"7 Years" is a song by Danish

soul The soul is the purported Mind–body dualism, immaterial aspect or essence of a Outline of life forms, living being. It is typically believed to be Immortality, immortal and to exist apart from the material world. The three main theories that ...

-pop band

Lukas Graham Lukas Graham is a Danish pop band consisting of lead vocalist Lukas Forchhammer, and drummer Mark Falgren. The band released '' Lukas Graham'', their first album, with labels Copenhagen Records and in 2012. The album peaked at number one on ...

from their second studio album, ''

''. The song was released as a digital download on Lukas Forchhammer's 27th birthday (18 September 2015) by

Copenhagen Records Copenhagen Records is a Danish record label formed on 5 January 2004Copenhagen Records (2011)Info & Kontakt. Retrieved 26 April 2011. by former EMI Recorded Music Denmark staff members to give artists more artistic autonomy. It houses artists sp ...

. The lyric video was uploaded to YouTube on 17 November 2015, and the

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

was uploaded on 15 December 2015. Despite receiving mixed reviews from music critics, "7 Years" topped the

Danish Singles Chart Hitlisten (), formerly known as Tracklisten, is a Danish top 40 record chart that is updated every Wednesday at midnight on the website hitlisten.nu. The weekly Danish singles chart combines the 40 best-selling tracks from streaming and legal mus ...

. Outside Denmark, the singles topped the charts in Australia, Austria, Canada, Italy, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, while peaking within the top ten of the charts in many other European countries and the United States. The song was written by Lukas Forchhammer, Stefan Forrest, Morten Ristorp, and Morten "Pilo" Pilegaard. The song was produced by Forrest and Ristorp under their stage name

Future Animals Future Animals is a Denmark, Danish group outfit comprising collaborating music producers Stefan Forrest ("Don Stefano") (songwriter/producer) and Morten Ristorp ("Rissi") (producer/songwriter). After break-up in 2019, Stefan Forrest continues to ...

, and Pilegaard. The song was mixed by Delbert Bowers and Pilegaard. On 12 February 2017, "7 Years" was nominated for three

Grammy Awards The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

Record of the Year The Grammy Award for Record of the Year is presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without re ...

, Song of the Year, and

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance The Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. According to the 63rd Grammy Awards category rules, "this categ ...

. According to the

International Federation of the Phonographic Industry The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) is the organisation that represents the interests of the recording industry worldwide. It is a non-profit members' organisation registered in Switzerland and founded in Italy in 1 ...

(IFPI), "7 Years" was the seventh best-selling song of 2016 worldwide with 10.4 million digital downloads and track-equivalent streams.

Background

In the interviews with Jeep, Lukas Graham mentioned that the song doesn't have a hook or a fixed structure and that the song simply has a vibe that progresses through the ages, allowing listeners to grow with it. Frontman Lukas Forchhammer described "7 Years" as a song that summarises his life so far and what he hopes to achieve in the future. He continued: "It's a song about growing older. I'm also coming to a realisation that being a father is the most important thing. My biggest dream is not to be some negative old dude, but to have my kids' friends say, 'You're going to visit your dad? Say hi! He's awesome.' I had a perfect father." Regarding the band's prior failure to break into the international market, Forchhammer stated, "It's like my father died at exactly the right moment – and I know that's something I shouldn't say, but I just did! If my dad hadn't died in 2012 I wouldn't have written our song 'Happy Home', which catapulted us into a Scandinavian success story. I wouldn't have written '7 Years', which got us signed to a publisher in America and ultimately signed to Warner Bros."

Composition

"7 Years" is a

-pop song with

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

influences, written in the key of

G minor G minor is a minor scale based on G, consisting of the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has two flats. Its relative major is B-flat major and its parallel major is G major. The G natural minor scale is: Changes n ...

with a chord progression of Gm-Bb-Eb-F. It runs at 130 bpm. It is accompanied by a mid-tempo piano line, a percussion backbeat, slideshow projector incorporations, and a synthesized string section.

Critical reception

"7 Years" received mixed reviews from critics. Danish newspaper ''

Jyllands-Posten (; English: ''The Morning Newspaper "The Jutland Post"''), commonly shortened to or ''JP'', is a Danish daily broadsheet newspaper. It is based in Aarhus C, Jutland, and with a weekday circulation of approximately 120,000 copies.Anders Houmøller Thomsen compared the song to

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

' "

When I'm Sixty-Four "When I'm Sixty-Four" is a song by the English rock band The Beatles, written by Paul McCartney (credited to Lennon–McCartney) and released on the 1967 album '' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band''. It was one of the first songs McCartney ...

": 7 Years' bubbles with ignited storytelling about life's fast speed, when the daydreams of childhood and youth suddenly becomes replaced by retirement-melancholia. Graham finds his own path between sweet sentimentality and heartbreaking empathy, and like a young McCartney, Graham also has a similar instinctive ability to craft superglue-sticking choruses." However, ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' magazine named "7 Years" one of the Top 10 Worst Songs of 2016, saying, "Good luck explaining the meteoric popularity of this (yes, catchy) chewy contemporary pop-rock ballad, which makes a listener yearn for the artistic integrity of a band like

Maroon 5 Maroon 5 is an American pop rock band from Los Angeles, California. It consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Adam Levine, rhythm guitarist and keyboardist Jesse Carmichael, lead guitarist James Valentine (musician), James Valentine, d ...

Chart performance

For the issue dated 6 February 2016, "7 Years" debuted at number 96 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. It became Lukas Graham's first single on the Hot 100. The song peaked at number two on the chart dated 9 April 2016, and became the highest-charting Danish act since "

Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...

" (1961) by

Jørgen Ingmann Jørgen Ingmann (born Jørgen Ingmann Pedersen; 26 April 1925 – 21 March 2015) was a Danish jazz and pop guitarist from Copenhagen. He was popular in Europe and had a wider international hit in 1961 with his version of "Apache". He and his w ...

. The song stayed there for four non-consecutive weeks, being held off of the top spot by

Rihanna Robyn Rihanna Fenty ( ; born February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian singer, businesswoman, and actress. One of the List of music artists by net worth, wealthiest musicians in the world, List of awards and nominations received by Rihanna, her vario ...

and

Drake Drake may refer to: Animals and creatures * A male duck * Drake (mythology), a term related to and often synonymous with dragon People and fictional characters * Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family ...

's "

Work Work may refer to: * Work (human activity), intentional activity people perform to support themselves, others, or the community ** Manual labour, physical work done by humans ** House work, housework, or homemaking ** Working animal, an ani ...

" (the reverse happened in the UK) and

Desiigner Sidney Royel Selby III (born May 3, 1997), better known by his stage name Desiigner, is an American rapper and singer. He is best known for his 2015 debut single "Panda", which topped the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Shortly after the song gained vira ...

's "

Panda The giant panda (''Ailuropoda melanoleuca''), also known as the panda bear or simply panda, is a bear species endemic to China. It is characterised by its white coat with black patches around the eyes, ears, legs and shoulders. Its body is ...

". "7 Years" also debuted at number 28 on the US

Digital Songs The Digital Song Sales (previously named Digital Songs and Hot Digital Songs) ranks the best-selling digital songs in the United States, as compiled by Luminate and published by '' Billboard'' magazine. Although it originally started tracking ...

chart with 26,000 digital copies sold. During 2016, the song sold 2.089 million copies in the US, making it the fourth best-selling song of the year. "7 Years" was the biggest hit in the US by a foreign-born act since

Gotye Wouter André De Backer (; born 21 May 1980), known professionally as Gotye ( , , ), is a Belgian-born Australian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is best known for his 2011 single "Somebody That I Used to Know" (featuring Kimbr ...

's "

Somebody That I Used to Know "Somebody That I Used to Know" is a song written, produced and performed by the Belgian-Australian musician and singer Gotye featuring vocals from the New Zealander singer Kimbra. The song was released in Australia and New Zealand through El ...

" in 2012. On 12 February 2016, "7 Years" peaked at number one on the UK Singles Chart, with combined weekly sales of 105,000 units (including 3.65 million streams). The song became the first number-one single by a Danish act since Aqua's " Turn Back Time" (1998). On 11 March 2016, "7 Years" spent its fifth consecutive week at number one, becoming the longest-running number-one single by a Danish act. On 18 March 2016, "7 Years" was replaced by

Mike Posner Michael Robert Henrion Posner ( ; born February 12, 1988) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer from Detroit.For Posner's full name, see He signed with J Records in 2009 and released his debut single "Cooler Than Me" the follo ...

's "

I Took a Pill in Ibiza "I Took a Pill in Ibiza" is a song by American singer Mike Posner. The song was originally acoustic guitar-based and released digitally as a single in the United States in April 2015 before being remixed a few months later by Norwegian production ...

" at number one, selling 261 copies fewer than Posner. It was the best-selling song in the UK in 2016 with 856,559 copies sold that year, although as it had fewer streams than Drake's "

One Dance "One Dance" is a song by Canadian rapper Drake from his fourth studio album '' Views'' (2016). It features guest vocals from Nigerian afrobeats artist Wizkid and British singer Kyla. The artists co-wrote the dancehall and afrobeats song with its ...

", which gave "7 Years" a combined total 1.49 million units against "One Dance"'s 1.95 million, it was ranked number 2 on the chart. "7 Years" peaked at number one on the

Australian Singles Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian record chart, music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA beca ...

, which makes Lukas Graham only the third Danish act to chart at number one (since Cut 'N' Move's "Give It Up", and Aqua's "

Barbie Girl "Barbie Girl" is a song by Danish-Norwegian dance-pop group Aqua. It was released in April 1997 by Universal and MCA as the third single from the group's debut studio album, ''Aquarium''. The song was written by band members Søren Rasted, Cl ...

" and " Doctor Jones"). On the chart issue dated 11 April 2016, "7 Years" spent its eighth consecutive week at number one, becoming the longest-running number-one single by a Danish act. It overtook the previous record set by Aqua's "Doctor Jones", which spent seven consecutive weeks at number one in 1997–98.

Music video and lyric

The official music video for "7 Years" was first released on YouTube on 15 December 2015 at a total length of four minutes. Filmed in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

and

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, ...

, the video was written, directed, and edited by Danish film director René Sascha Johannsen. In the interviews with Billboard, Lukas Forchhammer shared that "7 Years" was composed quite swiftly, coming together in just a few hours. He described the process as capturing a raw and spontaneous emotional flow, mentioning on Billboard that it took three and a half hours to write the entire song.

Cover versions

British singer

Jasmine Thompson Jasmine Ying Thompson (born 8 November 2000) is a British singer and songwriter. She began her career at the age of ten by filming herself singing and uploading the videos to YouTube. In 2014, she was featured on German deep house producer Robi ...

released a cover version of the song on 22 April 2016 through

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

. On 24 April 2016, Dutch singer Jan Versteegh released a cover version of the song through 8Ball Music, which was later included on his debut album, ''It Takes Swing'', which was released on 13 May 2016. British singer

Conor Maynard Conor Paul Maynard (born 21 November 1992) is an English singer. Born and raised in Brighton, he signed a recording contract with Warner Music Group in 2011. Maynard rose to fame in 2012 when he was nominated for, and subsequently won, MTV's ' ...

covered the song on the album ''Covers'', which was released on 5 August 2016 by

Parlophone Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 1923 as the Parloph ...

. Linkin' Bridge, an American musical group from

Louisville Louisville is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeast, and the 27th-most-populous city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 24th-largest city; however, by populatio ...

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

, covered the song during the semi-finals of

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

's ''

America's Got Talent ''America's Got Talent'' (often abbreviated as ''AGT'') is an American talent show competition, and is part of the global ''Got Talent'' franchise created by Simon Cowell. The program is produced by Fremantle (as well as distributed by) and ...

'' season 11 on 14 September 2016.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References