La La (Ashlee Simpson song)

"La La" is a song by American singer Ashlee Simpson from her 2004 album, '' Autobiography''. Two weeks after it became available as a digital download in mid-August 2004, it rose to No. 37 on ''Billboard''s Hot Digital Tracks. In the U.S., it began its run as the album's third and final single on radio and television in November 2004; in the United Kingdom, where it was the second single, a CD single was released in January 2005. The song's video was in heavy rotation on MTV by December 2004. In March 2005 the single was certified Gold, and in August the video was nominated for Best Pop Video on the MTV Video Music Awards.

Simpson performed "La La" multiple times on television in 2004. On January 4, 2005, Simpson performed the song live at the halftime show of the Orange Bowl football game in Miami, Florida. She sang off-key, and after singing the last line, the stadium audience booed her. Critics compared this poor performance to Simpson's revealing miscue on ''Saturday Night Live'' October 23, 2004, in which she had intended to perform "Autobiography" but the earlier recording of "Pieces of Me" was heard instead, showing that Simpson had been lip-syncing. Simpson explained the poor performance of "La La" was the result of an equipment failure, with her in-ear monitors not working.

Song information

"La La", the fourth track on ''Autobiography'', was written by Ashlee Simpson, Kara DioGuardi, and John Shanks, the producer of the album. Jeff Rothschild played drums on the track, Shanks played guitars and bass, and Simpson and DioGuardi did background vocals. The track is three minutes and 42 seconds long.

The song was not initially planned as the album's third single. In October 2004 it was announced that its title track, "Autobiography", would be the third single; however, on October 29, it was announced on Simpson's official website that "Autobiography" would be replaced as the third single by "La La", following Simpson's ''Saturday Night Live'' incident.

Following its release as a single in the UK on January 24, 2005, "La La" debuted at number 11 before falling; it spent four weeks in the top 40. In Ireland, it debuted at number 18 on that country's chart in late January and stayed there in the next week. In February, the song debuted at number 10 on the Australian singles chart (where it stayed for four weeks) and at number 98 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in the U.S., where it eventually rose to number 86; by comparison, Simpson's first single, " Pieces of Me", had reached number 5 on the Hot 100 a few months earlier, and her second single, "Shadow", had reached number 57. Despite this relatively low chart peak, "La La" was credited with helping boost the sales of ''Autobiography'', which rose on the charts from number 42 to number 33 (with a 61% sales increase) in one week in December 2004, soon after the single's debut. The single was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in late March 2005; in Australia, it was also accredited as a gold single.

"La La" was used as the backing music for a ThermaSilk shampoo commercial. It was also covered in the rhythm-based 2006 Nintendo DS game ''Elite Beat Agents''.

Description

"La La" is the most rock-oriented track on ''Autobiography'', and was described in a BBC
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