"We Were Born for This" is a song recorded by Canadian singer

Justin Bieber Justin Drew Bieber ( ; born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer. Bieber is recognized for his genre-melding musicianship and has played an influential role in modern-day popular music. He was discovered by American record executive Scooter ...

. He shared the song through

SoundCloud SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming s ...

on April 28, 2014. Written by Bieber and Sam Hook, it was produced by

Eric Hudson Eric Hudson (born October 15, 1986) is an American and Grammy award-winning music producer. His parents are Curtis and Phyllis Bivins-Hudson. Curtis is a songwriter and producer, and most notably the co-writer of Madonna's song "Holiday", co-writ ...

. It is a

sentimental ballad A sentimental ballad is an emotional style of music that often deals with romantic and intimate relationships, and to a lesser extent, loneliness, death, war, drug abuse, politics and religion, usually in a poignant but solemn manner.J. ...

song consisting of a twangy guitar solo, while Bieber uses a smooth vocal, sometimes reaching falsetto. Lyrically, "We Were Born for This" describes the problems of growing up in the public eye as a celebrity and ignoring the haters that usually come with such attention of fame.

Background and release

Released during early 2014, the song came during a time where Bieber had been facing many misdemeanors, including his first arrest in

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

, earlier in January of that year. It followed a few months after the release of Bieber's compilation album '' Journals'' in December 2013, which came with mediocre reception. Shortly after Bieber had released the song, he posted a video link on his Twitter account to the "I Was Born for This, My City" conference (hosted by

Carl Lentz Stephen Carl Lentz (born November 6, 1978) is an American former pastor, notable for being a celebrity pastor, spiritual advisor to celebrities such as Justin Bieber, Kendall Jenner, and Selena Gomez and categorized as a hype-priest by '' GQ'' ...

, a

pastor A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...

that Bieber had known for a while) that took place earlier that year, which the song is probably based on as well. Bieber shared the track on his

account on April 28, 2014, which he had linked to by announcing the release on his

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 ...

account.

Composition

"We Were Born for This" was written by

and Sam Hook. It was produced by

. The song is a slow

format, with most of it using a twangy guitar solo, while Bieber uses breathy and gentle vocals that occasionally reach falsetto. Lyrically, the song describes having to grow up in the face of the public as a celebrity and dealing with both the positive and the negative attention that can come with it, with Bieber crooning "And I won't waste it thinking about what you gotta say / Cause I'm here to stay" and "Look at all the people / Standing outside / So dedicated".

Controversy

The cover art for "We Were Born for This" received criticism due to the similarity between it and the cover art for American rock band Paramore's 2007 album ''

Riot! ''Riot!'' (stylized in all caps) is the second studio album by American rock band Paramore. It was released in the United States on June 12, 2007, through Fueled by Ramen as a follow-up to their debut album, '' All We Know Is Falling'' (2005). ...

'', which used a very similar design and font – it later transpired that the artwork had been made in 2011 on a

Tumblr Tumblr (stylized as tumblr; pronounced "tumbler") is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a sho ...

post. Hayley Williams, the lead vocalist and songwriter of Paramore, did not comment on the controversy, though she referred to it on Twitter.

References

{{Justin Bieber songs 2014 singles 2014 songs Justin Bieber songs Songs written by Justin Bieber 2010s ballads