trevor McNaughton of the Jamaican reggae group The Melodians in 1970. The lyrics are adapted from the texts of Psalms 19, and 137 in the Hebrew Bible. The Melodian ...

". It also became the best-selling single of UK and US in 2014, with 1.5 and 6.45 million copies sold for the year, respectively. The soundtrack consecutively listed in the first 10 positions of the UK Soundtracks Chart by the

Official Charts Company The Official Charts (legal name: The Official UK Charts Company Limited) is a British inter-professional organization that compiles various "official" record charts in the United Kingdom, Ireland and France. In the United Kingdom, its charts inc ...

. It also topped the 86th position in ''Billboard'' 200, and further listed in number 19 in the

Independent Albums The Independent Albums chart (previously titled Top Independent Albums) ranks the highest-selling independent music albums and extended plays (EPs) in the United States, as compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and published weekly by '' Billboard'' maga ...

chart and in the top-third of ''Billboard'' soundtracks chart, since 2014.

Chart positions

Accolades

At the

held on March 2, 2014, Williams' song "Happy" was nominated for

, but lost to "

" from '' Frozen''. When ''GQ'' magazine asked Williams "how badly" he wanted the Oscar, he responded: "When they read the results, my face was...frozen. But then I thought about it, and I just decided just to... let it go." The music video for "Happy" was nominated for

Best Male Video The MTV Video Music Award for Best Male Video was one of four original general awards that have been handed out every year since the first MTV Video Music Awards in 1984. In 2007, though, the award was briefly renamed Male Artist of the Year, and ...

and Video of the Year at the

2014 MTV Video Music Awards The 2014 MTV Video Music Awards were held on August 24, 2014 at The Forum in Inglewood, California. It was the 31st annual MTV Video Music Awards. Beyoncé and Iggy Azalea led the nominees with eight nominations each, while Eminem followed them ...

. It also won the

Grammy Award for Best Music Video The Grammy Award for Best Music Video is an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to performers, directors, and producers of quality short form music videos. Hon ...

at the

57th Annual Grammy Awards The 57th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 8, 2015, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The show was broadcast live by CBS at 5:00 p.m. PST ( UTC−8). Rapper LL Cool J hosted the show for the fourth consecutive time ...

, and in the same ceremony, a live rendition of the song, won the

Grammy Award for Best Pop Solo Performance The Grammy Award for Best Pop Solo Performance is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. According to the 54th Grammy Awards description guides, the Best Pop So ...

. However, the song failed to shortlist at the

Best Song Written for Visual Media The Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media (including its previous names) is the Grammy Awards awarded to songs written for films, television, video games or other visual media. Recipients * Each year is linked t ...

category.

Personnel credits

Credits adapted from CD liner notes:

Soundtrack

* Original songs written, composed and produced by: Pharrell Williams * Incorporated tracks produced by: Ali Dee Theodore * Arrangements: Andrew Coleman * Edited by: Andrew Coleman * Mixed by: Leslie Brathwaite, Fabian Marasciullo * Recorded by: Andrew Coleman, Sean Phelan, Mike Larson, Eric Liljestrand * Music assistance: John Connolly, Matthew Desrameaux, Sebastian Zuleta, Elizabeth Gallardo, Ghazi Hourani, Josh Gudwin, Brandon Jones ; Newman Scoring Stage sessions * Concertmaster: Norman Hughes * Contractor: Suzie Katayama * Orchestra leader: Bruce Fowler * Instruments * Cello: Dane Little, Erika Duke, Rudolph Stein, Stefanie Fife * Drums: Curt Bisquera * Marimba: Dan Greco * Trombone: Alan Kaplan, Philip Teele, Steven Holtman * Trumpet: John Fumo, Walter Fowler, Warren Luening * Tuba: William Roper * Violin: Alan Grunfeld, Gerardo Hilera, Mario De Lion, Natalie Leggett, Philip Vaiman, Susan Chatman, Vladimir Polimatidi ; Vocalists * Backing vocalists: Ashley L. Lee, Jasmine Murray, Rhea Dummett, Shamika Hightower, Terrence Rolle, Trevon Henderson (track 4) * Vocals: Centre For Young Musicians (track 9)

Score

* Original score composed and produced by: Heitor Pereira, Pharrell Williams * Additional arrangements: Anthony Willis, Bobby Tahouri * Additional composition: Azeo Torre, Cameron Hotchkis, Sebastian Zuleta, Ted Reedy * Recorded by: Alan Meyerson, Kevin Globerman * Edited by: Slamm Andrews * Mixed by: Alan Meyerson * Mixing assistance: Christian Wenger * Mastered by: Reuben Cohen * Music supervisor: Rachel Levy * Music contractor: Peter Rotter * Scoring crew: Denis St. Amand, Tim Lauber, Tom Steel ; Choir * Contractor: Jasper Randall * Bass vocals: Alvin Chea, Bob Joyce, Eric Bradley, Greg Davies, Gregg Geiger, Jim Campbell, Jules Green, Mark Edward Smith, Michael Geiger, Stephen Grimm, Steve Pence, Will Goldman * Soprano vocals: Cindy O'connor, Holly Sedillos, Jenny Graham, Jessica Rotter, Karen Whipple Schnurr, Suzanne Waters, Teri Koide * Tenor vocals: Aj Teshin, Chris Mann, Dick Wells, Fletcher Sheridan, Gerald White, Jasper Randall, Jeff Gunn, Joseph Golightly, John Kimberling, Sean Mcdermott, Steve Amerson, Steven Harms * Child vocalists: Alaman Diadhou, Aria Gunn, Catherine Matthews, Christian Mancuso, Cole Konis, Emily Titman, Emma Gunn, Hannah Messinger, Joe Matthews, Joss Saltzman, Karissa Lee, Levi Gunn, Marlowe Peyton, Mason Purece, Max Kilpatrick, Merit Leighton ; Newman Scoring Stage sessions * Concertmaster: Norman Hughes * Contractor: Suzie Katayama * Conductor: Nick Glennie-Smith * Orchestra leader: Bruce Fowler * Orchestrator: Ladd McIntosh * Instruments * Bass: Nico Abondolo, Adam Blackstone, David Parmeter, Drew Dembowski, Edward Meares, John Leftwich, Steve Dress, Timothy Lefebvre * Bassoon: Rose Corrigan, Ken Munday * Cello: Steve Erdody, Andrew Shulman, Armen Ksajikian, Cecilia Tsan, Christina Soule, Dennis Karmazyn, Erika Duke-Kirkpatrick, George Kim Scholes, John Walz, Paula Hochhalter, Tim Landauer, Trevor Handy * Clarinet: Stuart Clark, Dan Higgins, Greg Huckins, Jeff Driskill * Flute: Geraldine Rotella, Daniel Higgins, Jeff Driskill, Stephan Kujala * Guitar: Clay Sears, John McCurry * Horn: James Thatcher, Allen Fogle, Brian O'connor, Daniel Kelley, Dylan Hart, Jennie Kim, Laura Brenes, Mark Adams, Steve Becknell, Yvonne Suzette Moriarty * Keyboards: Darek Cline Cobbs, Sarah Schmidt * Oboe: Phil Ayling, Chris Bleth * Percussion: Aaron Draper, Marvin B. Gordy III, Michael Klein, Steve McKie, Zachary Danziger * Trombone: Alexander Iles, Alan Kaplan, William Reichenbach, Charlie Morillas, Phillip Teele, Phillip Keen, Steven Holtman * Trumpet: Jon Lewis, Aaron Smith, Bijon Watson, Daniel Fornero, Daniel Rosenboom, David Washburn, Gary Grant, Jose Hernandez, Rick Baptist, Wayne Bergeron * Tuba: Doug Tornquist, Gary Hickman * Viola: Brian Dembow, Andrew Duckles, Darrin Mc Cann, David Walther, Matthew Funes, Robert Brophy, Roland Kato, Shawn Mann, Victoria Miskolczy * Violin: Bruce Dukov, Julie Gigante, Alyssa Park, Ana Landauer, Charlie Bisharat, Darius Campo, Eun-Mee Ahn, Helen Nightengale, Irina Voloshina, Jay Rosen, Jessica Guideri, Josefina Vergara, Katia Popov, Kevin Connolly, Lisa Liu, Maya Magub, Natalie Leggett, Phillip Levy, Roger Wilkie, Sara Parkins, Sarah Thornblade, Serena Mc Kinney, Tamara Hatwan, Tereza Stanislav ; Featured instrumentalists * Percussion: MB Gordy * Bass: John Leftwich * Trumpet: Bijon Watson, Dan Fernero, Rick Baptist, Wayne Bergeron ; Management * Executive producer: Chris Meledandri * Executive in charge of music: Michael Knobloch * Music business affairs: Philip M. Cohen * Music preparation: Booker White * Product manager: Jake Voulgarides * Design: Jennifer Wroblewski, Ken Matsubara, Peter Lung

Notes

References

{{Pharrell Williams 2013 soundtrack albums Back Lot Music soundtracks Despicable Me Heitor Pereira albums Pharrell Williams albums Albums produced by Pharrell Williams