"La La La" is a song released by British record producer
Naughty Boy
Shahid Khan ( ur, شاهد خان; born 1 January 1981), better known by his stage name Naughty Boy, is a British DJ, record producer, songwriter and musician. In 2012, Khan signed a three–year publishing deal with Sony ATV, as well as a rec ...
, featuring vocals from
Sam Smith
Samuel Frederick Smith (born 19 May 1992) is an English singer and songwriter. After rising to prominence in October 2012 by featuring on Disclosure's breakthrough single "Latch", which peaked at number eleven on the UK Singles Chart, they ...
. It was released on 18 May 2013 as the second single from Naughty Boy's debut album ''
Hotel Cabana'' (2013) and it appears on the deluxe version of Smith's debut album ''
In the Lonely Hour
''In the Lonely Hour'' is the debut album by English singer and songwriter Sam Smith. It was released in the United Kingdom on 26 May 2014 via Capitol UK and Method Records. In the United States, it was released on 17 June 2014 through Capitol ...
'' (2014). The track reached number one on the music charts for 26 countries, including Italy, the Czech Republic, Russia and the United Kingdom. Upon its release, it was confirmed by the
Official Charts Company
The Official Charts (legal name: The Official UK Charts Company Limited) is a British inter-professional organization that compiles various "official" record charts in the United Kingdom, Ireland and France.
In the United Kingdom, its charts inc ...
as the fastest-selling single of 2013 in the UK. By the end of 2013, the song was the sixth fastest-selling single of the year in the UK, selling 145,000 copies in the first week.
Production and composition
According to Naughty Boy, "La La La" was conceived from experiences similar to the song "
Don't Speak
"Don't Speak" is a song by American rock band No Doubt from their third studio album, ''Tragic Kingdom'' (1995). It was released as the third single from ''Tragic Kingdom'' in the United States on April 15, 1996, by Interscope Records. Lead si ...
" by
No Doubt
No Doubt is an American rock band from Anaheim, California, formed in 1986. For most of their career, the band has consisted of vocalist Gwen Stefani, guitarist Tom Dumont, bassist Tony Kanal, and drummer Adrian Young. Since the mid-1990s, ...
, which "came from something
efelt". He states that, "It was just before everything popped up and she was somebody I neglected while I was trying to find me. When I found me, she found it best to neglect me. It's cool... Covering my ears like a kid and saying, 'La. La. La.' It's the man-kid in me."
"La La La" was written by Khan,
Jonny Coffer, Al-Hakam El Kaubaisy, Frobisher Mbabazi, James Murray, Jimmy Napes, Mustafa Omer, and Sam Smith.
Although Naughty Boy originally intended to write the song with
Emeli Sandé
Adele Emily Sandé, ( ; born 10 March 1987), known professionally as Emeli Sandé, is a Scottish singer and songwriter. Born in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, and raised in Alford, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, by an English mother and a Zambian father ...
, she was on tour at the time, and he wrote it with Sam Smith instead. Naughty Boy said "It just had to be Sam because where it went from there is perfect."
Naughty Boy and Komi produced the track, with co-production handled by Mojam.
The song was produced using
Logic Pro,
FL Studio 11 and
Reason
Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, lang ...
.
It was recorded and mixed at Cabana Studios (
Ealing Studios
Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in West London. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on the site ever ...
) in
Ealing
Ealing () is a district in West London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. Ealing is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan.
Ealing was his ...
, West
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, and mastered by Stuart Hawkes at
Metropolis Mastering Studios in London, UK.
Naughty Boy
Shahid Khan ( ur, شاهد خان; born 1 January 1981), better known by his stage name Naughty Boy, is a British DJ, record producer, songwriter and musician. In 2012, Khan signed a three–year publishing deal with Sony ATV, as well as a rec ...
, (2013). ''Hotel Cabana''. lbum Liner & Credits Naughty Boy Recordings under license to Virgin EMI Records
Virgin EMI Records was a British record label owned by the Universal Music Group that was formed in 2013. In June 2020, the label was rebranded as EMI Records, and operates Virgin Records as an imprint of the new EMI Records.
History
Virgi ...
. The song was finished in three hours,
and was the last done for ''
Hotel Cabana''.
"La La La" plays for three minutes and 42 seconds. The piece is performed in
F minor, with the
chord progression of Fm—Cm—Bm followed for most of the song, and Sam Smith's vocals range two
octave
In music, an octave ( la, octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been refer ...
s, from C
3 to C
5. The song performs in
common time
The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note val ...
at a
tempo
In musical terminology, tempo ( Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (ofte ...
of 126
beats per minute. "The track has tones of
liquid drum and bass and old-school
garage, and a
hook
A hook is a tool consisting of a length of material, typically metal, that contains a portion that is curved or indented, such that it can be used to grab onto, connect, or otherwise attach itself onto another object. In a number of uses, one e ...
layered with a
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
-
Bollywood
Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" ...
sample".
Release
"La La La" premiered on
BBC Radio 1Xtra
BBC Radio 1Xtra is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts black music and urban music, including hip hop and R&B and is a sister station to Radio 1. Launching at 18:00 on 16 August 2002, it had been ...
in May 2013.
Smith and Naughty Boy performed "La La La" at the 2013
Jingle Bell Ball
The Jingle Bell Ball is a concert held annually in December since 2008 (except for 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic), by the radio station Capital FM at The O2. Artists that have headlined the concert include Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, ...
held by
Global Radio
Global Media & Entertainment Limited, trading as Global, is a British media company formed in 2007. It is the owner of the largest commercial radio company in Europe having expanded through a number of historical acquisitions, including Chrys ...
.
The track's producer and co-writer Komi also released a remix ("La La La" – Komi and JL remix) which received considerable airplay.
Music video
A music video to accompany the release of "La La La" was first released on YouTube on 18 April 2013 at a total length of four minutes and three seconds.
The video is directed by Ian Pons Jewell (who studied at the University College for the Creative Arts, now the
University for the Creative Arts) and shot in four days
in
La Paz
La Paz (), officially known as Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Spanish pronunciation: ), is the seat of government of the Plurinational State of Bolivia. With an estimated 816,044 residents as of 2020, La Paz is the third-most populous city in Bol ...
,
Salar de Uyuni
Salar de Uyuni (or "Salar de Tunupa") is the world's largest salt flat, or playa, at over in area. It is in the Daniel Campos Province in Potosí in southwest Bolivia, near the crest of the Andes at an elevation of above sea level.
The Sala ...
and
Potosí
Potosí, known as Villa Imperial de Potosí in the colonial period, is the capital city and a municipality of the Department of Potosí in Bolivia. It is one of the highest cities in the world at a nominal . For centuries, it was the location o ...
(Cerro Rico),
Bolivia
, image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
, flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center
, flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
. Ian Pons Jewell was commissioned by Virgin EMI to create the concept for the video, which focuses on a child's magical journey. Jewell said that others compared the video to the ''
Wizard of Oz'' and a local legend of the demon
El Tío and that both legends influenced the concept of the video.
As of August 2021, the video has received over 1.1 billion views.
Synopsis of the video
The video starts with the opening of a door marked with the number 1111, a number related to be a sign of change. In the music video,
a young boy is being verbally abused by a man who is presumably his father. Looking out of his apartment window, he sees an unusually dressed man and his dog standing on the pavement outside. This man could be the representation of the "
Ekeko
The Ekeko is the Tiwanakan (pre Columbian civilization) god of abundance and prosperity in the mythology and folklore of the people from the Peruvian and Bolivian Altiplano Its chief importance in popular culture is as the main figure of the an ...
", a South American figure representative of good luck and abundance. The boy then puts his fingers in his ears and begins singing 'La la la' in response to his father's outburst. Running out of the apartment, the boy joins the mysterious figure outside and pets his dog. Seeing the boy outside, the father picks up an egg from a bird's nest on the window-sill and throws it down at the boy.
The boy and dog run away and the scene cuts from evening to daytime. The boy is walking the dog along a city street, in what is inferred to be
La Paz
La Paz (), officially known as Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Spanish pronunciation: ), is the seat of government of the Plurinational State of Bolivia. With an estimated 816,044 residents as of 2020, La Paz is the third-most populous city in Bol ...
,
Bolivia
, image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
, flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center
, flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
, and he goes into a store front and downstairs. In the basement of the building, he finds a gym and a scared-looking man who is covered in dust; this man looks like a disgraced "Ekeko." The man holds a stereo which is providing music for a group of women doing aerobics with one woman who is obviously a leader and abuses both the man and the others since their mascara is running down their cheeks from crying. The boy encourages the man to leave, but he appears reluctant. The boy then mimes the act of putting his fingers in his ears and singing 'La la la', and the man responds by turning off the volume on the stereo. The leader begins yelling at the man, and he puts his fingers in his ears and sings 'La la la' in response to her tirade. The dusty man, boy and dog leave the gymnasium and are followed by the woman who yells after them as they leave.
The pair then come across an ice cream vendor on the street; a popular figure easy to find on the streets of some South American cities. The boy gives him some coins, and he takes out what appears to be a human heart from a collection in his cart. He holds the heart in the air, the boy looks at him and then slips it inside the jacket pocket of the dusty man. Echoing the
Tin Man in ''
The Wizard of Oz'', the man now has a heart. The boy then looks onto the road and sees a traffic policeman dressed in an unusually colored police uniform with an elephant-like mask covering his face. His uniform, as well as his exaggerated nose and ears, are made of
herringbone tweed. He looks like Kusillo – the spirit of festivity. The traffic policeman is dancing as he directs traffic, but the cars and pedestrians seem to ignore him. The boy once again mimes plugging his ears to the policeman, who then performs the gestures himself. This figure is reminiscent of artists and clowns who often perform on the streets in South American cities for money. The three leave together with the dog, and the scene cuts to their journey into a mountainous region outside of the city. They walk along disused railway tracks and pass a discarded, unplugged television that still shows images on the screen. Their journey takes them across long plains of
salt flats, with the traffic policeman carrying the sleeping boy and the dusty man walking the dog.
The scene cuts to nightfall where they have set up a camp fire. The boy sleeps in the arms of the traffic policeman while the dusty man holds and pats the dog. The scene cuts to the next day, where they walk up a hillside towards an abandoned mine. Leaving the dog tied at the entrance, they enter the mine. They discover
El Tío sitting immobile at the end of a tunnel. At the sight of the figure, the boy begins crying and is hugged and comforted by both men. The men then leave, and the boy remains kneeling before the figure and singing 'la la la' with his fingers in his ears. The video ends with the two men and the dog walking away from the mine.
Critical reception
Lewis Corner of ''
Digital Spy
Digital Spy (DS) is a British-based entertainment, television and film website and brand and is the largest digital property at Hearst UK. Since its launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television programmes, ...
'' gave the song a positive review, stating:
Accolades
It won in both the "Best Song" and "Best Video" categories at the 2013
MOBO Awards
The MOBO Awards (Music of Black Origin, also known as the MOBOs) are an annual British music award presentation honouring achievements in " music of black origin", including hip hop, grime, UK Drill, R&B, soul, reggae, jazz, gospel, and ...
. The song was nominated for a 2014
BRIT Award for Best British Single.
Commercial performance
"La La La" debuted at number one becoming both Naughty Boy and Sam Smith's first UK number one. It was also declared to be the fifth biggest-selling song of 2013 in the United Kingdom. Its video was the eighth most popular
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 ...
video of 2013, and the United Kingdom's top trending video of the year. By September 2017, it had sold 1.07 million copies in the UK. In the United States, it reached number nine 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 adverti ...
''
Pop Digital Songs chart.
Track listing
Credits
;Recording
*Recorded and mixed at Cabana Studios (
Ealing Studios
Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in West London. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on the site ever ...
) in
Ealing
Ealing () is a district in West London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. Ealing is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan.
Ealing was his ...
; West
London, UK
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major se ...
.
*Mastered at
Metropolis Mastering in London, UK.
;Personnel
*
Jonny Coffer – songwriter,
strings
String or strings may refer to:
*String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...
*Al-Hakam "Komi" El-Kaubaisy – songwriter,
producer, instruments, programming
*Shahid "
Naughty Boy
Shahid Khan ( ur, شاهد خان; born 1 January 1981), better known by his stage name Naughty Boy, is a British DJ, record producer, songwriter and musician. In 2012, Khan signed a three–year publishing deal with Sony ATV, as well as a rec ...
" Khan – songwriter, producer, recording engineer, instruments, programming
*Wez Clarke – mix engineer
Charts and certifications
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications and sales
Release history
See also
*
List of Airplay 100 number ones of the 2010s
References
External links
{{authority control
2013 singles
Naughty Boy songs
Sam Smith (singer) songs
UK Singles Chart number-one singles
Number-one singles in Italy
Number-one singles in Romania
Number-one singles in Russia
Song recordings produced by Mojam
2013 songs
UK garage songs
Virgin EMI Records singles
Songs written by Naughty Boy
Songs written by Mustafa Omer
Songs written by Jimmy Napes
Songs written by Sam Smith (singer)
Songs written by Jonny Coffer