"Stay" is a song by Norwegian DJ and record producer

Kygo Kyrre Gørvell-Dahll (born 11 September 1991), known professionally as Kygo (), is a Norwegian DJ and music producer. He garnered international attention with his December 2013 remix of the track "I See Fire" by Ed Sheeran and his December 201 ...

, featuring American singer

Maty Noyes Madeline Ashley "Maty" Noyes (born August 25, 1997) is an American singer-songwriter. Noyes rose to prominence in 2015 after a guest appearance on The Weeknd's ''Beauty Behind the Madness'' album, and contributing lead vocals to Kygo's 2015 track ...

. The song was produced by Kygo with fellow Norwegian, William Wiik Larsen, who also wrote it with Noyes. It was released as the fourth single from Kygo's debut studio album, '' Cloud Nine'' (2016). An official music video for the song was released on 18 February 2016.

Background

After writing what would eventually become "Stay", Noyes discovered Kygo through a

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

he did of

Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo a ...

's 1982 single "

Sexual Healing "Sexual Healing" is a song recorded by American singer Marvin Gaye from his seventeenth and final studio album, ''Midnight Love'' (1982). It was his first single since his exit from his long-term record label Motown earlier in the year, followin ...

". Noyes liked Kygo's remix and "figured he could do something with this song", so she talked to her manager, Phoenix Stone, about the possibility of working with Kygo. Stone mentioned that an A&R executive had heard "

Angel In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles includ ...

"—a track Noyes did with

The Weeknd Abel Makkonen Tesfaye (born February 16, 1990), known professionally as the Weeknd, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor. Known for his sonic versatility and dark lyricism, his music explores escapism, romance, and ...

for the latter's debut album ''

Beauty Behind the Madness ''Beauty Behind the Madness'' is the second studio album by Canadian singer the Weeknd, released on August 28, 2015, through XO and Republic Records. It features guest appearances from Labrinth, Ed Sheeran and Lana Del Rey. The album was execut ...

'' (2015)—and was now looking for another song for Kygo to work on. According to Noyes, "We sent

he demo He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

to them and one of his people in his team was playing it for him in his hotel room and he said, automatically, "Send me this I want to do it right now." It worked out really quickly. He had it done within a few days and he said it was one of the fastest songs he ever finished. It was meant to be."

Live performances

Kygo and Noyes gave their first live performance of the song at the

Nobel Peace Prize Concert The Nobel Peace Prize Concert ( Norwegian and Swedish: '')'' has been held annually since 1994 on 11 December, to honour the Nobel Peace Prize laureate. The award ceremony on 10 December takes place in Oslo City Hall, while the concert has bee ...

on December 11, 2015. In October 2016, Noyes missed a live gig through illness and Kygo's manager, Myles Shear, banned her from performing at the

Hollywood Bowl The Hollywood Bowl is an amphitheatre in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It was named one of the 10 best live music venues in America by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine in 2018. The Hollywood Bowl is known for its distin ...

with him as a result. He later apologised.

Music video

The music video was directed by Jason Beattie. It follows the topsy-turvy relationship of a

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with fema ...

couple.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2015 singles 2015 songs Sony Music singles Maty Noyes songs Kygo songs Song recordings produced by Kygo Songs written by Kygo Songs written by Maty Noyes Songs written by William Wiik Larsen