"Something Just Like This" is a song by American
electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
duo
The Chainsmokers
The Chainsmokers are an American electronic DJ and production duo consisting of Alexander "Alex" Pall and Andrew "Drew" Taggart. They started out by releasing remixes of songs by indie artists. The EDM- pop duo achieved a breakthrough with the ...
and British
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
band
Coldplay
Coldplay are a British rock band formed in London in 1997. They consist of vocalist and pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer Will Champion and creative director Phil Harvey. They met at University Col ...
.
It was released on February 22, 2017, as the second single from The Chainsmokers debut album, ''
Memories...Do Not Open'', and as the lead single from Coldplay's ''
Kaleidoscope EP
''Kaleidoscope EP'' is the thirteenth extended play by British rock band Coldplay. It was released worldwide on 14 July 2017 and serves as a companion piece to Coldplay's seventh studio album, ''A Head Full of Dreams'' (2015). The EP was nominate ...
''. The song samples their 2015 hit single "
Roses
A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be e ...
" featuring American songwriter
Rozes.
The single reached the top ten of many charts around the world, including number 2 in the
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
and the Australian
ARIA chart
The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...
, and number 3 on the US
''Billboard'' Hot 100. It was nominated for the
Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. According to the 63rd Grammy Awards category rules, "this category ...
at the
60th Annual Grammy Awards
The 60th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held on January 28, 2018. The CBS network broadcast the show live from Madison Square Garden in New York City. The show was moved to January to avoid coinciding with the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongc ...
; and named one of the best songs of the year by ''
Uproxx
''Uproxx'' (stylized in all caps) is an entertainment and popular culture news website. It was founded in 2008 by Jarret Myer and Brian Brater, and acquired by Woven Digital (later renamed Uproxx Media Group) in 2014. The site's target audience ...
'' and
3voor12.
Background
In September 2016, the Chainsmokers shared three short clips of an upcoming song featuring vocals from
Chris Martin
Christopher Anthony John Martin (born 2 March 1977) is an English singer-songwriter and musician. He is best known as the lead vocalist, pianist, rhythm guitarist and co-founder of the rock band Coldplay. Born in Exeter, Devon, he went to Univ ...
.
On February 22, 2017,
Spotify
Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...
prematurely posted a banner ad at the top of the site's home page with a Listen Now button.
On February 22, 2017, Coldplay premiered "Something Just Like This" with the Chainsmokers on stage at the
Brit Awards
The BRIT Awards (often simply called the BRITs) are the British Phonographic Industry's annual popular music awards. The name was originally a shortened form of "British", "Britain", or "Britannia" (in the early days the awards were sponsored ...
at
The O2 Arena
The O2 Arena, commonly known as the O2 (stylised as The O2 arena), is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the centre of the O2 entertainment complex on the Greenwich Peninsula in southeast London. It opened in its present form in 2007. It has the s ...
in
London
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 majo ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. They then performed the song at the
2017 iHeartRadio Music Awards at
The Forum in
Inglewood, California
Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 107,762. It was incorporated on February 14, 1908. The city is in the South Bay ...
on March 5, 2017, and on their
A Head Full of Dreams Tour
The A Head Full of Dreams Tour was the seventh concert tour undertaken by British rock band Coldplay. It was announced on 27 November 2015 in support of their seventh studio album, ''A Head Full of Dreams'', and marked a return to live perform ...
since the
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
show on March 31, 2017. It was performed again at the ''
One Love Manchester
One Love Manchester was a benefit concert and British television special on 4 June 2017, organised by American singer Ariana Grande, Simon Moran, Melvin Benn and Scooter Braun in response to the Manchester Arena bombing after Grande's concert t ...
'' benefit concert for the victims of the
Manchester Arena bombing
On 22 May 2017, an Islamist extremist suicide bomber detonated a shrapnel-laden homemade bomb as people were leaving the Manchester Arena following a concert by American pop singer Ariana Grande.
Twenty-three people were killed, including ...
on June 4, 2017.
Lyric video
A lyric video was also released on February 22, 2017, on the Chainsmokers'
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, di ...
channel. It has received over 2.1 billion views and is one of the 70 most viewed videos on YouTube. It was directed by James Zwadlo.
Composition
The song is written in the key of
B minor
B minor is a minor scale based on B, consisting of the pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A. Its key signature has two sharps. Its relative major is D major and its parallel major is B major.
The B natural minor scale is:
:
Changes neede ...
and has a tempo of 103.156 beats per minute 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 value ...
. It follows a chord progression of G–A–Bm–A, and the vocals span two octaves, from G
2 to G
4.
Chart performance
"Something Just Like This" debuted at number 56 on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 and soared to number five on its second week, becoming the Chainsmokers' third top five after "
Don't Let Me Down" and "
Closer". Meanwhile, it was Coldplay's second top five hit after "
Viva la Vida
"Viva la Vida" (, ; ) is a song by British rock band Coldplay. It was written by all members of the band for their fourth album, ''Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends'' (2008). The lyrics to the song contain historical and Christian refe ...
", peaking at number three on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 ever since. The song was also the sixth best-selling track of 2017 in the United States, with 1,348,000 copies sold.
In the United Kingdom, "Something Just Like This" debuted at number 30 on 24 February 2017, reaching its number two peak position the following week, behind
Ed Sheeran
Edward Christopher Sheeran (; born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently r ...
's "
Shape of You
"Shape of You" is a song by English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran. It was released on 6 January 2017 as one of the double lead singles from his third studio album '' ÷'' (2017), along with "Castle on the Hill". The dancehall and R&B-infused ...
". It spent nine consecutive weeks in the top 10 and became the ninth biggest song of the year in the country. The song also set a new record for most weeks atop ''Billboard''
's Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart (79).
Track listing
Credits and personnel
The Chainsmokers
*Andrew Taggart – keyboards
*
Alex Pall – keyboards
Coldplay
*
Guy Berryman
Guy Rupert Berryman (born 12 April 1978) is a Scottish musician, songwriter and producer, best known as the bassist of the rock band Coldplay and electronic supergroup Apparatjik. Raised in Kirkcaldy, he began to play bass from an early age, ...
– bass guitar
*
Jonny Buckland
Jonathan Mark Buckland (born 11 September 1977) is an English-born Welsh musician and songwriter best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the rock band Coldplay. Raised in Pantymwyn, he began to play guitar from an early age, being in ...
– lead guitar
*
Will Champion
William Champion (born 31 July 1978) is an English musician and songwriter best known as the drummer and backing vocalist of the rock band Coldplay. Raised in Southampton, he learned various instruments during his childhood, being influenced by ...
– drums, backing vocals,
programming
*
Chris Martin
Christopher Anthony John Martin (born 2 March 1977) is an English singer-songwriter and musician. He is best known as the lead vocalist, pianist, rhythm guitarist and co-founder of the rock band Coldplay. Born in Exeter, Devon, he went to Univ ...
– lead vocals, piano
Production
*
The Chainsmokers
The Chainsmokers are an American electronic DJ and production duo consisting of Alexander "Alex" Pall and Andrew "Drew" Taggart. They started out by releasing remixes of songs by indie artists. The EDM- pop duo achieved a breakthrough with the ...
– production
*
DJ Swivel
Jordan Young (born 14 December 1984), known professionally as DJ Swivel, is a Canadian music producer, mixer, audio engineer, and DJ. He is a prominent audio engineer best known for working with Beyoncé as her personal recording engineer. He ...
– production
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Decade-end charts
Certifications
Release history
Covers
In 2018,
The Piano Guys
The Piano Guys is an American musical group consisting of pianist Jon Schmidt, cellist Steven Sharp Nelson, videographer Paul Anderson, and music producer Al van der Beek. Originating in Utah, they gained popularity through YouTube, where in ...
released a mashup on piano and cello called ''Something Just Like Liszt'', combining ''Something Just Like This'' with
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...
's
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2.
See also
*
List of best-selling singles in Australia
This is a list of highest-certified singles in Australia according to the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). Since 1983, ARIA certifies a single Platinum for shipment of 70,000 copies across Australia. Single figures can include "q ...
*
List of Billboard Adult Contemporary number ones of 2017
References
{{Authority control
2017 singles
2017 songs
The Chainsmokers songs
Coldplay songs
Songs written by Will Champion
Songs written by Chris Martin
Songs written by Guy Berryman
Songs written by Jonny Buckland
Ultratop 50 Singles (Flanders) number-one singles
Number-one singles in Malaysia
Number-one singles in Poland
Songs written by Andrew Taggart
Disruptor Records singles
Songs about superheroes