"Beneath Your Beautiful" is a song by British musicians

Labrinth Timothy Lee McKenzie (born 4 January 1989), better known by his stage name Labrinth, is an English singer, rapper, songwriter and record producer. After initially pursuing a career in music production, Simon Cowell signed him to his record lab ...

and

Emeli Sandé Adele Emily Sandé, ( ; born 10 March 1987), known professionally as Emeli Sandé, is a Scottish singer and songwriter. Born in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, and raised in Alford, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, by an English mother and a Zambian father ...

. Written by Labrinth, Mike Posner and Sandé, it was promoted as the sixth single from Labrinth's debut album, '' Electronic Earth'' (2012), and is included as a bonus track on the US Deluxe Edition of Sandé's debut studio album ''

Our Version of Events ''Our Version of Events'' is the debut studio album by Scottish recording artist Emeli Sandé. The album was released on 13 February 2012 by Virgin Records, following Sandé's winning of the Critics' Choice Award at the BRIT Awards 2012. Though ...

''. Impacting from 18 October 2012, and following a well-received performance on the ninth series of ''

The X Factor ''The X Factor'' is a television music competition franchise created by British producer Simon Cowell and his company Syco Entertainment. It originated in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for '' Pop Idol'' (2001–2003 ...

,'' the single would go on to sell 108,000 copies in the UK during its first week and top 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 ...

. It became Labrinth's first number one single as a lead artist and additionally became his first top 40 hit on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, where it peaked at number 34. The song was nominated for 'Best British Single' at the

2013 Brit Awards Brit Awards 2013 was held on 20 February 2013. This was the 33rd edition of the British Phonographic Industry's annual Brit Awards. The awards ceremony was held at The O2 Arena in London, and was presented for the third time in three years by J ...

and was ranked the twelfth best-selling single of 2012 in the UK.

Background and release

"Beneath Your Beautiful" is an R&B

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 ...

written by

, Mike Posner, and

. It was recorded as a duet between Labrinth and Sandé for Labrinth's debut studio album '' Electronic Earth''. The title of the song attracted attention from fans, some of whom questioned Labrinth about the spelling of the word "Your" within the song's title, believing that was a grammatical error and should have been spelt "You're" (although the song's lyrics use the words "beautiful" and "perfect" as nouns). Upon reaching number one, fans asked Labrinth via social networking website

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

about the spelling. He replied "Can I make something clear! this is twitter! Not an English GCSE haha I’ll spell as BADLY as I wish awritemayte!... Oh is this about #Beneath”YOUR”Beautiful I love how crazy this has sent people…. It was to annoy English teachers and grammar Nazis." The song was nominated for the

Brit Award The BRIT Awards (often simply called the BRITs) are the British Phonographic Industry's annual popular music awards. The name was originally a shortened form of "British", "Britain", or "Britannia" (in the early days the awards were sponsored ...

for Best British Single at the

Chart and sales performance

The song was released in the UK on 18 November 2011. Originally only reaching number 200 in the

on 14 April 2012, it peaked at number one on 28 October 2012, selling 108,000 copies in its first week of release. This became Labrinth's first number one single as a solo artist, and Sandé's second number one overall. To date, "Beneath Your Beautiful" has peaked within the top 40 in over 15 countries worldwide. The song was the 12th best-selling single of 2012 in the UK, with 663,000 copies sold and was certified as Platinum.

Music video

The music video for the track was uploaded to Labrinth's official

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

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and 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 Google, and is the second mo ...

on 5 October 2012. The video features Labrinth and Sandé performing the track while standing in front of a giant screen, which features images of them both.

Live performances

On 21 October 2012, Labrinth and Sandé performed the song live for the first time on ''

'', which led to the sales boost that got it number one. Since the performance on ''The X Factor'', the video has gained more than 14 million views. At Capital FM's Summertime Ball 2013, on Sunday 9 June 2013,

performed the song with ''

'' 2012 finalist Ella Henderson live, as part of his setlist, with Henderson replacing Sandé.

Track listing

Notes * "Express Yourself" contains a sample song of the same name written by Charles Wright and performed by Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band and "

Funky Drummer "Funky Drummer" is a single released by James Brown in 1970. Its drum break, improvised by Clyde Stubblefield, is one of the most frequently sampled music recordings. Recording and composition "Funky Drummer" was recorded on November 20, 196 ...

" written and performed by

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the hono ...

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{authority control 2012 singles Labrinth songs Contemporary R&B ballads Songs written by Emeli Sandé Irish Singles Chart number-one singles Number-one singles in Poland Number-one singles in Scotland UK Singles Chart number-one singles Emeli Sandé songs Songs written by Mike Posner Syco Music singles Song recordings produced by Labrinth Songs written by Labrinth 2012 songs 2010s ballads