Me Too (Meghan Trainor song)

"Me Too" is a song by American singer-songwriter Meghan Trainor from her second major-label studio album, ''Thank You'' (2016). It was written by Trainor, Eric Frederic, Jacob Kasher Hindlin, Jason Desrouleaux, Peter Svensson, and produced by Ricky Reed. The track was released on May 5, 2016, as the second single from the album. The Electro- R&B song has lyrics about self-love and self-empowerment, and urges listeners to be more content and confident in themselves. It received mixed to negative reviews, with some critics accusing Trainor of bragging.

"Me Too" was a commercial success, peaking at number 13 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100. It was certified quadruple platinum in Australia and Canada and triple platinum in the US. Hannah Lux Davis directed the music video for "Me Too". Released on May 9, 2016, on Vevo, Trainor requested its removal the same day due to unauthorized digital manipulation of her body. The following day, the unedited version of the video was released. It features her donning a giraffe onesie, traveling with her entourage, trying on different dresses and finishes with a dance break. Trainor has performed the song on ''The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon'', ''The Today Show'', ''Sunrise (Australian TV program), Sunrise'', Charts Center and ''Good Morning America'' with a live band and backup dancers. It was also performed on her The Untouchable Tour (2016).

Background

A fan of his project Wallpaper (musician), Wallpaper, Meghan Trainor began co-writing songs with producer Ricky Reed, and his frequent collaborator Jacob Kasher Hindlin, for her second major-label studio album, ''Thank You'' (2016). She initially recorded doo-wop songs in a similar vein as her debut single, "All About That Bass" (2014). L.A. Reid, the chairman of Epic Records, encouraged her to go back to the drawing board because she lacked a proper lead single for the project: "You don't have your bullet. You don't have that big song." Following the disagreement, Trainor, Reed, and Hindlin wrote the song "No (Meghan Trainor song), No". When Reid heard it, he jumped up and said "That's what I'm talkin' about!", playing it 29 times in succession. Ultimately, "No" changed the album's direction, as the three started experimenting with new musical styles and produced six more tracks.

Trainor wrote "Me Too" alongside Eric Frederic, Hindlin, Jason Desrouleaux, and Peter Svensson. She had previously featured on the track "Painkiller" from Desrouleaux's 2015 album ''Everything Is 4''. He believed Trainor should record "Me Too": "I think that song was perfect for her because it's about loving yourself and not worrying about what haters say. It's just a dope, fun song." On May 2, 2016, Trainor stated in a tweet, with which she hashtagged the words "me too", that the next song she would release would serve as the second single from ''Thank You''. She shared a still from a music video set later that day. Epic Records digitally released "Me Too" as a single on May 5. In the United States, the song was serviced to Adult contemporary music, adult contemporary radio stations on May 16, and Contemporary hit radio#Mainstream CHR, top 40 radio stations the following day.

Composition and lyrics

"Me Too" is three minutes and one second long. Reed produced and programmed the song. He plays bass, guitar, and keyboards, and Tom Peyton plays drums. Ethan Shumaker engineered it at Reed's studio in Elysian Park, Los Angeles, Chris Gehringer Audio mastering, mastered it at Sterling Sound in New York City, and Manny Marroquin mixed it at the Carriage House studio in Nolensville, Tennessee.

"Me Too" is an Electro music, electro and R&B song. The verses of the song are set to a minimalist musical bed consisting of just a bass line, finger snaps and popping mouth percussion, followed by an R&B pre-chorus. According to Erin Jensen of ''USA Today'', the song portrays Trainor's boldness and confidence, and features her "feeling herself". "Me Too" reveals the layers of Trainor's "unabashed confidence", and shows that it comes from a place of "bonafide swagger".

"Me Too" is about self-love. In the song's lyrics, Trainor asks herself the question "Who's that sexy thing I see over there?", referring to her own reflection in the mirror. She thanks God for waking up with a positive feeling and declares that she cannot help but love herself. In the chorus, Trainor sings: "If I was you, I'd wanna be me too". She assumes an Eastern European accent during the lyric, pronouncing the word "wanna" like "vahna". Trainor proclaims she is a wikt:dime piece, dime piece and sings about how she is considered a VIP at clubs and does not have to pay for her drinks.

Critical reception

"Me Too" received mixed reviews. ''Newsday''s Glenn Gamboa stated that Trainor rides an "elastic bass line like early-Aughts Britney Spears" on the song. Writing for ''andPop'', Rebecca Matina opined that the incorporation of dubstep-like beats with the jazz/funk chorus did not blend together seamlessly, but made note of the "club" vibe of the verses and described the chorus as "bubbly". Alexa Camp of ''Slant Magazine'' was critical of the song, calling it a "vacant exercise in positivity, confusing delusional self-importance with self-worth". Michael Cragg of ''The Guardian'' also criticized the song, writing that its "bragging" sounds misplaced. ''Knoxville News Sentinel''s Chuck Campbell wrote that it sees Trainor stretching over elastic bass and finger-snapping, but her self-confident sass seems a bit like lip service.

''Spin (magazine), Spin''s Dan Weiss dubbed the song "Will.i.am-goes-Sophie (musician), Sophie" and compared it to a "vibrant Gap commercial". Isabella Biedenharn of ''Entertainment Weekly'' likened the song to the album track "I Love Me", writing that they are "instant confidence-spikers, with subtle nods to those heady days when jewelry was 'ice". ''The New York Times'' Jon Caramanica gave the song a mixed review, writing that "she awkwardly proclaims self-love: 'Who's that sexy thang I see over there? / That's me, standin' in the mirror". Hazel Cills of MTV News wrote here "we find Trainor kissing her reflection in the mirror, flipping off her legion of haters, and telling persistent bachelors to back the hell off in bachelorette-party-approved retro-pop". She added the song is "club-ready" with its "throbbing bass beat". Writing for ABC News, Allan Raible stated that "Me Too", which is supposed to be a song that boosts confidence, ends up being just Trainor "bragging about the gold around her neck and how she's now a V.I.P.".

Commercial performance

"Me Too" debuted at number 39 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 issued for June 4, 2016. The song peaked at number 13 on the chart in its 11th week of charting. This week it appeared at number 4 on the Digital Songs chart, number 26 on Streaming Songs, and at number 35 on Radio Songs (chart), Radio Songs. "Me Too" received a 3× Platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America. In Canada, the song charted at number nine and Music Canada certified it 4× Platinum. It reached number 84 on the UK Singles Chart and earned a Gold certification from the British Phonographic Industry.

In Australia, "Me Too" peaked at number four and received a 4× Platinum certification from the Australian Recording Industry Association. The song charted within the top 40, at number 1 on Israel's Media Forest TV Airplay Chart, number 2 on Mexico Ingles Airplay, number 8 in Guatemala, number 20 on Mexico's Monitor Latino chart, number 26 in Latvia, number 30 in Hungary, and number 40 in the Czech Republic. It earned a Platinum+Gold certification in Mexico, and Gold in Denmark, Germany, and Poland.

Music video

Hannah Lux Davis directed the music video for "Me Too". After Trainor shared several promotional teasers, it was released on May 9, 2016. The video was filmed over a 22-hour period. It has a meta concept, featuring Trainor waking up and preparing to go to a music video shoot. She glances at a Grammy Award kept by her bed and puts on a giraffe onesie in a bathroom. Trainor greets fans and makes her way to a car, in which she parties with her father while drinking a frappuccino and travelling through Los Angeles. This is followed by a dance sequence with her in a blue gown along with backup dancers in teal dresses. In some scenes, Trainor interacts with her entourage in a wardrobe trailer and gets makeup done.

A few hours after its release, Twitter users began pointing out that it had been Photograph manipulation, digitally altered to make Trainor's waist look smaller. When she encountered screenshots from the video on social media, she thought the alterations were made by fans before realizing they were present in the official upload too. Trainor called the staff at Vevo and label heads including Reid and Sylvia Rhone, requesting for it to be taken down. She uploaded a clip explaining the video's removal to fans on Snapchat, in which she stated: "They Photoshopped the crap out of me [...] My waist is not that teeny, I had a bomb waist that night, I don't know why they didn't like my waist, but I didn't approve that video and it went out for the world, so I'm embarrassed." While Trainor had asked the editors to "hide [her] mustache and take out [her] mole hair", she thought reducing her waist size crossed a line. She edited the video with her family and went through all minute details. Trainor approved a new version which was uploaded the following day. MTV News' Madeline Roth lauded her for "still sticking with what she believes" and thought the move reaffirmed her anti-Photoshop message in "All About That Bass". Anne T. Donahue from the same website wondered if it was to generate publicity but added: "it's genius. I mean, not only does body positivity fall in line with Trainor's mantra, having her pull a finished product and condemn it to video hell makes her look like a complete badass." Writing for ''Vox (website), Vox'', Caroline Framke speculated the incident was a calculated move to make Trainor appear more sympathetic to audiences ahead of her album being released to streaming services.

Live performances and other usage

Trainor promoted "Me Too" with appearances on several television shows. On May 12, 2016, she performed the song in a green and black sequin dress and high heels on ''The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon''. Trainor executed choreography, sang into a decorated microphone, and was accompanied by a backing band which gave the performance a big rock and roll finish. Towards the end, she fell to the ground while trying to grab a hold of the microphone stand. Trainor stayed there in shock for a minute, after which Fallon laid down beside her and joked: "Of every single dance move, grabbing the mic is the toughest." She recorded the performance a second time but preferred the one with the fall: "I noticed on the ­second take my face looked really ­worried, like, 'Do not fall,' and the performance just wasn't as good. So I told them, 'Take the first one, give them the fall, let 'em have it.'" Trainor began retweeting videos of it soon after it aired, which led ''The Atlantic''s Spencer Kornhaber to speculate that it might be a Publicity stunt, marketing stunt to generate PR for the release of ''Thank You''. ''Stereogum''s Tom Breihan believed that the fall was probably genuinely accidental due to her ankle-twist, but "she definitely milked it for a minute". Writing for ''The Independent'', Olivia Blair noted Trainor was not the first person to suffer a fall on television, and cited the incidents of Naomi Campbell at the Vivienne Westwood 1993 Fall catwalk and Madonna at the Brit Awards 2015. The "Me Too" performance received positive reviews from some critics: Brennan Carley of ''Spin (magazine), Spin'' thought Trainor delivered strong vocals, "rapidly improving choreography", and handled the fall charismatically; ''Rolling Stone'' wrote she "sang with unexpected soul and finessed choreography" during the smooth performance; Gil Kaufman of ''Billboard'' described it as "high-energy" and praised Trainor for handling the slip-up with grace while smiling and laughing; Maane Khatchatourian of ''Variety (magazine), Variety'' believed the performance was "effortlessly deliver[ed]".

Trainor reprised "Me Too" on ''Good Morning America'' the following day, while recovering from the incident: "I'm feeling it today. I'm feeling little bruises everywhere." On June 7, 2016, she sang the song during a concert for ''Sunrise (Australian TV program), Sunrise''. Trainor performed it on ''The Today Show'' on June 21. On July 13, 2016, she reprised "Me Too" on Charts Center. The song was part of Trainor's setlist for The Untouchable Tour (2016). She sang it on November 22, 2018, while wearing "a glittery jersey and sparkly blue pants", at a Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins game which launched The Salvation Army's 128th annual Red Kettle Campaign. Trainor performed "Me Too" during her set for the 2018 iHeartRadio Jingle Ball. She reprised the song while headlining the Philadelphia Welcome America Festival as part of the 2019 Independence Day (United States), Fourth of July celebrations. On September 13, 2019, Trainor sang it as part of her setlist on ''The Today Shows Citi concert series.

A mother of two children from California released a parody of "Me Too" in July 2016, about her desire to be alone sometimes and the hardships of motherhood. She auctioned roles in the video to raise funds for local schools. On September 18, 2016, Britney Spears posted a clip dancing to the song, which showcased her toned abdominal muscles and legs in a pair of magenta booty shorts and a floral bra top, on Instagram. Within 24 hours, Trainor reposted the clip and described it as a "dream come true". The Laker Girls performed a dance routine to it at a Los Angeles Lakers game on March 21, 2017, which Trainor watched while delighted and smiling. "Me Too" appeared on the soundtrack for the 2018 film ''I Feel Pretty (film), I Feel Pretty''.

Credits and personnel

Credits are adapted from the liner notes of ''Thank You''.
*Ricky Reed – producer, songwriter, programming, bass, guitar, keyboards
*Meghan Trainor – songwriter
*Jacob Kasher Hindlin – songwriter
* Jason Desrouleaux – songwriter
*Peter Svensson – songwriter
*Tom Peyton – drums
*Ethan Shumaker – engineer
*Chris Gehringer – Mastering (audio), mastering
*Manny Marroquin – mixing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

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2016 singles
2015 songs
American contemporary R&B songs
Epic Records singles
Meghan Trainor songs
Music video controversies
Music videos directed by Hannah Lux Davis
Songs written by Jacob Kasher
Songs written by Jason Derulo
Songs written by Meghan Trainor
Songs written by Peter Svensson
Songs written by Ricky Reed
Sony Music singles