"I Know You" is a song recorded by American recording artist and songwriter

Skylar Grey Holly Brook Hafermann (born February 23, 1986), known professionally as Skylar Grey, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer from Mazomanie, Wisconsin. In 2004, at the age of 17, Grey signed a publishing deal with Universal Music ...

for the soundtrack to the film ''

Fifty Shades of Grey ''Fifty Shades of Grey'' is a 2011 erotic romance novel by British author E. L. James. It became the first instalment in the ''Fifty Shades'' novel series that follows the deepening relationship between a college graduate, Anastasia Steele, ...

'' (2015). The song was written by Grey and Canadian composer/producer Stephan Moccio and was co-produced by Moccio and Dan Heath. It was released as the second promotional single from the ''Fifty Shades of Grey'' soundtrack on February 3, 2015.

Critical reception

"I Know You" received acclaim from music critics. Bianca Gracie from ''

Idolator An idolator is a practitioner of idolatry. Idolater or Idolator may also refer to: Books *''Os Idólatras'', 1968 Portuguese novel by Maria Judite de Carvalho Music * Idolator (website), an American music blog * ''Idolator'' (album), third album ...

'' called the song "a beautiful ballad with soaring strings and luxurious-sounding percussion". Carolyn Menyes from ''Music Times'' called the song "emotional" describing "I Know You" as "a mid-tempo piano ballad with a pulsing beat, yearning lyrics and dripping, high vocals". Hayley Spencer from ''

InStyle ''InStyle'' was an American monthly women's fashion magazine founded in 1994. It was published in the United States by Dotdash Meredith. In February 2022, it was announced that InStyle would cease print publications and move to a digital-only f ...

'' wrote "

he song He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

is a haunting piano ballad about convincing your lover to let go of the past and fully commit". Nolan Feeney of ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'' called the song "moody, though somewhat less depressing" saying that the song lyrics resemble things Anastasia Steele (

Dakota Johnson Dakota Mayi Johnson (born October 4, 1989) is an American actress. The daughter of actors Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith, she made her film debut at age ten with a minor role in the dark comedy film ''Crazy in Alabama'' (1999) with her mothe ...

) probably whispers longingly to Christian Grey (

Jamie Dornan James Peter Maxwell Dornan (; born 1 May 1982) is an actor, model and musician from Northern Ireland. Formerly a character actor, he often portrays solemn, steady characters. The recipient of two Irish Film and Television Awards, he has been n ...

) when they aren't exploring their kinky sides. Eliza Thompson from ''Cosmopolitan'' described the song as "a slow, piano-based ballad about convincing your lover to let go of his past and just be chill". In a non-favorable review, Kenneth Partridge for ''Billboard'' said the song is "fairly lackluster" for a "torch song". Emilee Lindner of MTV stated "Grey sings sweetly and achingly for her lover to fully commit, telling him “I know you, baby.” It's as if they've been through it all before and she just wants to be in love without complications".

Commercial performance

In its day of release, "I Know You" reached the top spot on the American, Canadian and Mexican iTunes charts. The following day, the song reached the top in 10 countries other including France, Portugal and Poland. "I Know You" debuted at No. 45 on Portugal Singles Chart on the week of February 6 climbing to number 24 on the following week. On the week of February 20, the song fell to number 30. "I Know You" debuted at number 12 on the Billboard

Bubbling Under Hot 100 Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles (also known as Bubbling Under the Hot 100) is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. The chart lists the top songs that have not yet charted on the main ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Chart ...

charts and then rose to number 11 the following week. On the Canadian Hot 100 charts, the song debuted and peaked at number 80. The song has since received over 65 million streams on Spotify.

Music video

An official lyric video for the song premiered on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and 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 Google, and is the second mo ...

and

VEVO Vevo ( , an abbreviation for "Video Evolution", stylized as VEVO until 2013) is an American multinational video hosting service, best known for providing music videos to YouTube. The service is also available as an app on selected smart TVs, ...

on the same day the track was released. The lyric video has since received over 108 million views on YouTube. On February 10, Skylar confirmed that there would be a release of a visual music video for the song as she posted a picture from the set on her Instagram account. The music video was released exclusively on the unrated edition of the ''Fifty Shades of Grey''

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

release on May 8.''Fifty Shades of Grey Unrated Edition is Coming Home in May''
ComingSoon.net. March 24, 2015.

Charts

Certifications

References

{{authority control 2015 songs Skylar Grey songs Songs written by Stephan Moccio Songs written by Skylar Grey Interscope Records singles Torch songs Fifty Shades film music