"Strangers" (also known as "Stranger") is a song by Canadian

singer/songwriter A singer-songwriter is a musician who writes, composes, and performs their own musical material, including lyrics and melodies. In the United States, the category is built on the folk-acoustic tradition, although this role has transmuted thr ...

My Name Is Kay Goldie Boutilier (born Kristin Kathleen Boutilier, July 31, 1988), known previously by her stage names My Name Is Kay, Kay, and Goldilox, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, model and DJ. Born and raised in Reserve Mines, Nova Scotia, Reserve Mine ...

featuring guest vocals from American rapper

Pusha T Terrence LeVarr Thornton (born May 13, 1977), better known by his stage name Pusha T, is an American rapper, songwriter and record executive. He rose to prominence as one-half of the hip hop duo Clipse, which was mainly active from 1994 to 20 ...

. The song was released as the second single from Kay's self-titled debut EP, although she does not consider the track, or previous single "

", as singles, but simply refers to them as "songs". Kay explained that the meaning of the song is that feeling when "your boyfriend only loves you when you're alone", and lyrically the song talks about Kay's character going to a party, and being treated like a "stranger" by her love interest. Inspiration for the song also came to her from watching re-runs of the late '80s, early '90s sitcom '' Perfect Strangers'', featuring the characters Balki and

Larry Larry is a masculine given name in English, derived from Lawrence (given name), Lawrence or Laurence. It can be a shortened form of those names. Larry may refer to the following: People Arts and entertainment *Larry D. Alexander, American arti ...

. She says: " Ryan and I were looking at pictures of them and I was saying how one of them looks like my dad. Then we started writing this hook, this kind of old school 'na na hooo.' It just came to us: 'Let's write it about perfect strangers.'"

Critical reception

Critical reception of the track was mainly positive, however some criticized

's verses, and questioning the need for his vocals to be featured on the track. Liz Trinnear of

MuchMusic Much (an abbreviation for its full name MuchMusic) is a Canadian English language specialty channel owned by BCE Inc. through its Bell Media subsidiary that airs programming aimed at teenagers and young adults. MuchMusic launched on August 31 ...

praised the song, picking it as the best track on the EP, and compared Kay's lyrics to the likes of "

Rye Rye Ryeisha Berrain (born November 25, 1990), known by her stage name Rye Rye, is an American rapper, singer, dancer and actress. Signed to N.E.E.T. Recordings, she released her first mixtape RYEot PowRR in 2011 and her anticipated debut album ''Go! P ...

meets

Gwen Stefani Gwen Renée Stefani (; born October 3, 1969) is an American singer, songwriter, fashion designer and actress. She is a co-founder, lead vocalist, and the primary songwriter of the band No Doubt, whose singles include "Just a Girl", "Spiderwebs ...

". Homorazzi writer Tyrell highly praised the track, saying it "showcases what Kay does best - sing a catchy hook and tell an excellent story lyrically". Karen Bliss of

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also wrote a positive review of the track, however believed the song "Diddy Dum" should have received single status in its place.

Music video

A lyric video for the song was released on Kay's official

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channel on July 4, 2012, the day the song was sent to radio stations in Canada. The official music video for the track premiered on New.Music.Live on August 10, 2012, and almost two weeks later, on August 21, 2012, it was uploaded to Kay's official

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 was shot in

Etobicoke Etobicoke (, ) is an administrative district of, and one of six municipalities amalgamated into, the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Comprising the city's west-end, Etobicoke was first settled by Europeans in the 1790s, and the municipalit ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, with interior shots of independent burger outlet Apache Burgers. Pusha T is entirely absent from the video and it centers on Kay at first being enamored with a love interest, a mannequin, but gets gradually fed up with his antics and perpetual infidelity. After repeatedly reconciling with the interest, Kay gets fed up for the last time, finds him at a party, drags him outside and smashes his head into pieces with a crowbar, then does a dance. Kay explained that the concept of the video is that "everyone is treating her like a stranger", and all the people are "played" by mannequins. Originally, the mannequins were going to "come to life, like a fairytale" at the end of the video, but for unknown reasons these plans were changed. The license plate of the car used in the music video reads "BOSS2U".

Live performances

Although Kay had been performing the song on her tour, "Strangers" had its Canadian television premiere on

's live daytime program New.Music.Live., where she performed the song on stage by herself into a microphone made of plush tigers.

Chart performance

"Strangers" peaked at #47 on the

Canadian Hot 100 The Canadian Hot 100 is a music industry record chart in Canada for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. The Canadian Hot 100 was launched on the issue dated March 31, 2007, and is currently the standard record chart in Canada; a n ...

Chart.

References

{{Reflist 2012 songs Songs written by Ryan Tedder Songs written by E. Kidd Bogart Song recordings produced by Ryan Tedder Songs written by Pusha T Songs written by Noel Zancanella