"Just Look Up" is a song by American singer

Ariana Grande Ariana Grande-Butera ( ; born June 26, 1993) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Regarded as a pop icon and an influential figure in popular music, Grande is known for her four-octave vocal range, which extends into the whistle re ...

and American rapper

Kid Cudi Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi (born January 30, 1984), also known by his stage name Kid Cudi ( ; formerly stylized as KiD CuDi), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, and fashion designer. Born and raised in Clevelan ...

. The song was written by both artists, alongside American film composer Nicholas Britell and American songwriter Taura Stinson, for the 2021 satirical science fiction film ''

Don't Look Up ''Don't Look Up'' is a 2021 American political satire black comedy film written, co-produced, and directed by Adam McKay from a story he co-wrote with David Sirota. It stars an ensemble cast featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, R ...

'' (which both artists star in). The song was issued on December 3, 2021 for streaming and digital download prior to the soundtrack's release. Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi star in the film as pop music power couple Riley Bina and DJ Chello, respectively. In satire fashion, news about their fluctuating relationship dominates the media, eclipsing news of the inevitable destruction of the Earth. "Just Look Up" starts off as a

love song A love song is a song about love, falling in love, heartbreak after a breakup, and the feelings that these experiences bring. Love songs can be found in a variety of different music genres. They can come in various formats, from sad and emotion ...

, then transforms into a rallying cry to listen to the scientists' message that humankind hasn't much time left on this planet.

Composition

Nicholas Britell read a draft of the script and had talked to the film's director Adam McKay for some time. He went to his piano and came up with a melody "for the chorus where I wanted it to feel like it was going upward". He played the song to Grande, who asked if she could "go into the booth and try some things out ..And she basically laid down the entire vocal top line of the song with no lyrics, just improvising this whole thing." Britell said he then found it difficult to "write lyrics for a song that has to start as a love song and pivot to a song about blowing up" and make it "convincing", so asked Taura Stinson for help, who said she was "intimidated" at first but hearing Grande's melody helped her write.

insisted on writing his verse on his own. Stinson said the song can be taken as being "about

pollution Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause harm. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the component ...

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

or the

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. As I sat around the holidays with my family and a mask, it wasn't hard to fathom that." Britell was impressed upon receiving Stinson's lyrics, calling it "such a tricky thing to pull off. .. I's a sincere, real song that happens to express this absurd explanation of what is happening."

Reception

McKay praised Grande's performance of the song. During a run-through of the duet with her co-star and

Republic Records Republic Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). Based in New York City, 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 ...

label-mate Kid Cudi, she began ad-libbing and improvising lyrics to which McKay referred to as "comedic gold". During the film scene where Grande's character performs the song, McKay went on to say that "Ariana sang it live. Every single take that we shot, she sang it live from beginning to end. It was an incredible thing." Jazz Tangcay, an editor for '' Variety,'' praised the song on Twitter, calling it "a banger and a ballad." She added that the song is "crashing into the Original song #

Oscars The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence i ...

race." The song also received praise for its satirical and message and for Grande's vocals on the tune, with AwardsWatch founder Erik Anderson calling the song "fucking hilarious." Nicholas Gaudet of MusicTalkers called the song “cheesy, and wonderfully so. It’s a power-ballad done anew, all the while being so familiar.” Mitchell Peters of ''

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,'' wrote the song “finds Grande steering some romantic balladry with a gorgeous tone and open heart, while Cudi takes a few seconds to fully deploy his croon but sounds comfortable when it arrives.“

Live performances

On December 14, 2021, Cudi and Grande appeared on the season finale of American singing competition series '' The Voice'', where they performed the song together live for the first time.

Accolades

The song has been nominated for Best Original Song by Chicago Indie Critics,

Hollywood Music in Media Awards The Hollywood Music in Media Awards (HMMA) is an award organization honoring original music (Song and Score) in all forms visual media including film, TV, video games, trailers, commercial advertisements, documentaries, music videos and special p ...

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, Denver Film Critics Society, DiscussingFilm Critics Awards, Georgia Film Critics Association, and Hawaii Film Critics Society, among others. It won the 2022 Society of Composers & Lyricists Award for Outstanding Original Song for a Comedy or Musical Visual Media Production.

Commercial performance

"Just Look Up" peaked at number seven on the NZ Hot Singles chart and at 198 on the

Billboard Global 200 The ''Billboard'' Global 200 is a weekly record chart published by ''Billboard'' magazine. The chart ranks the top songs globally and is based on digital sales and online streaming from over 200 territories worldwide. First announced in mid-201 ...

Personnel

Credits for "Just Look Up" adapted from

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

. *Nicholas Britell – composer, organ, piano, producer *Ariana Grande – composer, primary artist *Billy Hickey – engineer, mixing *Kid Cudi – primary artist *Randy Merrill – mastering engineer *Scott Mescudi – composer *Taura Stinson – composer *Casey Stone – engineer *William Sullivan – engineer

Charts

Release history

References

{{authority control 2021 songs 2021 singles Songs written for films Songs written by Ariana Grande Songs written by Kid Cudi Songs written by Taura Stinson Ariana Grande songs Kid Cudi songs Republic Records singles Pop ballads Apocalyptic music American pop songs