"Face My Fears" is a song by Japanese-American singer-songwriter
Hikaru Utada and American record producer
Skrillex
Sonny John Moore (born January 15, 1988), known professionally as Skrillex, is an American DJ and music producer. Growing up in Northeast Los Angeles and Northern California, he joined the post-hardcore band From First to Last as the lead si ...
, released on January 18, 2019, by
Epic Records Japan
Epic Records Japan is a Japanese record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment Japan. Its founder was Shigeo Maruyama.
Between 1978 and 1988 the label operated as a wholly owned subsidiary: Epic/Sony Inc. () was established in August 1978 . Along with its English-language counterpart, it serves as the opening theme song to the
Square Enix video game ''
Kingdom Hearts III
is a 2019 action role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows and Nintendo Switch. It is the twelfth installment in the ''Kingdom Hearts'' series, and serves as a conclusion of the ...
''. It was written as a collaboration between Utada, producer
Skrillex
Sonny John Moore (born January 15, 1988), known professionally as Skrillex, is an American DJ and music producer. Growing up in Northeast Los Angeles and Northern California, he joined the post-hardcore band From First to Last as the lead si ...
, and
R&B songwriter
Poo Bear
Jason Paul Douglas Boyd, better known by his stage name Poo Bear, is an American songwriter, singer, and music producer. He is best known for being one of Justin Bieber's main collaborators, having co-written many of Bieber's hits (including " ...
.
The song was released in both English and Japanese versions, alongside "
Chikai" (which was previously released in their seventh Japanese album ''
Hatsukoi'') and its English counterpart, "Don't Think Twice", as a
CD single
A CD single (sometimes abbreviated to CDS) is a music single in the form of a compact disc. The standard in the Red Book for the term ''CD single'' is an 8 cm (3-inch) CD (or Mini CD). It now refers to any single recorded onto a CD of any si ...
on January 18, 2019, making it their first release on the format in eleven years since their 2008 single "
Prisoner of Love". It is also their first release with original English songs since "
This Is the One
''This Is the One'' is the third English studio album by Japanese American pop singer-songwriter Utada, released by Island Records in the United States digitally on March 24, 2009 and physically on May 12, 2009. The album was originally set to ...
" in 2009.
Composition
Utada requested that the producer
Skrillex
Sonny John Moore (born January 15, 1988), known professionally as Skrillex, is an American DJ and music producer. Growing up in Northeast Los Angeles and Northern California, he joined the post-hardcore band From First to Last as the lead si ...
produce a remix of the song "
Chikai" for ''
Kingdom Hearts III
is a 2019 action role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows and Nintendo Switch. It is the twelfth installment in the ''Kingdom Hearts'' series, and serves as a conclusion of the ...
'', since it was known that he was a fan of the game. He proposed to instead make a completely new song. Utada agreed to collaborate with him and songwriter
Poo Bear
Jason Paul Douglas Boyd, better known by his stage name Poo Bear, is an American songwriter, singer, and music producer. He is best known for being one of Justin Bieber's main collaborators, having co-written many of Bieber's hits (including " ...
to write the song.
The song was written in the same key as "
Passion", to make it easier for Skrillex to mix both songs during his concerts. The song also has the same chords as "Dearly Beloved", the recurring musical theme for the main menu in the ''
Kingdom Hearts'' series.
Commercial performance
The song topped China's Kugou New Song chart and 8 digital download services in Japan.
In Japan, the single debuted at the sixth spot of the
Oricon Weekly Singles chart with 12,732 copies sold on its first week of release,
as well as debuting at number three of the Oricon Combined Singles chart with 33,462 equivalent units. Moreover, The Japanese version of "Face My Fears" debuted at the fourth spot of the Oricon Weekly Digital Singles chart with 14,686 downloads.
The song debuted at number 98 on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 on the week dated February 2, 2019, giving Utada their first Hot 100 entry.
The song sold 10,000 pure downloads and had 2.5 million streams in the first week in the US.
Track listing
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Release history
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Face My Fears
2019 singles
Hikaru Utada songs
Kingdom Hearts songs
Songs written by Hikaru Utada
Songs written by Skrillex
Songs written by Poo Bear
Future bass songs
Video game theme songs
2019 songs