"Wait" is a song by American

pop rock Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock) is a fusion genre with an emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than rock music. Originating in the late 1950s as an alternative to normal rock and roll, ear ...

band

Maroon 5 Maroon 5 is an American pop rock band from Los Angeles, California. It currently consists of lead vocalist Adam Levine, keyboardist and rhythm guitarist Jesse Carmichael, lead guitarist James Valentine (musician), James Valentine, drummer Matt ...

. It was released on January 16, 2018 to

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 ...

as the fourth single from the band's sixth studio album '' Red Pill Blues'' (2017). The song was previously released as a promotional single on October 31, 2017. It was written by

Adam Levine Adam Noah Levine (; born March 18, 1979) is an American singer and songwriter. He serves as the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the pop rock band Maroon 5. Levine began his musical career in 1994 with the band Kara's Flowers, of which ...

, John Ryan, Jacob Kasher Hindlin, and

Ammar Malik Ammar Malik (born June 22, 1987) is an American songwriter. He has co-written several modern pop songs, most notably Maroon 5's "Moves like Jagger" and Gym Class Heroes' "Stereo Hearts" which have both been certified multi-platinum by the RIAA. ...

and was produced by Ryan. It served as the third countdown single released from the album following "

Whiskey Whisky or whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Various grains (which may be malted) are used for different varieties, including barley, corn, rye, and wheat. Whisky is typically aged in wooden ...

Background and release

"Wait" was announced on October 30, 2017. The song was released as an instant-grant the following day worldwide. On November 3, 2017, guitarist James Valentine later announced on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

, that the song would later become the album's official fourth single.

Remixes

The remix versions of the song was released, the first version by

Chromeo Chromeo is a Canadian electro-funk duo from Montreal, formed in 2002 by musicians David "Dave 1" Macklovitch and Patrick "P-Thugg" Gemayel. Their sound draws from blue-eyed soul, dance music, rock, synth-pop, disco and funk. , the band has relea ...

on January 19, 2018 and the second version featuring rapper A Boogie wit da Hoodie on January 26.

Composition

"Wait" has a duration of 3 minutes and 10 seconds. It was written by Maroon 5 frontman

, John Ryan, Jacob "JKash" Kasher Hindlin, and

and was produced by John Ryan.

Music video

The music video for "Wait" was released on February 8, 2018 on

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, ...

. The video features actress

Alexandra Daddario Alexandra Anna Daddario (born March 16, 1986) is an American actress who had her breakthrough portraying Annabeth Chase in the ''Percy Jackson'' film series (2010–2013). In 2021, she starred in the first season of the HBO series ''The White L ...

and was directed by Dave Meyers. It begins with lead singer

at the church as he wakes up in a coffin and later walks to another coffin with people appeared at the funeral, there he used the scorpion to resurrect his ex girlfriend (played by Daddario) who the one cheated on him. With scenes of Levine getting attacked and fight by the ex girlfriend including the women gangsters and the bathtub woman. The next scene, Levine is on the water from another world with little mermaids as he enters the junkyard with the ex girlfriend watching him as millions of fireballs destroyed the place with the ex girlfriend is blown away. The final scene, the ex girlfriend breaks up and leaves Levine at the house with strings all over him ending the video.

Snapchat version video

On January 16, 2018, a

Snapchat Snapchat is an American multimedia instant messaging app and service developed by Snap Inc., originally Snapchat Inc. One of the principal features of Snapchat is that pictures and messages are usually only available for a short time before the ...

version video was released on Spotify and on Vevo, the following day. Directed by Travis Schneider, and was shot on

iPhone 7 The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are smartphones that were designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. They are the tenth generation of the iPhone. They were announced on September 7, 2016, at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Fr ...

. The video follows Levine in various parts at his home, as he performs in

lip-syncing Lip sync or lip synch (pronounced , the same as the word ''sink'', short for lip synchronization) is a technical term for matching a speaking or singing person's lip movements with sung or spoken vocals. Audio for lip syncing is generated th ...

to the song with scenes covered by different Snapchat filters. Levine's wife, Behati Prinsloo makes a cameo appearance.

Lyric videos

A vertical lyric video was released exclusively by

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 ...

on December 15, 2017. Like the Snapchat video, which was also directed by Schneider and features Levine, is writing the lyrics on a screen wall. On February 1, 2018, the official lyric video is directed and produced by the band's multi-instrumentalist

Sam Farrar Sam John Farrar (born June 29, 1978) is an American musician. He is best known as a member of the pop rock band Maroon 5, in which he plays several instruments, most notably bass guitar. A frequent collaborator with the band since the 1990s, he ...

. It was shot entirely on

iPhone X The iPhone X (Roman numeral "X" pronounced "ten", also known as iPhone 10) is a smartphone designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is part of the 11th generation of the iPhone. Available for pre-order from October 27, 2017, it was re ...

Live performances

On November 7, 2017, Maroon 5 performed "Wait" for the first time at the iHeartRadio Theater in Burbank, California. On January 18, 2018, the band continued the song for '' Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', as well as the

2018 iHeartRadio Music Awards The 2018 iHeartRadio Music Awards were held on March 11, 2018 at The Forum in Inglewood, California. The list of nominations was announced on January 10, 2018. DJ Khaled and Hailey Baldwin hosted the ceremony. TBS, TNT, and truTV broadcast th ...

on March 11. Pop band

Echosmith Echosmith is an American indie pop band formed in February 2009 in Chino, California. Originally formed as a quartet of siblings, the band currently consists of Sydney, Noah and Graham Sierota, following the departure of eldest sibling Jamie i ...

, praised their latter performance as "one of the best sounding tv performances". They also performed the song on the final night of the 2018 Capital One JamFest in

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, on April 1, 2018. Later, Maroon 5 played with the song live on ''

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'' on April 24 and ''

The Ellen DeGeneres Show ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' (often shortened to ''Ellen'' or ''The Ellen Show'') is an American daytime television variety comedy talk show that was created and hosted by its namesake Ellen DeGeneres. Debuting on September 8, 2003, it was pro ...

'' on May 7, 2018, respectively.

Accolades

Track listing

Credits and personnel

Recording * Recorded at

Conway Recording Studios Conway Recording Studios is a recording studio in Hollywood, California. People and awards Conway started in the early 1970s as a mastering studio. In 1976, the studio began recording albums, including projects by Elton John and Stevie Wond ...

, Los Angeles, California Personnel * John Ryan – composition, production, keyboards, piano, synthesizer *

– composition *

– lead vocals, songwriter * James Valentine – lead and rhythm guitar *

Jesse Carmichael Jesse Royal Carmichael (born April 2, 1979) is an American musician, best known as the keyboardist and rhythm guitarist for the pop rock band, Maroon 5. He also has a solo project called 1863 and a side project titled Circuit Jerks. Life and c ...

– keyboards, synthesizer *

Mickey Madden Michael Allen Madden (born May 13, 1979) is an American musician and a former bassist for the pop rock band Maroon 5. Life and music career Madden was born in Austin, Texas. He began playing in junior high school at the Brentwood School in L ...

– bass guitar *

Matt Flynn Matthew Clayton Flynn (born June 20, 1985) is a former American football quarterback. He was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the seventh round of the 2008 NFL Draft. He was a member of the Packers when they won Super Bowl XLV over the Pitts ...

– drums, percussion,

electronic percussion Electronic drums is a modern electronic musical instrument, primarily designed to serve as an alternative to an acoustic drum kit. Electronic drums consist of an electronic sound module which produces the synthesized or sampled percussion sound ...

PJ Morton P.J. Morton (born Paul Morton Jr.; March 29, 1981) is an American Grammy winning musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. Since 2012, he has been one of the keyboardists, alongside Jesse Carmichael, for the pop rock band Maroon 5. Mor ...

– keyboards, synthesizer *

– audio engineering * Noah "Mailbox" Passovoy – engineering * Jacob "JKash" Kasher Hindlin – composition * Serban Ghenea – mix engineering * Tom Coyne – mastering

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

Notes

References

{{Maroon 5 2017 songs 2018 singles 222 Records singles Interscope Records singles Maroon 5 songs Songs written by Adam Levine Songs written by John Ryan (musician) Songs written by Jacob Kasher Songs written by Ammar Malik Music videos directed by Dave Meyers (director) Vertically-oriented music videos American contemporary R&B songs