"True" is a song by American recording artist

Brandy Norwood Brandy Rayana Norwood (born February 11, 1979), better known by her mononym Brandy, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, actress and model. She is known for her distinctive sound, characterized by her peculiar timbre, voice-layer ...

recorded for her fifth studio album ''

Human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, cultu ...

'' (2008). Originally written and composed by RedOne along with

Claude Kelly Claude Kelly (born December 27, 1980)Shirley Halperin and Bob Love"THR Names Music's 35 Top Hitmakers,"''The Hollywood Reporter'', February 6, 2013. is an American singer, songwriter and music producer. He is a four-time Grammy Award nominee, a ...

for entertainer

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

, the song deals with betrayal and heartbreak. A pop- R&B ballad that features instrumentation by the

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

and strings, "True" deals with trust issues lyrically. The protagonist sings to an indifferent love interest, wondering whether she is his only one and whether he loves her. The song garnered generally mixed to positive reviews by contemporary

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...

who considered it one of the album's strongest ballads, but felt it was overproduced. Following the release of ''Human'', "True" charted at number 18 on the

Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...

, a chart composed of 25 positions that represent songs that are making progress to chart on the main R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart.

Background and recording

"True" was written by Nadir "RedOne" Khayat and

and conceived amid recording sessions for singer

Lady Gaga Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta ( ; born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her image reinventions and musical versatility. Gaga began performing as a teenag ...

's debut album ''

The Fame ''The Fame'' is the debut studio album by American singer Lady Gaga. It was released on August 19, 2008, by Interscope Records. After joining Kon Live Distribution and Cherrytree Records in 2008, Gaga began working on the album with different pr ...

'' (2008) in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

in 2007. The pair originally wrote the song from a male perspective with entertainer

in mind. Khayat and Kelly both had been working with Jackson on new songs at that time; the opportunity of handing it over to Jackson and his team upon finishing their demo however, "kind of passed", according to Kelly. The following year, Epic Records A&R manager Brandon Creed heard a

demo Demo, usually short for demonstration, may refer to: Music and film *Demo (music), a song typically recorded for reference rather than release * ''Demo'' (Behind Crimson Eyes), a 2004 recording by the band Behind Crimson Eyes * ''Demo'' (Deafhea ...

version performed by Kelly, feeling that it would fit Norwood's ''Human'', her upcoming debut album with the company. Kelly said, "Creed heard the song and was like 'this would be great for Brandy'. So Brandy went in and we changed the key, changed a couple of words so it made sense for her and made it honest to her point of view. Perfect vocals, perfect emotions, she brought that song to life very easily." Kelly declared Norwood's version "one of isfavorites too." Norwood's version of "True" was recorded at Larrabee Studios, in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, in 2008. Production on the track was handled by RedOne, while vocal production was overseen by Norwood, Kelly and RedOne.

Adam Messinger Adam "Messy" Messinger is a Grammy Award-winning Canadian songwriter, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist currently based in Los Angeles, California. He is a producer for Canadian reggae band Magic!, but was initially a producer/songwriter ...

and RedOne played the piano, while Mathias Bylund performed the strings. The song was mixed by

Manny Marroquin Manny Marroquin (born September 21, 1971) is an American mixing engineer.Daley, Dan (May 2005).Manny Marroquin. ''Sound on Sound''. Retrieved February 10, 2007 He has received ten Grammy awards for his professional audio work. Life and career ...

and RedOne with assistance by Chris Plata and Erik Madrid. All

background vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...

and

harmonies In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However ...

were arranged by Norwood and feature additional vocals by Kelly and Swedish singer Kee. Mastering was handled by

Brian Gardner Brian Knapp Gardner, also known as Brian "Big Bass" Gardner, is an American mastering engineer. He has worked on a number of recordings since the mid-1960s, including classic rock, funk, disco, alternative rock, R&B, hip hop, pop punk and dance- ...

. Lyrically, the song deals with a broken love relationship. It finds Norwood as the female protagonist pleading a lover to let her know that her love for him is reciprocated.

Critical reception

Sarah Rodman of ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' gave the song a positive review and called the song "one of the album's strongest ballads." Elliot Robinson, writing for ''So So Gay'', declared the record "another stunning ballad that appears in the middle of the album." He felt that Norwood's "vocal performance on this track is wonderful, showing off her range particularly well, and also just how absurdly in control of her instrument Brandy is, as she navigates key changes and notes falling all over the scale — a joy from start to finish and a definite album highlight." In his album review, Ben Hogwood from MusicOMH wrote, that "inevitably there are the more indulgent ballad moments, and "True" is one of these but by and large the edge cultivated in the faster tracks carries through." Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine found the song was a "minor onslaught of adult-contemporary schmaltz which prevented ''Human'' from "being a sort of '' Afro Pt. 2''." He felt that "the presence of '90s-style ballads" like "True" should "come as no surprise given that the album asan obvious attempt at recapturing Brandy's past successes."

Credits and personnel

* Lead vocals: Brandy Norwood *

Background vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...

: Brandy Norwood, RedOne, & Kee * Producer: RedOne *Vocal production: Brandy Norwood *Recording engineer: RedOne *

Piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

: RedOne, &

* Mixing:

, & RedOne **Mixing assistance: Chris Plata, & Erik Madrid *Mastering: Brian Gardner *Live strings arranged by: RedOne, & Mattias Bylund

Formats and track listings

;Digital download # "True" – 3:47

Chart performance

For the week ending December 12, 2008, "True" debuted at number 18 on the ''Billboard''

chart, based on downloads only.

References

External links

*
Human
' at

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

ForeverBrandy.com
— official site {{Brandy songs 2008 singles Brandy Norwood songs Song recordings produced by RedOne Songs written by RedOne Songs written by Claude Kelly 2008 songs Epic Records singles Songs about heartache 2000s ballads Contemporary R&B ballads Pop ballads