"Lights Out" is a song recorded by American-born Canadian singer and songwriter

Virginia to Vegas Derik John Baker (born January 31, 1990), known as Virginia To Vegas, is an American-born Canadian musician, singer and songwriter. He is based in Toronto, Ontario. He is best known for his gold and platinum-certified singles, " We Are Stars", ...

for his debut studio album, '' Utopian'' (2016). Vegas co-wrote the song (under his legal name Derik Baker) with Jamie Appleby, David Thomson, and Michael Wise, the latter of whom also produced the track. The song also samples the 1984 Rockwell hit " Somebody's Watching Me", earning Rockwell a co-writing credit. "Lights Out" was released September 2, 2016 as the fourth single from the album.

Content

"Lights Out" is a "dark"

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song with

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influences and a "pulsing" beat. The song's hook – "I always feel like somebody's watching me" – is

sample Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of s ...

d from Rockwell's 1984 single, " Somebody's Watching Me". "We were trying to think of a dark sentiment and we used he borrowed lyricas a placeholder," Virginia to Vegas said to

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about the sample. "And the more we wrote the song around it, we realized that we really couldn't live without that line."

Reception

Critical

Kerry Doole of FYI Music News wrote that the song is "a pleasing combination of pulsing beats and Baker's gently affecting vocals."

Commercial

"Lights Out" debuted at number 94 on the ''Billboard'' Canadian Hot 100 chart dated October 29, 2016. It has so far reached a peak position of 40 on the chart dated January 21, 2017. The song entered the Canada CHR/Top 40 chart dated October 1, 2016 at number 38 and has reached a peak position of 10 as of the chart dated January 7, 2017. This makes "Lights Out" Virginia to Vegas's most successful single to date at

contemporary hit radio Contemporary hit radio (also known as CHR, contemporary hits, hit list, current hits, hit music, top 40, or pop radio) is a radio format that is common in many countries that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by ...

, besting the number 11 peak of his debut single, "

We Are Stars "We Are Stars" is the first single released by the Canadian pop rock singer Virginia to Vegas, featuring the Canadian recording artist Alyssa Reid. The song was written by Derik John Baker (Virginia to Vegas) and Reid with Jamie Appleby, Nathan Fer ...

", in 2014. It debuted at number 50 on the Canada Hot AC chart dated October 22, 2016 and has since reached a peak position of 14 on the chart dated March 11, 2017. "Lights Out" debuted at number 32 on the Canada AC chart dated January 14, 2017 following the departure of Holiday-themed releases and has since peaked at number 14. As of November 2016, the single has surpassed 1,000,000 audio streams on Spotify.

Music video

An accompanying music video was directed by AD Jennings and was uploaded to Virginia to Vegas's official YouTube channel on October 31, 2016. It made its official premiere on '' etalk'' on November 11, 2016.

Live performances

Virginia to Vegas appeared on the 2016 '' Breakfast Television'' Christmas Party program on December 16, 2016 in Toronto, ON and performed "Lights Out" at the event's close.

Charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2016 songs 2016 singles Virginia to Vegas songs Songs written by Alyssa Reid Songs written by Virginia to Vegas Songs written by Rockwell (musician) Songs written by James Ash Song recordings produced by Mike Wise (record producer) Songs written by Mike Wise (record producer)