Heaven Sent is a song recorded by American singer

Keyshia Cole Keyshia Myeshia Cole Johnson; born October 15, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. Born and raised in Oakland, California, Cole began her career as a backing vocalist for MC Hammer. After signing with A&M Records ...

. It was written by Cole, Jason Farmer, Alex Francis, and Lamont Wilson for her second studio album '' Just like You'' (2007), while production was overseen by Francis and Farmer with additional credit by

Ron Fair Ronald Fair is an American A&R executive, record producer, record executive, musical arranger, recording engineer and conductor. In a career that has spanned over 30 years at major record labels he has produced and arranged hits for several art ...

. The ballad was released as the album's fourth and final single in March 2008. "Heaven Sent" became cole's third chart topper on the US

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by '' Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 ...

and earned two

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

nominations for

Best Female R&B Vocal Performance The Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance (previously called Best Rhythm and Blues Solo Vocal Performance, Female) was an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards ...

and

Best R&B Song The Grammy Award for Best R&B Song (sometimes known as the R&B Songwriter's Award) has been awarded since 1969. From 1969 to 2000, it was known as the Grammy Award for Best Rhythm and Blues Song. Beyoncé has won it a record four times, while Bab ...

. An accompanying music video was shot in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

and is based on the poem "

Footprints Footprints are the impressions or images left behind by a person walking or running. Hoofprints and pawprints are those left by animals with hoof, hooves or paws rather than foot, feet, while "shoeprints" is the specific term for prints made by ...

Background

"Heaven Sent" was written by Cole, Jason Farmer, Alex Francis, and Lamont Wilson. The lyrics of the ballad were inspired by Cole's cousin.

Chart performance

The song became Cole's third number one on the US ''Billboard''

chart. "Heaven Sent" remained nine consecutive weeks atop the chart. The song also peaked at number 28 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100. ''Billboard'' ranked the song fourth on its Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs year-end chart in 2008.

Music video

Cole consulted frequent collaborator, director

Benny Boom Benny Douglas (born July 22, 1971), professionally known as Benny Boom, is an American director who has worked in music, television, and film. His most commercially successful film was the 2017 Tupac Shakur biopic ''All Eyez on Me''. Career Do ...

, to film a music video for "Heaven Sent." The visuals were filmed on March 4, 2008 in

Oahu, Hawaii Oahu () ( Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over two-thirds of the population of the U.S. state of Hawaii. The island of O’ ...

and features Cole singing alone on a beach and in a jungle by a waterfall. Also seen are panoramic shots of a farm with horses and a barn. Cole cited the allegorical religious poem " Footprints in the Sand" as an inspiration for the clip. "Heaven Sent" premiered on March 19, 2008, on

Yahoo! Music Yahoo! Music was a brand under which Yahoo! provided a variety of music services, including Internet radio, music videos, news, artist information, and original programming. Previously, users with Yahoo! accounts could gain access to hundreds of ...

and

BET Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los A ...

's ''

Access Granted ''Access Granted'' is an American television series that features an in depth look at the planning, filming and production of R&B and hip hop music videos. Each week a different artist and their new music video are featured, with the video pre ...

''.Keyshia Cole Chooses Fourth Single
/ref> It peaked at number one on May 8, 2008 on ''

106 & Park ''106 & Park'' is an American hip hop and R&B music video show, set up in a countdown format, that was broadcast on weekdays at 6:00 pm ET/5:00 pm CT on BET; it aired on a one-day delay on BET International. It was the network's highest- rated ...

''.

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''Just like You''. *

– vocals, writer *Dru Castro – recording engineer * Torrance Esmond – assistant recording engineer *

– arranger, additional producer *Jason Farmer – producer, writer *Alex Francis – producer, writer *Tal Herzberg – engineer *

Peter Mokran Peter Mokran is an American mixer, producer, engineer and musician. Early life Mokran was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. Growing up, he studied classical guitar, while also learning engineering and programming as a teen.Paul Tingen“Sec ...

– mixing engineer *Eric Weaver – assistant mixing engineer *Lamont Wilson – writer

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heaven Sent (Song) 2008 singles Keyshia Cole songs Music videos directed by Benny Boom Songs written by Keyshia Cole Contemporary R&B ballads 2007 songs Geffen Records singles 2000s ballads