"I Don't Wanna Live Forever", alternatively titled "I Don't Wanna Live Forever (Fifty Shades Darker)", is a song recorded by English singer Zayn and American singer-songwriter

Taylor Swift Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Her discography spans multiple genres, and her vivid songwriting—often inspired by her personal life—has received critical praise and wide media coverage. Bor ...

for the

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

to the 2017 film ''

Fifty Shades Darker ''Fifty Shades Darker'' is a 2012 erotic romance novel by British author E. L. James. It is the second installment in the ''Fifty Shades'' trilogy that traces the deepening relationship between a college graduate, Anastasia Steele, and a youn ...

''. It was written by Swift,

Sam Dew Sam Dew is an American singer-songwriter from Chicago, Illinois. He is best known for writing the hook to the track "LoveHate Thing," a single from Wale's 2013 album '' The Gifted''. Dew is also credited for writing and performing on additional ...

, and its producer

Jack Antonoff Jack Michael Antonoff (born March 31, 1984) is an American singer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. Antonoff is the lead singer of rock band Bleachers, and is the guitarist and drummer in the pop rock band Fun. He was p ...

. The single was released on December 9, 2016, by

Republic Records Republic Records is a New York City–based American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). It was founded by Avery Lipman and Monte Lipman as an independent label in 1995, and was acquired by UMG in 2000. Republic was initially an ...

to international commercial success. "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" is a sultry electro- R&B and

electropop Electropop is a hybrid music genre combining elements of electronic and pop genres. Writer Hollin Jones has described it as a variant of synth-pop with heavy emphasis on its electronic sound. The genre was developed in the 1980s and saw a re ...

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

that sees Zayn and Swift exchange romantic overtures. Its accompanying music video was released on January 27, 2017. Upon release, "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" received positive reviews from

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 praised the duo's vocal performances. Debuting at number six on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, the song eventually rose to its peak of number two, becoming Zayn's second top-five hit and Swift's eleventh on the chart, and the highest-peaking song from the ''Fifty Shades'' franchise. It topped the charts in Sweden, while reaching the top-five region in several other countries. In the US, the song became one of the top-ten best selling singles of 2016. As of June 2018, it is certified 4× Platinum by the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

for selling over 4 million units in the country. "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" is the best-selling western single in Chinese history. The song is certified Diamond in Brazil and France, and has received several platinum and multi-platinum certifications globally. At the

60th Annual Grammy Awards The 60th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held on January 28, 2018. The CBS network broadcast the show live from Madison Square Garden in New York City. The show was moved to January to avoid coinciding with the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongc ...

, "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" received a nomination for

Best Song Written for Visual Media The Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media (including its previous names) is the Grammy Awards awarded to songs written for films, television, video games or other visual media. Recipients * Each year is linked t ...

. It won the Best Collaboration at the

2017 MTV Video Music Awards The 2017 MTV Video Music Awards were held on August 27, 2017 at The Forum in Inglewood, California, honoring music videos released between June 25, 2016 and June 23, 2017. It was hosted by Katy Perry. The 34th annual award show aired live from th ...

, Best Collaboration of the Year at the 2017 MTV Millennial Awards and an

iHeartRadio iHeartRadio (often shortened to just "iHeart") is an American freemium broadcast, podcast and radio streaming Computing platform, platform owned by iHeartMedia. It was founded in August 2008. , iHeartRadio was functioning as the national umbr ...

Titanium Award for amassing one billion spins.

Composition

"I Don't Wanna Live Forever" is an electro- R&B and

ballad. On the track, the pair trade "romantic overtures", while Zayn uses a

falsetto ''Falsetto'' (, ; Italian diminutive of , "false") is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous ed ...

on parts of the song, and Swift ponders what the relationship means. "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" is written in the key of

A minor A minor is a minor scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has no flats and no sharps. Its relative major is C major and its parallel major is A major. The A natural minor scale is: : Changes ...

and moves at a

tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (often ...

of 118 beats per minute in

common time The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note value ...

. The song follows a chord progression of F–C–G–Am–F–C–G–G–Am, and the vocals span two octaves, from E₃ to E₅.

Critical reception

"I Don't Wanna Live Forever" received highly positive reviews from

. Nolan Feenery of ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

'' gave it a B+ rating: "Welcome to Taylor Swift's Sexy Side." He also praised the vocals of both artists. Lucas Villa of '' AXS'' thought the song was not as sexy as

Ellie Goulding Elena Jane Goulding ( ; born 30 December 1986) is an English singer and songwriter. Her career began when she met record producers Starsmith and Frankmusik, and she was later spotted by Jamie Lillywhite, who became her manager and Artists and ...

's " Love Me like You Do" or

The Weeknd Abel Makkonen Tesfaye (born February 16, 1990), known professionally as the Weeknd, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor. Known for his sonic versatility and dark lyricism, his music explores escapism, Romance (love), ...

's "

Earned It "Earned It", alternatively titled "Earned It (Fifty Shades of Grey)", is a song by Canadian singer the Weeknd. The song was released as the lead single from the soundtrack to the 2015 film ''Fifty Shades of Grey'' and was included on the Weeknd' ...

", writing, "Despite the neutered lyricism, Zayn saves the day and manages to maneuver his most magnificent performance to date." In June 2022,

Insider ''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German publ ...

ranked "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" as Swift's second best soundtrack song, only behind " Safe & Sound".

Commercial performance

The song upon release was available only on

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

and

Tidal Tidal is the adjectival form of tide. Tidal may also refer to: * ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple * Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim * TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music * Tidal (servic ...

. It was not serviced on

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 ...

upon launch but was later added the following week. In the United States, it sold 188,000 in its first week, in addition to a 25 million radio audience and 3 million streams. It debuted at number six on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. It is Zayn's second top 10 solo single and Taylor Swift's 20th top 10, making her the 16th artist and sixth woman to achieve this. It debuted at number one on the ''Billboard'' Digital Song Sales chart, as Zayn's fourth song (second solo song) and Swift's eleventh song to top the chart, tying Swift with

Katy Perry Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known professionally as Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. Known for her influence on modern pop music and her Camp (style), campy style, she has been ...

for the second-most in the chart's history, behind

Rihanna Robyn Rihanna Fenty ( ; born February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian singer, actress, and businesswoman. Born in Saint Michael and raised in Bridgetown, Barbados, Rihanna auditioned for American record producer Evan Rogers who invited her to the ...

. It is also Zayn's second number-one on the Digital Songs chart in 2016, making him one of only two artists to top the chart with two songs that year, along with

Drake Drake may refer to: Animals * A male duck People and fictional characters * Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family name * Drake (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * ...

. The song later reached a new peak of number two on the Hot 100, but was held off the top spot by

Ed Sheeran Edward Christopher Sheeran (; born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently r ...

's "

Shape of You "Shape of You" is a song by English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran. It was released on 6 January 2017 as one of the double lead singles from his third studio album '' ÷'' (2017), along with "Castle on the Hill". The dancehall and R&B-infused ...

" with 109 million in radio audience and 25.7 million streams, becoming Zayn's second top-five single (as solo artist), Swift's 11th top-five single, and the highest-charting ''Fifty Shades'' single. It reached over a million in sales by July 2017, and as of November 2017, it has sold 1.4 million copies in the United States. The song was the tenth best-selling song of 2017 in the United States, selling 1,108,000 copies in that year. Across European charts, the song debuted at number one in Spain and Sweden, becoming Swift's first number-one single in both countries, while becoming Zayn's first number-one in Spain and his second number-one in Sweden. It was certified platinum there. It reached the top 10 in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

Music video

The official music video of the song was released on January 27, 2017 through both Zayn and Taylor Swift's official

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

account at the same time, and was later uploaded through the official Fifty Shades

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, di ...

account as well. It was directed by Grant Singer and was produced by Saul Germaine. The music video uploaded on Malik's Vevo channel has more than 131 million views on YouTube as of December 2020. The music video uploaded on Swift's Vevo channel has more than 607 million views on YouTube as of December 2020. It was named the fourth best music video of 2017 by

Synopsis

The video starts with Malik emerging from his car on a rainy night in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

at the St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel as the paparazzi take photos. As he enters the hotel, he starts singing his part, and as the chorus begins he reaches the elevator with red lights, and then the camera pans over to another elevator with Swift singing her part and proceed to her hotel room. Malik sings the chorus in his room, and Swift pours some champagne in a glass. The rest of the video is the pair throwing objects like glasses, lamps and pillows across their rooms in anger with flashing blue and red lights. The pair are seen standing together, facing backs and singing the chorus together (Malik singing the chorus and Swift lip-syncing) and looking at each other. The video ends with Swift on her bed singing the last part of the song.

Live performances

Swift first performed "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" acoustically as a part of her set list for

DirectTV DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. I ...

's ''Super Saturday Night'' event on February 4, 2017. She later performed the song at

KIIS FM KIIS-FM (102.7 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to Los Angeles, California, United States, and broadcasts to the Greater Los Angeles area. The station airs a top 40 format. Owned by iHeartMedia, KIIS-FM is the origin of the conglome ...

's Jingle Ball in Los Angeles (December 1) and Capital FM's

Jingle Bell Ball The Jingle Bell Ball is a concert held annually in December since 2008 (except for 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic), by the radio station Capital FM at The O2. Artists that have headlined the concert include Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Li ...

in London (December 10). She included the song in the

B-stage A B-stage is a small, secondary stage, featured at pop and rock concerts held in arenas and stadiums, and is usually located in the middle of the concert floor, connected to the main stage by a walkway. Origins Although its origins trace ba ...

portion at her second Manchester performance of her

Reputation Stadium Tour The Reputation Stadium Tour was the fifth concert tour by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, in support of her sixth studio album ''Reputation'' (2017). The all- stadium tour began on May 8, 2018, in Glendale, Arizona, and concluded on ...

Awards and nominations

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of '' Fifty Shades Darker: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack''. Recording * Recorded at Rough Coustumer Studio (

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

) *Zayn's vocals recorded at

Record Plant The Record Plant is a recording studio established in New York City in 1968 and currently operating in Los Angeles, California. Known for innovations in the recording artists' workspace, it has produced highly influential albums, including Blon ...

(

Los Angeles 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' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

) * Taylor Swift's vocals recorded at Rough Costumer Studios (Brooklyn, New York) * Additional vocals engineered at NightBird Recording Studios (

West Hollywood West Hollywood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Incorporated in 1984, it is home to the Sunset Strip. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. Census, its population was 35,757. It is considered one of the most ...

, California) * Mixed at MixStar Studios (

Virginia Beach, Virginia Virginia Beach is an independent city located on the southeastern coast of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The population was 459,470 at the 2020 census. Although mostly suburban in character, it is the most populous city ...

) * Mastered at

Sterling Sound Studios Ted Jensen (born September 19, 1954) is an American mastering engineer, known for having mastered many recordings, including the Eagles' ''Hotel California'', Green Day's '' American Idiot'' and Norah Jones' ''Come Away with Me''. Biography T ...

(

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, New York) Management * Published by Sony/ATV Tree Publishing/Taylor Swift Music ( BMI), Sony/ATV Songs LLC/Ducky Donathan Music (BMI), Sony/ATV Sonata/By the Chi Publishing (

SESAC SESAC is a for-profit performance-rights organization in the United States. Founded in 1930 as the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers, it is the second-oldest performance-rights organization in the United States.

), UPG Music Publishing (BMI) and 1320 Music Publishing (SESAC) * Zayn appears courtesy of

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...

* Taylor Swift appears courtesy of

Big Machine Records Big Machine Records is an American independent record label, distributed by Universal Music Group. Specializing in country and pop artists, Big Machine is based on Music Row in Nashville, Tennessee. The label was founded in September 2005 by fo ...

Personnel * Zayn –

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...

–

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

– producer, songwriter,

instruments Instrument may refer to: Science and technology * Flight instruments, the devices used to measure the speed, altitude, and pertinent flight angles of various kinds of aircraft * Laboratory equipment, the measuring tools used in a scientific lab ...

, vocals recording (Taylor Swift) *

–

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 used ...

, songwriter * Daniel Zaidenstadt – vocals recording (Zayn) * Saltwives – additional vocals engineer * Serban Ghenea – mixing * Tom Coyne – mastering

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{authority control 2010s ballads 2016 songs 2016 singles Taylor Swift songs Zayn Malik songs Songs written by Taylor Swift Songs written by Jack Antonoff Songs written by Sam Dew Song recordings produced by Jack Antonoff Universal Music Group singles Male–female vocal duets Number-one singles in Sweden Fifty Shades film music Contemporary R&B ballads Republic Records singles