"7 Years" is a song by Danish

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest atte ...

-pop band

Lukas Graham Lukas Graham is a Danish pop band consisting of lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Lukas Forchhammer, bassist Magnus Larsson, and drummer Mark Falgren. The band released their first album, '' Lukas Graham'', with labels Copenhagen Records ...

from their second studio album, ''

''. The song was released as a digital download on 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 was uploaded on 15 December 2015. It has since garnered over 1 billion views on YouTube. Despite receiving mixed reviews from music critics, "7 Years" topped the

Danish Singles Chart Hitlisten, also known as Tracklisten, is a Danish top 40 record chart that is updated every Thursday midnight on the website hitlisten.nu. The weekly Danish singles chart Track Top-40 combines the 40 best-selling tracks from legal music downloads ...

. 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 Stefan Forrest and Morten Ristorp under their stage name

Future Animals Future Animals is a 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 use the ...

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

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 reg ...

, 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 category ...

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

Background

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 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. According to Paolo Pietropaolo, it is the con ...

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 ''Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten'' (; English: ''The Morning Newspaper "The Jutland Post"''), commonly shortened to ''Jyllands-Posten'' or ''JP'', is a Danish daily broadsheet newspaper. It is based in Aarhus C, Jutland, and with a weekday circula ...

'' critic Anders Houmøller Thomsen compared the song to

the Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...

' "

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 their 1967 album ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band''. McCartney wrote the song when he was ab ...

": " '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 continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'' 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."

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" (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 wi ...

. The song stayed there for four non-consecutive weeks, being held off of the top spot by Rihanna and Drake'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 animal t ...

" and Desiigner's "

Panda The giant panda (''Ailuropoda melanoleuca''), also known as the panda bear (or simply the panda), is a bear species endemic to China. It is characterised by its bold black-and-white coat and rotund body. The name "giant panda" is sometimes use ...

". "7 Years" also debuted at number 28 on the US Digital Songs 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 biggest hit in the US by a foreign-born act since

Gotye Wouter André "Wally" De Backer (born 21 May 1980), better known by his stage name Gotye ( ), is a Belgian-Australian multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter. The name "Gotye" is a pronunciation respelling of "Gauthier", the French cognat ...

's "

Somebody That I Used to Know "Somebody That I Used to Know" is a song written, produced, and performed by Belgian-Australian singer-songwriter Gotye featuring vocals from New Zealand singer Kimbra. The song was released in Australia and New Zealand by Eleven Music on ...

" in 2012. On 12 February 2016, "7 Years" peaked at number one on 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 ...

, 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 Aqua is the Latin word for water. It is used in many words which relate to water, such as aquatic life. In English, it may also refer to: Arts * Aqua (color), a greenish-blue color Business * Aqua (skyscraper), an 82-story residential skysc ...

'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.For Posner's full name, see He released his debut album, ''31 Minutes to Takeoff'', in 2010. The album includes the US ''Billboar ...

's "

I Took a Pill in Ibiza "I Took a Pill in Ibiza" (also known by its censored title "In Ibiza" or its clean title "I Took a Plane to Ibiza") is a song by American singer Mike Posner. The song was originally acoustic guitar-based and released digitally as a single in th ...

" 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 and singer 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 so ...

", 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, 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 as the third single from the group's debut studio album, ''Aquarium'' (1997). The song was written by Søren Rasted, Claus Norreen, René Dif, and ...

" and "

Doctor Jones "Doctor Jones" is a song by Danish dance-pop group Aqua. Released as the band's fourth single overall, it was the follow-up to their most successful song "Barbie Girl" in many regions. "Doctor Jones" ended the assumptions that Aqua would be a o ...

"). 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

A music video to accompany the release of "7 Years" was first released on YouTube on 15 December 2015 at a total length of four minutes. The video is written, directed, and edited by Danish Film Director René Sascha Johannsen and the music video was recorded in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, and

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

. As of October 2022, it has received over 1.3 billion views on YouTube.

Cover versions

British singer

Jasmine Thompson Jasmine Ying Thompson (born 8 November 2000) is an English singer. 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 Robin Schulz's son ...

released a cover version of the song on 22 April 2016 through Atlantic Records. 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 German–British 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 192 ...

. Linkin' Bridge, an American musical group from

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

, covered the song during the semi-finals of

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

's '' America's Got Talent'' season 11 on 14 September 2016.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References