"Dynamite" is a song by British singer and songwriter

Taio Cruz Jacob Taio Cruz (; born Adetayo Ayowale Onile-Ere, 23 April 1980), better known professionally as Taio Cruz (stylized TΛIO CRUZ), is an English singer, songwriter and record producer from London, England, currently based in Los Angeles. In 200 ...

from the revised version of his second studio album, ''

Rokstarr ''Rokstarr'' is the second studio album by English singer and songwriter Taio Cruz. It was released on 12 October 2009 in the United Kingdom. On 11 June 2010 a revised version of the album was released in Europe and the United States, appearing ...

'' (2010). Cruz co-wrote the song, along with

Max Martin Karl Martin Sandberg (; born 26 February 1971),Max Martin
allmusic.com known profess ...

Bonnie McKee Bonnie Leigh McKee (born January 20, 1984) is an American singer and songwriter. Her debut album, ''Trouble'', was released in 2004 under Reprise Records. After underperforming, McKee was dropped by her label and took a musical hiatus before es ...

Benny Blanco Benjamin Joseph Levin (born March 8, 1988), known professionally as Benny Blanco (stylized in all lowercase), is an American record producer. He is the recipient of the 2013 Hal David Starlight Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He is also ...

, and

Dr. Luke Lukasz Sebastian Gottwald (born September 26, 1973), known professionally as Dr. Luke, Tyson Trax, and Made in China, is an American record producer and songwriter. His professional music career began in the late-night television sketch comedy ...

; the latter two are also the producers. The song features additional instrumentation by Cruz himself. It was released internationally as the fourth single from ''Rokstarr''. In the UK, the song was released as the first single from Cruz's compilation album, ''

The Rokstarr Collection ''The Rokstarr Collection'' is the first compilation album by English R&B recording artist Taio Cruz. It was released on 20 September 2010. According to Cruz's official site the album combines "the biggest hits of Taio’s debut album 'Departu ...

'' (2010). On 30 May 2010, it was released to US and Canadian radio stations as his second single and across Europe as his fourth single. An official remix was released featuring new label mate,

Jennifer Lopez Jennifer Lynn Affleck (' Lopez; born July 24, 1969), also known as J.Lo, is an American singer, actress and dancer. In 1991, she began appearing as a Fly Girl dancer on the sketch comedy television series ''In Living Color'', where she rema ...

. "Dynamite" became Cruz's second number-one single 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 ...

and 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 ...

as well topping charts in Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. The song reached number two on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, and by January 2012 it had sold over 5.7 million copies in the U.S. and Canada, becoming the second best-selling song by a British artist in the digital era there, behind

Adele Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (, ; born 5 May 1988), professionally known by the mononym Adele, is an English singer and songwriter. After graduating in arts from the BRIT School in 2006, Adele signed a reco ...

's "

Rolling in the Deep "Rolling in the Deep" is a song recorded by English singer-songwriter Adele for her second studio album, '' 21'' (2011). It is the lead single and opening track on the album. The song was written by Adele and Paul Epworth. The singer herself des ...

Composition

The song "Dynamite" is written in the key of

C minor C minor is a minor scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature consists of three flats. Its relative major is E major and its parallel major is C major. The C natural minor scale is: : Cha ...

, with a tempo of 116 beats per minute. According to Cruz, "The song 'Dynamite' itself is about when you go to the club and when you go to a party and when you're just going out... you got to feel like, 'I'm just gonna explode.'"

and

Max Martin Karl Martin Sandberg (; born 26 February 1971),Max Martin
allmusic.com known profess ...

had written the melody, and asked

to write lyrics. McKee only met Cruz months after the song's release,Bonnie McKee
/ref> and later said that "I thought Dynamite"was the dumbest song I had ever written and thought it was going nowhere. And I actually think it was biggest song I have written so far."

Release and reception

The song was released in the UK on 23 August 2010.Dynamite hits the UK – Taio Cruz News
Taio Cruz.com/ News Retrieved 5 July 2010. The song has met with mixed to positive reviews from contemporary music critics. While reviewing "Rokstarr", Jon Caramanica from ''

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 ...

'' gave a mixed review, saying that the song has "vapid lyrics to navigate (e.g. "I hit the floor cause that's my plans, plans, plans, plans / I'm wearing all my favorite brands, brands, brands, brands") but they don't disrupt the mood, which is emphatic and rarely sensual". Nick Levine 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 4 out of 5 stars and gave it a positive review, naming it "a suitably Eurohousey club pumper" and saying that it's "essentially a cheap, tasty, and entirely satisfying banger".

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

critic

Sasha Frere-Jones Alexander Roger Wallace "Sasha" Frere-Jones (né Jones; born 1967) is an American writer, music critic, and musician. He has written for ''Pretty Decorating'', '' ego trip'', ''Hit It And Quit It'', ''Mean'', '' Slant'', ''The New York Post'', '' ...

named the song as his second favorite of 2010.

Chart performance

"Dynamite" debuted at number 26 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and at number 13 on the Digital Songs chart, selling 83,000 copies in its opening week. The single rose to number 14 on the week ending 10 July 2010 and on the week ending 21 August 2010, the single climbed to a peak of #2, giving Cruz his second Top 3 single in the US. The song kept this position for three consecutive weeks, blocked from the top position by

Eminem Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (; often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper and record producer. He is credited with popularizing hip hop in middle America and is critically acclai ...

's " Love the Way You Lie" featuring

Rihanna Robyn Rihanna Fenty ( ; born February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian singer, actress, and businesswoman. Born in Saint Michael and raised in Bridgetown, Barbados, Rihanna auditioned for American record producer Evan Rogers who invited her to the ...

. It also became Cruz's second consecutive number one single on ''Billboard''s

Hot Dance Airplay Dance/Mix Show Airplay (formerly Hot Dance Airplay) is a monitored electronic dance music radio chart that is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. History The chart came about as a result of the small but influential impact of electronic d ...

chart in its 21 August 2010 issue. "Dynamite" charted on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 for 47 weeks, making it the longest run for a single since

Train In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and Passenger train, transport people or Rail freight transport, freight. Trains are typically pul ...

's "

Hey, Soul Sister "Hey, Soul Sister" is a song by American rock band Train. It was written by lead singer Pat Monahan, Amund Bjørklund, and Espen Lind. It was released as the lead single from the band's fifth studio album, '' Save Me, San Francisco'' (2009) ...

", which stayed on that chart for 54 weeks. As of May 2012, it has sold over 6 million digital copies in the US alone. This marks the first song by a British act to reach this plateau, the twelfth song to do so, and only the second song to reach 6 million downloads without reaching number one (the first being Jason Mraz's " I'm Yours", which reached number six in September 2008). The single debuted on the

at number eight on the week ending 17 June 2010, marking Cruz's second Top 10 hit in the country. The following week the single fell to number nine, where it remained at for four consecutive weeks. On the week ending 18 September 2010, the song peaked at number one, becoming Cruz's second Canadian number one single, following "

Break Your Heart "Break Your Heart" is a song by British singer and songwriter Taio Cruz. The song serves as the lead single from his second studio album, ''Rokstarr'' (2009). It was written by Cruz and Fraser T Smith and produced by Smith. It was first release ...

"'s two-week stay at that position in May 2010. The song became the best-selling single in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

during 2010 with sales of 319,000 copies. On the chart dated 16 August 2010, "Dynamite" 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 ...

, and was certified gold, selling 7,500 copies. The song topped the

Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is the Republic of Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) and compiled on their behalf by the Official Charts Company. Chart rankings are bas ...

in its first week, becoming Cruz's first number one on that chart, following previous number two hit "Break Your Heart". In Cruz's native United Kingdom, "Dynamite" charted at number one on the

on 29 August 2010. This became his second number-one single in UK after "Break Your Heart". It knocked " Green Light" by

Roll Deep Roll Deep (formerly Roll Deep Entourage) are a British grime crew. They were founded in 2001 by Wiley shortly before the disbandment of UK garage crew Pay As U Go Cartel. The group have had two UK No. 1 singles, " Good Times" and " Green Ligh ...

off the summit, and was knocked off in turn by "

Please Don't Let Me Go "Please Don't Let Me Go" is a song by British singer Olly Murs. Written by Murs, Claude Kelly and Steve Robson, the song served as the lead single from the ''X Factor'' runner-up's eponymous debut album and it was his debut single. The song wa ...

" by

Olly Murs Oliver Stanley Murs (born 14 May 1984) is an English singer, songwriter, and television presenter. He was runner-up on the sixth series of ''The X Factor'' in 2009 and was subsequently signed to RCA Records and Sony Music in the United Kingdom, ...

a week later.

Music video

The music video begins with a group of female

mechanic A mechanic is an artisan, skilled tradesperson, or technician who uses tools to build, maintain, or repair machinery, especially cars. Duties Most mechanics specialize in a particular field, such as auto body mechanics, air conditioning and r ...

s working on cars at a

garage A garage is a covered structure built for the purpose of parking, storing, protecting, maintaining, and/or repairing vehicles. Specific applications include: *Garage (residential), a building or part of a building for storing one or more vehicle ...

. Cruz, wearing a red helmet, rides a silver

motorbike A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle Steering, steered by a Motorcycle handlebar, handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: Long-distance ...

towards the garage and stops by. As the music starts, he takes off his helmet and puts on his black

sunglasses Sunglasses or sun glasses (informally called shades or sunnies; more names below) are a form of protective eyewear designed primarily to prevent bright sunlight and high-energy visible light from damaging or discomforting the eyes. They can s ...

. He then kicks off a party, complete with a

jacuzzi Jacuzzi Brands LLC (; ), through its subsidiaries, is a global manufacturer and distributor of branded baths, hot tubs, pools, saunas and, formerly, aircraft. Founded in 1915 by the Italian family of the same name, Jacuzzi is a federally regist ...

and

firework Fireworks are a class of low explosive pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. They are most commonly used in fireworks displays (also called a fireworks show or pyrotechnics), combining a large number of devices in ...

s. As the sun goes down and night falls, Cruz gives an impromptu concert of sorts with the mechanics as his audience. An enormous, fiery explosion then goes off behind Cruz, before subsiding into a shower of sparks. Cruz has said that this is the perfect backdrop for the subtext of his song and that his inspiration came from "wanting to do things on a bike" since his previous videos included cars and boats. "So you're gonna see me spin the tyres on this, which is pretty cool!" One of the vehicles brought for the video shoot was a "massive truck" which was used to film big screen project '' Universal Soldier''. Speaking of the shoot he said "I've never done a video that has this many props in it. We've got the most amazing, wrecked cars."Taio premieres Explosive Music Video
''

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

News''. Retrieved 17 July 2010. An official remix video was created by G-Pain which was published on September 11, 2022.

Live performances

Taio performed "Dynamite" for the first time on ''

Live with Regis & Kelly ''Live with Kelly and Ryan'' (or simply ''Live'') is an American syndicated morning talk show hosted by Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest. Executive produced by Michael Gelman, the ''Live with...'' show formula has aired under various hosts since ...

'' on 9 June 2010. Later, he also performed on ''

Jimmy Kimmel Live! ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. The nightly hour-long show debuted on January 26, 2003, at Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywood, Los ...

'', ''

T4 on the Beach T4 on the Beach was an annual British one-day music event which was held on the beach at Weston-super-Mare and televised on Channel 4. The event began in 2003 as Pop Beach in Great Yarmouth, changing to the current title and venue in 2005. The d ...

'', ''

America's Got Talent ''America's Got Talent'' (often abbreviated as ''AGT'') is a televised American talent show competition, and is part of the global ''Got Talent'' franchise created by Simon Cowell. The program is produced by Fremantle (as well as distribut ...

'',

GMTV GMTV (an acronym for Good Morning Television), now legally known as ITV Breakfast Broadcasting Limited, was the name of the national Channel 3 breakfast television contractor/licensee, broadcasting in the United Kingdom from 1 January 1993 ...

, ''

Dancing with the Stars ''Dancing with the Stars'' is the name of various international television series based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing'', which is distributed by BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the BBC. Currently the forma ...

'', and on 31 December 2010, he performed the song on ''Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve'' with

Ryan Seacrest Ryan John Seacrest (born December 24, 1974) is an American media personality and producer. He is the co-host of ''Live with Kelly and Ryan'', as well as the host of multiple media shows including ''American Idol'', ''American Top 40'', and '' ...

. On 12 August 2012, Cruz performed "Dynamite" at the

2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony The closing ceremony of the London 2012 Summer Olympics, also known as A Symphony of British Music, was held on 12 August 2012 in the Olympic Stadium, London. The chief guest was Prince Harry of Wales representing Queen Elizabeth II. The clo ...

. He also performed it at grand launching of

NET. NET (an initialism of News and Entertainment Television, stylized as NET.) is an Indonesian free-to-air television network that was launched on 26 May 2013. It replaced Spacetoon on terrestrial television. The channel's programming is focused ...

TV in 2013.

Track listing

*UK CD single and Digital download #"Dynamite" (Original Mix) – 3:24 #"Dynamite" (

Ralphi Rosario Ralphi Rosario is an American house musician and founding member of the influential Chicago DJ group Hot Mix 5. Biography When Hot Mix 5 was formed in 1981 on radio station WBMX (now WVAZ), Rosario, the youngest member of the group, was still in ...

Club Remix) – 8:03 #"Dynamite" (Mixin Marc Club Remix) – 5:34 #"Dynamite" ( StoneBridge Club Remix) – 7:20 *German CD single #"Dynamite" – 3:24 #"Dynamite" (Mixin Marc Radio Mix) – 3:34

Personnel

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 ...

–

Lukasz Gottwald Lukasz Sebastian Gottwald (born September 26, 1973), known professionally as Dr. Luke, Tyson Trax, and Made in China, is an American record producer and songwriter. His professional music career began in the late-night television sketch comedy ...

Max Martin Karl Martin Sandberg (; born 26 February 1971),Max Martin
allmusic.com known profess ...

, Benjamin Levin,

*Production, drums, keyboards and programming –

*Vocals and programming – Taio Cruz *Engineering – Emily Wright *Recording assistant – Tatiana Gottwald *Production coordination – Irene Richter, Vanessa Silberman, Megan Dennis * Mixing – Serban Ghenea *Mix engineering – John Hanes *Assistant mix engineering – Tim Roberts * Mastering – Tom Coyne Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''Rokstarr'' and Tidal.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

All-time charts

Certifications and sales

Radio and release history

Radio adds

Purchaseable release

China Anne McClain version

"Dynamite" was covered by singer and actress

China Anne McClain China Anne McClain (born August 25, 1998) is an American actress and singer. McClain's career began when she was seven years old, portraying Alexis in the film ''The Gospel'' (2005), and then China James in '' Daddy's Little Girls'' (2007). Sh ...

for the

Disney Channel Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Compan ...

live-action series ''

A.N.T. Farm ''A.N.T. Farm'' is an American teen sitcom which originally aired on Disney Channel from May 6, 2011 to March 21, 2014. It first aired on May 6, 2011, as a special one-episode preview and continued as a regular series starting on June 17, 201 ...

''. It started playing on

Radio Disney Radio Disney was an American radio network operated by the Disney Radio Networks unit of Disney Branded Television within the Disney General Entertainment Content, headquartered in Burbank, California. The network broadcast music programming ...

on 3 May 2011 and was released for digital download on

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

and

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...

on 26 July 2011 by

Walt Disney Records Walt Disney Records is an American record label of the Disney Music Group. The label releases soundtrack albums from The Walt Disney Company's motion picture studios, television series, theme parks, and traditional studio albums produced by its r ...

. It is the second track on the series soundtrack of the same name, from which it also served as the lead single. The video of the song was released the same day as a digital download and also received frequent airplay on

at the time of its debut on the network. McClain performed it as her lead role, Chyna Parks, in the series' pilot episode ''

TransplANTed ''A.N.T. Farm'' is a Disney Channel original series that follows Chyna Parks (China Anne McClain) and her two best friends, Olive Doyle (Sierra McCormick) and Fletcher Quimby (Jake Short), who are in the "Advanced Natural Talents" (A.N.T.) program ...

''. McClain also had a live performance of this song live on 22 August 2011.

Music video

The music video for McClain's version of the song was aired on Disney Channel and uploaded on China Anne McClain's official VEVO channel on 3 May 2011. It shows McClain performing the song in an audition. It starts out slow and normal, which doesn't draw the judges' attention. However, afterward, she performs it with such passion and energy that it draws people into the auditorium, which was once empty aside from the panel of judges (composed of the other ''A.N.T. Farm'' cast members). The music video has over 90 million views on YouTube.

Charts

"TNT" by Jordan "CaptainSparklez" Maron

On February 26, 2011,

CaptainSparklez Jordan Maron (born February 10, 1992), also known by his online alias CaptainSparklez, is an American YouTuber, Twitch streamer, gamer, and musician. Maron is primarily known for playing the video game ''Minecraft'', which is featured on his m ...

published a "

Minecraft ''Minecraft'' is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios. The game was created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java programming language. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made public in May 2009 before being ...

parody" of Dynamite, "TNT", with vocals from singer TryHardNinja, along with a music video. In late 2015, the video was made private at the request of Maron's

network Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...

and replaced by a new video with original music. In May 2018, the original video was made public again. As of 2022, the video is currently the fourth-most-viewed video on Maron's channel with over 115 million views, surpassing the number of views of the original song.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dynamite (Taio Cruz Song) 2010 singles 2011 singles Taio Cruz songs China Anne McClain songs Canadian Hot 100 number-one singles Irish Singles Chart number-one singles Island Records singles Number-one singles in Australia Number-one singles in Scotland Number-one singles in New Zealand UK Singles Chart number-one singles Songs written by Dr. Luke Songs written by Benny Blanco Songs written by Max Martin Song recordings produced by Dr. Luke Song recordings produced by Benny Blanco Songs written by Taio Cruz Songs written by Bonnie McKee Walt Disney Records singles 2009 songs

Composition

Release and reception

Chart performance

Music video

Live performances

Track listing

Personnel

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

All-time charts

Certifications and sales

Radio and release history

Radio adds

Purchaseable release

China Anne McClain version

Music video

Charts

"TNT" by Jordan "CaptainSparklez" Maron

See also

References