"It's My Life" is a song by American
rock band
Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Sayreville, New Jersey in 1983. The band consists of singer Jon Bon Jovi, keyboardist David Bryan, drummer Tico Torres, guitarists John Shanks and Phil X, percussionist Everett Bradley ...
. It was released on May 8, 2000, as the
lead single from their seventh studio album, ''
Crush'' (2000). It was written by
Jon Bon Jovi
John Francis Bongiovi Jr. (born March 2, 1962), known professionally as Jon Bon Jovi, is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actor. He is best known as the founder and Lead vocalist, frontman of the rock band Bon Jovi, which was fo ...
,
Richie Sambora, and
Max Martin, and co-produced by
Luke Ebbin. The song peaked at number one in Austria,
Flanders
Flanders ( or ; ) is the Dutch language, Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, la ...
, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Spain, and Switzerland while charting within the top 10 across several other countries and peaking at number 33 on the US
''Billboard'' Hot 100. "It's My Life" is Bon Jovi's most well-known post-1980s hit single and helped introduce the band to a new, younger fanbase.
Background
The song "It's My Life" has many classic Bon Jovi features, such as
Richie Sambora's use of the
talk box, and a line in the second
verse "For Tommy and Gina, who never backed down" refers to Tommy and Gina, a fictional
working class
The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...
couple that Bon Jovi and Sambora first wrote about in their 1986 hit "
Livin' on a Prayer".
"It's My Life" is also notable for its line referencing fellow New Jerseyan
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...
: "My heart is like an open highway / Like Frankie said / I did it '
My Way'."
Jon Bon Jovi
John Francis Bongiovi Jr. (born March 2, 1962), known professionally as Jon Bon Jovi, is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actor. He is best known as the founder and Lead vocalist, frontman of the rock band Bon Jovi, which was fo ...
and Richie Sambora apparently had a disagreement over those lines, with Bon Jovi recalling:
In
Paul Anka's cover of the song for his 2005 album ''
Rock Swings'', he sings the second line as "Frankie said ''he did it my way''", since Anka wrote the English lyrics for "My Way".
Reception
"Nobody had anticipated the song 'It's My Life'," noted Jon Bon Jovi in 2007. "Except us. We knew we had a hit." The song became an anthem that appealed to many fans. As Bon Jovi later stated: "I thought I was writing very self-indulgently about my own life and where I was in it. I didn't realize that the phrase 'It's My Life' would be taken as being about everyone – by teenagers, by older guys, mechanics, whatever. 'It's my life, and I'm taking control.' Everyone kind of feels that way from time to time."
Veteran critic
Robert Christgau
Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...
later hailed "It's My Life" as a "schlock-
rock masterpiece" and "everyman anthem" with a lyric that is "all well-meaning Democrat-as-everyman Jon Bon Jovi".
Music video
The music video was directed by
Wayne Isham.
Will Estes (as Tommy) and
Shiri Appleby (as Gina) are the two main characters. At the beginning, Tommy is watching a video of a Bon Jovi concert on his computer when he is ordered by his mother to take out the trash. Suddenly, Gina calls and tells him to immediately come to the
tunnel
A tunnel is an underground or undersea passageway. It is dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, or laid under water, and is usually completely enclosed except for the two portals common at each end, though there may be access and ve ...
as the live concert has already started. Tommy starts running down to his apartment and obediently takes out the trash. He then runs through the streets of
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
up to the concert, getting chased by
dogs, taking pictures of
Elvis impersonator
An Elvis impersonator is an entertainer who impersonates or copies the look and sound of American musician and rock singer Elvis Presley. Professional Elvis impersonators, commonly known as Elvis tribute artists (ETAs), work all over the wor ...
s, running a
marathon
The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of kilometres ( 26 mi 385 yd), usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There ...
and
jackknifing a truck. The video was inspired by the film ''
Run Lola Run''. Jon Bon Jovi met Estes on the set of ''U-571'' and chose him to be in the video. The music video features the
2nd Street Tunnel as one of the main settings.
It is the most viewed video for Bon Jovi on
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
, reaching 1 billion views (the band's first song to do so) by the end of June 2021.
Track listings
US 7-inch single
:A. "It's My Life"
:B. "Next 100 Years"
Australian maxi-CD single
# "It's My Life"
# "Hush"
(demo version)
# "You Can't Lose at Love"
(demo)
# "I Don't Want to Live Forever"
(demo)
# "
Someday I'll Be Saturday Night"
(enhanced video clip)
* Track five was recorded live by
Tony Bongiovi at the Sanctuary II, New Jersey Web Concert on February 10, 2000
UK CD1
# "It's My Life"
# "Hush"
(demo version)
# "You Can't Lose at Love"
(demo version)
* Includes poster
UK CD2
# "It's My Life"
(Dave Bascombe mix)
# "Temptation"
(demo version)
# "I Don't Want to Live Forever"
(demo version)
# "It's My Life"
(enhanced video)
European CD single
# "It's My Life"
# "Hush"
(demo version)
European and Japanese maxi-CD single
# "It's My Life"
# "Hush"
(demo version)
# "You Can't Lose at Love"
(demo version)
# "Someday I'll Be Saturday Night"
(live video)
* Track four was recorded live by Tony Bongiovi at the Sanctuary II, New Jersey Web Concert on February 10, 2000
Acoustic version
A much slower,
acoustic ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...
version of the song is featured on Bon Jovi's 2003 album ''
This Left Feels Right'', a collection of their greatest hits that were adapted into new formats. This version was also released as a single. A live performance was uploaded to YouTube in May 2020.
Awards
Won:
*Video of the Year at the
VH1 My Music Awards
*Chosen as one of the greatest songs of the year at the
ASCAP Pop Music Awards
Nominated:
*
Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal at the
43rd Annual Grammy Awards, but lost to
U2's "
Beautiful Day"
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Decade-end charts
Certifications
Release history
Pitbull version
At the
25th Annual Latin Grammy Awards on November 14, 2024, rapper
Pitbull performed a cover of "It's My Life" under the title "Now or Never", featuring Jon Bon Jovi on chorus. The song was also released on streaming platforms on the same day.
The two artists first met at the 2017
Songwriters Hall of Fame.
On September 12, 2024, during Pitbull's show at the
Jones Beach Theater
Jones Beach Theater is an outdoor amphitheatre at Jones Beach State Park in Wantagh, New York. It is one of two major outdoor arenas in the New York metropolitan area, along with PNC Bank Arts Center near the Jersey Shore. Both venues are manage ...
in
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...
, Jon Bon Jovi made a surprise appearance before the duo performed "It's My Life". After the show, Pitbull posted on his
Instagram
Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...
account: "Always an honor! To all the fans, get ready for our new collab coming soon."
The song hit number thirty-six on ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
''
's
Pop Airplay chart in 2025, becoming Bon Jovi's first song to chart on that chart since "
Who Says You Can't Go Home" hit number thirty nearly 20 years ago.
Charts
Weekly charts
Monthly charts
See also
*
List of number-one hits of 2000 (Austria)
*
List of Dutch Top 40 number-one singles of 2000
*
List of number-one hits of 2000 (Italy)
*
List of number-one singles of 2000 (Spain)
*
List of Romanian Top 100 number ones of the 2000s
*
List of number-one singles of the 2000s (Switzerland)
Notes
References
{{Authority control
Island Records singles
2000 songs
2000 singles
Bon Jovi songs
Dutch Top 40 number-one singles
European Hot 100 Singles number-one singles
Mercury Records singles
Number-one singles in Austria
Number-one singles in Italy
Number-one singles in Portugal
Number-one singles in Romania
Number-one singles in Spain
Number-one singles in Switzerland
Music videos directed by Wayne Isham
Pitbull (rapper) songs
Song recordings produced by Max Martin
Songs written by Jon Bon Jovi
Songs written by Max Martin
American alternative rock songs
Songs written by Pitbull (rapper)
Songs written by Richie Sambora
Ultratop 50 Singles (Flanders) number-one singles