"Under Control" is a song recorded by Scottish DJ Calvin Harris and Swedish DJ Alesso, featuring vocals from

Theo Hutchcraft Theo David Hutchcraft (born 30 August 1986) is an English singer and songwriter. He is best known as the lead singer of the synthpop duo Hurts. Early life Theo David Hutchcraft was born on 30 August 1986 in Richmond, North Yorkshire. Career B ...

, credited to his duo

Hurts Hurts are an English musical duo formed in Manchester in 2009, consisting of singer Theo Hutchcraft and multi-instrumentalist Adam Anderson. They have released five studio albums: ''Happiness'' (2010), ''Exile'' (2013), ''Surrender'' (2015), ' ...

. The song was released on 7 October 2013 as the first single from Harris's fourth studio album, ''

Motion In physics, motion is the phenomenon in which an object changes its position with respect to time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed and frame of reference to an observer and m ...

'' (2014), and the second single from Alesso's debut studio album, ''

Forever Forever or 4ever may refer to: Film and television Films * ''Forever'' (1921 film), an American silent film by George Fitzmaurice * ''Forever'' (1978 film), an American made-for-television romantic drama * ''Forever'' (1992 film), an American ...

'' (2015). "Under Control" debuted at number one on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

with first-week sales of 74,704 copies, becoming Harris's fifth number-one single, and the first for Alesso and Hurts.

Background

"Under Control" was premiered on 2 August 2013 during a DJ set by Alesso at Ushuaia, Ibiza, which was broadcast by

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

. Harris performed the song at the end of his set at the V Festival on 20 August. On 18 September, Harris posted a preview of the song on

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 ...

. The cover was unveiled on Alesso's

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page on 4 October.

Music video

On 9 September 2013, Harris stated on

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that 1,000 fans would take a part in the music video shoot. Later a message was reposted by Alesso and Theo Hutchcraft from Hurts in a blog on Twitter. The video was shot in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

on 10 and 11 September. On the second day of the shoot, already with the fans, filming was held at the 6th Street Bridge, for an

EDM EDM or E-DM may refer to: Music * Electronic dance music * Early Day Miners, American band Science and technology * Electric dipole moment * Electrical discharge machining * Electronic distance measurement *Entry, Descent, and landing demonstrat ...

concert held by the song's artists celebrating the end of the world. The world didn't actually end in the video because the

meteor A meteoroid () is a small rocky or metallic body in outer space. Meteoroids are defined as objects significantly smaller than asteroids, ranging in size from grains to objects up to a meter wide. Objects smaller than this are classified as mi ...

failed to hit the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

. The video was uploaded to Harris's

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, ...

account on 21 October 2013 and has over 190 million views.

Track listings

Personnel

Credits adapted from CD single liner notes. * Alesso – all instruments, engineering, mixing, production, songwriting * Calvin Harris – all instruments, engineering, mixing, production, songwriting *

– vocals, songwriting * Mike Marsh – mastering

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2013 singles 2013 songs Alesso songs Calvin Harris songs Columbia Records singles Hurts songs Songs written by Calvin Harris Number-one singles in Scotland UK Singles Chart number-one singles Songs written by Alesso Songs written by Theo Hutchcraft Song recordings produced by Alesso