"It's On Again" is a song by American singer

Alicia Keys Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), known professionally as Alicia Keys, is an American singer and songwriter. A classically trained pianist, Keys began composing songs at the age of 12 and was signed by Columbia Records at 15. After d ...

featuring American rapper

Kendrick Lamar Kendrick Lamar Duckworth (born June 17, 1987) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer. Regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time, he was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music, becoming the first music ...

. The song was written for the 2014 superhero film '' The Amazing Spider-Man 2'' by the artist alongside the producers,

Hans Zimmer Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, five Grammy Awards, and has been nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards, Emmy Awards and a Tony ...

, who scored the film, and

Pharrell Williams Pharrell Lanscilo Williams (; born April 5, 1973), also known mononymously as Pharrell, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, rapper, record producer, and fashion designer. He first became known as one half of the music production duo ...

. It was released on March 31, 2014 as the lead single from the film's soundtrack. The song was nominated at the 15th Black Reel Awards for Outstanding Original Song.

Critical reception

Todd Martens of ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' wrote that the song "feels a little like two songs smashed into one", one "underscored by slow-rising synths that add heft to the generally fierce intensity of Lamar" and the other "keeps Keys relatively restrained, as her voice sticks close to a warm beat", praising Pharrell and Zimmer production.

Music video

The music video of "It's On Again" was released on April 14, 2014 on

Vevo Vevo LLC ( , an abbreviation for "Video Evolution", stylized in all caps until 2013) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational video hosting service, best known for providing music videos to YouTube. The service is also available ...

and was directed by Rich Lee. It features appearances from the involved musicians and footage of the film.

Release

On March 12, 2014,

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

issued a press release announcing that "It's On Again" would be included on the soundtrack for '' The Amazing Spider-Man 2'' (2014) and serve as the closing song for the film. The release included a statement from director

Marc Webb Marc Preston Webb (born August 31, 1974) is an American filmmaker and music video director. He made his feature film directorial debut in 2009 with the romantic comedy '' (500) Days of Summer.'' He then directed ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' (2012 ...

, who described the process of selecting "a song that would be upbeat and exciting, but also contain a note of foreboding" to serve as the film's closing theme and praised "It's On Again" as the "perfect end note." Keys also expressed her excitement at working with Kendrick Lamar, producer

and film composer

, the latter of whom scores the film. On March 31, "It's On Again" was uploaded to Keys' official

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page and impacted

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radio in the United States. The following day, it was released digitally as a single.

Live performances

The songs was performed for the first time on television on '' The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon''. The song was also performed at the film's premiere concert in

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Commercial performance

"It's On Again" debuted on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Adult R&B Songs The Adult R&B Songs chart (formerly called Adult R&B Airplay) is an airplay chart that is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The chart tracks and measures the airplay of songs played on urban adult contemporary radio stations, whose playl ...

and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay charts at numbers 17 and 40 respectively on the chart week ending April 19, 2014.

Track listing

*Digital download # "It's On Again" (featuring

) – 3:49 # "It's On Again" – 3:14

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history

References

{{authority control 2014 singles 2014 songs Alicia Keys songs Kendrick Lamar songs RCA Records singles Song recordings produced by Pharrell Williams Songs written by Alicia Keys Songs with music by Hans Zimmer Songs written by Kendrick Lamar Songs written by Pharrell Williams Songs from Spider-Man films The Amazing Spider-Man (2012 film series) Music videos directed by Rich Lee