"Cherry Pop" is a song recorded by Romanian singer

Alexandra Stan Alexandra Ioana Stan (born 10 June 1989) is a Romanian singer. Born in Constanța, she made her worldwide breakthrough with the 2010 single " Mr. Saxobeat", which was written and produced by Marcel Prodan and Andrei Nemirschi. They had previous ...

for her second studio album '' Unlocked'' (2014). It was made available for digital download on 28 May 2014 through

Roton In theoretical physics, a roton is an elementary excitation, or quasiparticle, seen in superfluid helium-4 and Bose–Einstein condensates with long-range dipolar interactions or spin-orbit coupling. The dispersion relation of elementary excita ...

as the record's second single. The track was written by the singer, Lukas Hällgren and Erik Lidbom, while production was handled by the latter two. "Cherry Pop" was recorded at the Fonogram Studios in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

, Romania, with additional engineering being done at Lidbom's Hitfire Production. Musically, "Cherry Pop" is of the

J-pop J-pop (often stylized in all caps; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively known simply as , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1990s. Modern J-pop has its roots in trad ...

genre, but is also influenced by

Eurodance Eurodance (sometimes referred to as Euro-NRG) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s in Europe. It combines many elements of Hip-hop, rap, techno and Eurodisco. This genre of music is heavily influenced by the use ...

and

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...

music, and has a

dubstep Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken ...

breakdown. An accompanying music video for the track was uploaded on 28 May 2014 on Stan's

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 ...

channel; Khaled Mokhtar was both the clip's director and director of photography. It was shot in

Buftea Buftea () is a town in Ilfov County, Muntenia, Romania, located north-west of Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Rom ...

, Romania, and portrays Stan and her background dancers performing choreography created by performer Emil Rengle. The song reached number 64 on the

Japan Hot 100 The ''Billboard Japan'' Hot 100 is a record chart in Japan for songs. It has been compiled by ''Billboard Japan'' and Hanshin Contents Link since February 2008. The chart is updated every Wednesday at Billboard-japan.com ( JST) and every Thursday ...

and became the most-sought ringtone on the largest Japanese profile site,

Recochoku Avex Inc. ( kabushiki gaisha , commonly known as Avex and stylized as avex) is a Japanese entertainment conglomerate led by founder Max Matsuura and headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1988, the company manages J-pop talents like Ayumi ...

Background and composition

"Cherry Pop" was written by Stan herself, Lukas Hällgren and Erik Lidbom, while production was handled by both Hällgren and Lidbom. It was recorded at the Fonogram Studios in

, Romania and was additionally mixed and engineered at Lidbom's Hitfire Production in

Uppsala Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...

, Sweden. Further's work on the track was done during FonoCamp2013, the first Romanian international songwriting camp held in

Azuga Azuga is a small resort town in the mountains of Prahova County in the historical region of Muntenia, Romania. It is located at the foot of the Baiu Mountains and contains several ski slopes, including the longest ski run in Romania, the Soric ...

. Fellow Romanian and international singers were also present at the two-weeks event, such as

Delia Matache Delia Matache (born 7 February 1982), commonly referred to as simply Delia, is a Romanian singer and television personality. She was part of the pop group N&D (1999–2003). As a solo artist, she has established herself as one of the most success ...

Mohombi Mohombi Nzasi Moupondo (born 17 October 1986) is a Congolese- Swedish musician, singer, composer and dancer. He grew up in Norsborg and Kista near Stockholm. Mohombi was RedOne's first signing to 2101 Records in joint venture with Universa ...

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and

Deepcentral Deepcentral is a Romanian pop duo with house music influences formed in 2009 by Romanian DJ George Călin (now known as Manuel Riva) and vocalist Doru Todoruț. Călin, the DJ of the duo had begun his musical career with the band Demmo, that al ...

. Stan described "Cherry Pop" as a

song, noting that while she had not worked with the genre " tfits my style", as she finds J-pop music "very energetic, it's got such a positive vibe to it." She also noticed influences to

. An administrator of IasiFun commended the recording as being influenced by

, while also describing the song's instrumentation as "electric" and "vibrant". Anthony Easton, a writer for The Singles Jukebox, described the song as a "popluxe", while Ian Mew compared it to " Bubble Pop!" by South Korean singer

Hyuna Kim Hyun-ah (; born June 6, 1992), known professionally as Hyuna (stylized as HyunA), is a South Korean singer-songwriter, rapper and model. She debuted as a member of the girl group Wonder Girls in February 2007. Upon leaving the ensemble sho ...

. According to Popdust, "Cherry Pop" uses

for its breakdown. The main idea for the song was based on Stan's first kiss which, according to her, "tasted like candy".

Critical reception

"Cherry Pop" received generally mixed reviews from music critics upon release. The Singles Jukebox gave the song an overall rating of 5/10, with one of the writers, Andy Hutchins, confessed that "a better title for the song might have been '

Dr Pepper Dr Pepper is a carbonated soft drink. Dr Pepper was created in the 1880s by the American pharmacist Charles Alderton in Waco, Texas, and was first nationally marketed in the United States in 1904. It is manufactured by Keurig Dr Pepper in t ...

'". Website Popdust described the song as "outdated", but at the same time catchy and funny. Hitfire praised the song's refrain as being "earwhormy" and "trashy". They went on saying that "Cherry Pop" "doesn't reach the standards like of her previously launched songs, '

Mr. Saxobeat "Mr. Saxobeat" is a song by Romanian singer Alexandra Stan, released on 12 September 2010 as the second single from her debut studio album, '' Saxobeats'' (2011). The track was written and produced by Marcel Prodan and Andrei Nemirschi, and was ...

', '

Get Back (ASAP) "Get Back (ASAP)" is a song recorded by Romanian singer Alexandra Stan, released on 28 March 2011 by Play On / Jeff Records as the third single from her debut studio album, ''Saxobeats'' (2011). The track was written and produced by Marcel Prodan ...

' and '

Lemonade Lemonade is a sweetened lemon-flavored drink. There are many varieties of lemonade found throughout the world. In some parts of the world, lemonade refers to an un-carbonated, traditionally, homemade drink, using lemon juice, water, and a sw ...

'". Music website Pop Shock described the single as a "grower track". Website Addictivoz praised overall her album ''Unlocked'', mentioning also that the song is "ironic". Another article called the song ″rather obvious″ but ″perfect for the summer″. In a 2019 retrospective for ''Unlocked'', writer Jan Bran from R&BJUNK praised Stan's ability to navigate a variety of subgenres, citing ″Cherry Pop″ as an example.

Commercial performance

According to the biggest Japanese profile site,

, "Cherry Pop" became the most sought ringtone on their website within two hours. The news that "Cherry Pop" achieved so much success in Japan came to Stan when she was on tour in Turkey. There, the organizers of her show displayed the sentence "Congratulations, Alexandra Stan, you're number 1!" on the main screen of the club. The song entered the

at number 64 on 5 July 2014. It subsequently left the chart after just one week. "Cherry Pop" also peaked at number 82 on the native

Airplay 100 Multiple record charts have been inaugurated in Romania since the 1990s. The Romanian Top 100 was the country's national chart until 2012. Founded in 1995, it was a ranking based on the compilation of charts submitted by local Romanian radio stat ...

chart, and reached number two on the Turkish Number One Top 20 compiled on 6 September 2014.

Music video

An accompanying music video for "Cherry Pop" was uploaded onto Stan's

channel on 28 May 2014, where it has since amassed a total of 5 million views. The clip was shot by Khaled Mokhtar in

, Romania in a set built specially for this project. The accompanying choreography was choreographed by Romanian performer Emil Rengle and the eight "shiny and glam" different outfits used for the video were designed by Andra Moga. Particularly, Stan described the video as incorporating "both a futuristic and a retro point of view". The video opens with Stan and some of her male back-up dancers being presented in a dark white room. Subsequently, the room becomes enlightened and Stan is seen wearing transparent sunglasses, a white sweatband and a silver jacket. Following this, she retrieves a

tennis racket A racket or racquet is an item of sporting equipment used to strike a ball or shuttlecock in a variety of sports. A racket consists of three major components: a widened distal end known as the ''head'', an elongated handle known as the ''grip' ...

from one of her background dancers and holds it in front of her face before returning the racket to a nearby dancer. Next, Stan performs the pre-refrain of the song, while two female performers clutch a hair dryer in their hands. For the refrain, she and ten other female background dancers are performing synchronized dances, with them having

wigs A wig is a head covering made from human or animal hair, or a synthetic imitation thereof. The word is short for "periwig". Wigs may be worn to disguise baldness, to alter the wearer's appearance, or as part of certain professional uniforms. H ...

on, and dressing white clothing and red accessories. Following this, Stan is presented standing on a yellow plate which is kept in the air by two threads. She wears a silver leotard and a multicolored wig. Next, Stan is shown walking into a tennis field, whereon she plays a tennis match against herself. For the breakdown of "Cherry Pop", the video gets introduced into a dark-lighted room. There, her previously shown male background dancers are presented; the video continues with Stan dancing accompanied by her dancers. The clip finally ends with a pink

tennis ball A tennis ball is a small, hollow ball used in games of tennis and real tennis. Tennis balls are fluorescent yellow in Professional sports, professional competitions, but in Amateur sports, recreational play other colors are also used. Tennis bal ...

dropping out of the ceiling, while the screen becomes black.

Live performances

On 12 December 2014, Stan performed both "Cherry Pop" and " Vanilla Chocolat" on an episode of ''

Vocea României (; 'The Voice of Romania') is a Romanian reality singing competition broadcast on PRO TV. Based on the original ''The Voice of Holland'', the concept of the series is to find new singing talent contested by aspiring singers, age 16 or over, draw ...

''. Shortly after her performance, juror

Tudor Chirilă Tudor Chirilă (born 28 May 1974 in Bucharest, Romania) is a Romanian actor, musician, and writer. He was the lead singer of the bands Vama Veche and Vama. As an actor, he has featured in both short and feature-length films and has appeared i ...

expressed how he was very disappointed by Stan's act, as she did not provide live vocals. In an interview with ''Cancan'', Stan confessed that " erconditions of appearance at Vocea României were previously discussed with the producers of the show, so no one should have been surprised about erperforming playback". "Cherry Pop" was included on the track list of her Unlocked Tour (2014) and her Cherry Pop Summer Tour (2014).

Track listings

*Digital download #"Cherry Pop" – 3:11 *Spanish digital remix EP #"Cherry Pop" (DJ Kone & Marc Palacios radio edit) – 3:33 #"Cherry Pop" (Geo Da Silva & Jack Mazzoni radio remix) – 3:15 #"Cherry Pop" (CryDuom remix radio) – 3:13 #"Cherry Pop" (DJ Kone & Marc Palacios remix) – 6:24 #"Cherry Pop" (Geo Da Silva & Jack Mazzoni remix) – 4:17 #"Cherry Pop" (CryDuom remix extended) – 4:06

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of '' Unlocked'' and ''The Collection''. Visual credits *Ema Băniță – styling assistant *Mihai Codleanu – editing *Georgeta Nicoleta Cîmpeanu –

make-up artist A make-up artist, also called a makeup artist, and often shortened to MUA, is an artist whose medium is the human body, applying makeup and Prosthetic makeup, prosthetics on others for theatre, television, film, fashion, magazines and other simil ...

, hair styling assistant *Irina Iancius – make-up artist, hair styling assistant *Oana Imbrea – production coordinator *Alex Iftimov – hair styling, make-up artist, script *Andra Moga – styling, script *Khaled Mokhtar – director,

director of photography The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the recording of a film, television production, music video or other live-action piece. The cinematographer is the chief of the camera ...

, script *Laurent Morel –

colorist In comics, a colorist is responsible for adding color to black-and-white line art. For most of the 20th century this was done using brushes and dyes which were then used as guides to produce the printing plates. Since the late 20th century it is ...

*Emil Rengle – choreography Recording and vocal credits * Recorded at Fonogram Studios in

, Romania. * Mixed and engineered at Hitfire Production in

, Sweden. *Alexandra Stan – lead vocals Technical and songwriting credits *Lukas Hällgren – songwriting, additional producing *Erik Lidbom – songwriting, producing *Alexandra Stan – songwriting

Charts

Release history

References

External links

* {{authority control 2014 songs Alexandra Stan songs English-language Romanian songs Dance-pop songs Romanian songs 2014 singles Songs written by Erik Lidbom Songs written by Alexandra Stan Songs written by Lukas Hällgren Music videos shot in Romania