"Airplanes" is a song by American rapper B.o.B featuring American singer

Hayley Williams Hayley Nichole Williams (born December 27, 1988) is an American singer and songwriter. She is the lead vocalist and only constant member of the rock band Paramore, which she co-founded in 2004. Williams was born and raised in Meridian, Miss ...

Paramore Paramore is an American rock band formed in Franklin, Tennessee, in 2004. Since 2017, the band's lineup includes lead vocalist Hayley Williams, lead guitarist Taylor York, and drummer Zac Farro. Williams and Farro are founding members of ...

. The song was released in April 2010, as the third single from his debut studio album, '' B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray''. B.o.B co-wrote the song alongside

Kinetics & One Love Jeremy "Kinetics" Dussolliet and Tim "One Love" Sommers are an American musical duo from New York City. They made their commercial debut as songwriters in 2010 by penning the chorus to B.o.B's single " Airplanes". They have collaborated with ...

Alex da Kid Alexander Junior Grant (born 27 August 1983), professionally known as Alex da Kid or by.ALEXANDER, is a British music producer from Wood Green, London. He has gained recognition for producing several hit singles for artists of multiple music g ...

DJ Frank E Justin Franks, known professionally as DJ Frank E, is an American DJ and music producer from Denver, Colorado. Frank E started working closely with Adelio Lombardi, founder of Side 3 Entertainment and owner of Side 3 Studios in Denver, while wo ...

, and Christine Dominguez. DJ Frank E also co-produced the song with Alex da Kid, and Sage Levy. The song was released to iTunes on April 13, 2010, and then to

urban radio Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, urban pop, or just simply urban, is a music radio format. The term was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music. Urban contemporary rad ...

on April 27, 2010. "Airplanes" peaked at number two on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Outside of the United States, "Airplanes" topped the charts in New Zealand and the United Kingdom, and peaked within the top ten of the charts in Australia, Canada, and Ireland. "Airplanes, Part II", the sequel to the song, features new verses from B.o.B, and a verse from fellow American rapper

Eminem Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem, is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. Regarded as one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all time, he is credited with popula ...

, while Williams's vocals remained identical to the original. This collaboration led to a

Grammy The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

nomination for

Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals The Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals was an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality pop songs on which singers ...

. The song also appears in the 2011 video game ''

Just Dance 3 ''Just Dance 3'' is a 2011 dance rhythm game released on the Wii, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 with Kinect and Move support respectively for the latter two. It is part of the '' Just Dance'' video game series published by Ubisoft originally on the ...

''.

Background and composition

"Airplanes" was composed by B.o.B, Jeremy "Kinetics" Dussolliet, Tim "One Love" Sommers,

, Alex "da Kid" Grant, and Christine Dominguez. B.o.B wrote his rap verses, while

and Christine Dominguez wrote the chorus sung by

lead singer

, and DJ Frank E & Alex da Kid co-produced the music. The original version had verses written by

Lupe Fiasco Wasalu Muhammad Jaco (born February 16, 1982), better known by his stage name Lupe Fiasco ( ), is an American rapper, record producer and Music education, music educator. Born and raised in Chicago, he gained mainstream recognition for his gue ...

. Later, the song was given to B.o.B by his label. Williams' part in the song was explained by herself and B.o.B in different interviews to MTV. Williams said

was on tour when she was given the song and she "liked the part too much" and accepted to appear on it. B.o.B said he has "always been a Hayley fan" and he did not expect a collaboration between them too soon. The duo did not get in the studio together to record the song, they were not together to shoot the music video, and had never even met each other in person, according to Williams. The only time that B.o.B and Williams were able to meet was when they performed "Airplanes" live for the first time together during the

2010 MTV Video Music Awards The 2010 MTV Video Music Awards took place on September 12, 2010 at Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, honoring the best music videos from the previous year. Chelsea Handler hosted the event, the first woman in sixteen years – since the 1994 MTV ...

. The second time the song was performed together live was during Vanderbilt University's Fall 2010 "Commodore Quake" concert in Nashville. During B.o.B.'s performance, Williams came out as a special guest to perform the song.

Music video

A music video was filmed with Williams. B.o.B shot his scenes for the video in April, but Williams was only able to shoot her parts after the end of Paramore's Spring tour, so they were never in the same room during filming. The music video, directed by

Hiro Murai Hiro Murai (born 1983) is a Japanese-born American filmmaker based in Los Angeles. He is best-known for music videos for Childish Gambino, Earl Sweatshirt, Chet Faker and others. His music video and television work has received widespread ac ...

, premiered on iTunes on June 15, 2010. The video features several frames of B.o.B rapping his verses in a party setting, on stage, and a room filled with lights and occasional song lyrics while a barefoot Williams sings the hook in a light filled room and walking through photographs. As of May 2025, the song has 715 million views on

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 ...

. The video was nominated for Video of the Year at the

and the BET Awards of 2011.

Chart performance

"Airplanes" sold 138,000 digital downloads in its first week and debuted at number five on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Hot Digital Songs The Digital Song Sales (previously named Digital Songs and Hot Digital Songs) ranks the best-selling digital songs in the United States, as compiled by Luminate and published by ''Billboard'' magazine. Although it originally started tracking so ...

chart. The sales made the song debut at number twelve on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, making it B.o.B's highest debut on the chart and Williams' first entry as a solo act. The song continued to rise in the chart and peaked at number two on its sixth week, losing the top position to Usher's " OMG". "Airplanes" entered in numerous ''Billboard'' charts, including the Pop Songs and

Rap Songs Hot Rap Songs (formerly known as Hot Rap Tracks and Hot Rap Singles) is a chart released weekly by ''Billboard'' in the United States. It lists the 25 most popular hip-hop/rap songs, calculated weekly by airplay on rhythmic and urban radio statio ...

charts, where the song peaked at number two. "Airplanes" had sold over 4 million digital downloads by December 2010, according to Nielsen Soundscan, becoming a bigger success in the United States than his debut single, "

Nothin' on You "Nothin' on You" is the debut single of both American rapper B.o.B and featured singer-songwriter Bruno Mars. It is the lead single from the former's debut studio album, '' B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray'' (2010). It was first re ...

". Elsewhere, "Airplanes" was well received. The song debuted at number 62 on the

Canadian Hot 100 The Canadian Hot 100 is a music industry record chart in Canada for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' magazine. It was launched on the issue dated March 31, 2007 as the standard record chart in Canada; a new chart ...

and reached its current peak position of number two on its ninth week on the chart. In the Australian chart the song debuted at number eighteen and peaked at number two within three weeks on the chart and has been in that position for six non-consecutive weeks. It was in New Zealand where the song got its first number one position. After three weeks of its debut (at number three), the song reached number one and stayed in that position for five consecutive weeks. "Airplanes" later received a Platinum certification in New Zealand, due to its successful chart performance. In Europe, the song has been released in a number countries, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. "Airplanes" first appearance in a European chart was in Norway and Ireland and the song peaked within the top ten of the charts in both countries. In the United Kingdom, the song debuted at number 23 on the UK Singles Chart and within five weeks, the song climbed to number three. In the same week, "Airplanes" was number one on the

UK R&B Chart Official Hip Hop and R&B Albums Chart The UK Hip Hop and R&B Singles Chart and the UK Hip Hop and R&B Albums Chart (also known as The Official UK Hip Hop and R&B Charts, and previously the Top 40 Hip Hop and RnB Singles and the Top 40 Hip Hop and ...

. The following week, "Airplanes" climbed to the summit of the chart from downloads alone of 75,892, becoming B.o.B's second chart-topping song in Britain following his debut single "Nothin' on You", which had reached the top of the chart almost two months earlier. The song is the twenty-first most downloaded single in British chart history. "Airplanes" has also peaked at number two in the

European Hot 100 The European Hot 100 Singles was compiled by ''Billboard'' and ''Music & Media'' magazine from March 1984 until December 2010. The chart was based on national singles sales charts in 17 European countries: Austria, Belgium (two charts separately f ...

chart. "Airplanes" has sold over 1.6 million units in the UK, as of February 2023. The song was No. 6 on ''Billboard'''s Year End Chart.

"Airplanes, Part II"

A sequel to the song, titled "Airplanes, Part II", has two new verses by B.o.B and a guest verse from

and features vocals by

. The song also features a faster beat and chorus by Hayley Williams compared to the original song. The song was produced by

with additional production added by Eminem. Alex da Kid said that the beat for "Airplanes, Part II" was the original beat for the song. In the song, Eminem and B.o.B wonder what would happen if they had not pursued musical careers. B.o.B posted the song on his official Twitter account, claiming he wanted the song to leak from him since the other songs of his album were leaking. When asked how he got to collaborate with Eminem, B.o.B stated:

" Paul Rosenberg played him the ''Cloud 9'' mixtape and it kind of gave him an idea of what my music ounds like Eventually he started playing Eminem more of my stuff and was keeping him updated on my progress and eventually he wanted to get in the studio with me, so that was a gift."

B.o.B, Eminem, and

Keyshia Cole Keyshia Myeshia Cole (née Johnson; born October 15, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, television personality and actress. Dubbed by critics as the " Princess of Hip-Hop Soul", she is known for her soulful voice and heartfelt lyrics. Bor ...

(filling in for Hayley Williams) performed the song at the 2010

BET Awards The BET Awards are an American award show that was established in 2001 by the BET, Black Entertainment Television network to celebrate Black person, Black entertainers and other minorities in music, film, sports and philanthropy. The awards, which ...

on June 27, 2010, in a medley with Eminem's "

Not Afraid "Not Afraid" is a song by American rapper Eminem from his seventh studio album ''Recovery (Eminem album), Recovery'' (2010). It was released as the album's lead single on April 27, 2010, by Interscope Records. "Not Afraid" was first r ...

". B.o.B performed the song with Eminem on his Home & Home Tour. "Airplanes, Part II" received a

nomination for

Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals The Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals was an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality pop songs on which singers ...

, although it was not made into a single.

2021 resurgence

Eleven years after its release, the song regained attention in July 2021 when it was referenced in a viral

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

featuring fan art made by user bluedog444 on

DeviantArt DeviantArt (formerly styled as deviantART and thus abbreviated as dA) is an American online community that features artwork, videography, photography, and literature, launched on August 7, 2000, by Mathew Stephens, Scott Jarkoff and Angelo Sotir ...

in August 2012. The art depicts the characters

Twilight Sparkle Princess Twilight Sparkle is a fictional character who appears in the fourth incarnation of Hasbro's ''My Little Pony'' toyline and media franchise, beginning with '' My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic'' (2010–2019), and later in the fra ...

, the main protagonist of '' My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic'', and

Mordecai Mordecai (; also Mordechai; , IPA: ) is one of the main personalities in the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible. He is the cousin and guardian of Esther, who became queen of Persia under the reign of Ahasuerus (Xerxes I). Mordecai's loyalty and ...

, the main protagonist of ''

Regular Show ''Regular Show'' (known as ''Regular Show in Space'' during its Regular Show season 8, eighth season) is an American animated sitcom created by J. G. Quintel for Cartoon Network. It ran from September 6, 2010, to January 16, 2017, over the cours ...

'', in separate panels, stargazing while crying, with the lyrics to the song's chorus above them in black text. The

pairing In mathematics, a pairing is an ''R''- bilinear map from the Cartesian product of two ''R''- modules, where the underlying ring ''R'' is commutative. Definition Let ''R'' be a commutative ring with unit, and let ''M'', ''N'' and ''L'' be '' ...

of the characters was known as "MordeTwi" – a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of their names – which originated from a

fan fiction Fan fiction or fanfiction, also known as fan fic, fanfic, fic or FF, is fiction typically written in an amateur capacity by fans as a form of fan labor, unauthorized by, but based on, an existing work of fiction. The author uses copyrighted ...

in June 2011, preceding the art by over a year. The fan art and the fan fiction have no relation nor relevance with one another. The TikTok featuring the song and art has received 300 million views since its post, spawning an influx of

memes A meme (; ) is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ...

. The appeal of the meme comes from the absurdity of the pairing, as well as nostalgia due to DeviantArt's primarily adolescent user base. Hayley Williams also responded to the meme the following month in two Tweets after a self-imposed social media break noting her bewilderment.

Charts

Weekly charts

Monthly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications

The Ready Set version

"Airplanes" is a song recorded by

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

electropop Electropop is a popular music fusion genre combining elements of the electronic and pop styles. It has been described as a variant of synth-pop with emphasis on a hard electronic sound. The genre was developed in the 1980s and saw a rev ...

artist

the Ready Set Jordan Mark Witzigreuter (born November 14, 1989), known professionally as The Ready Set, is an American singer-songwriter and musician from Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States. He is the lead vocalist and sole member of the act, using a backup b ...

. The song was released as a cover in the compilation album, '' Punk Goes Pop Volume 03.''. The song peaked at number 22 on ''Billboard'' Rock Digital Song Sales and stayed one week on chart. ''

Alternative Press Alternative press may refer to: Individual publications * ''Alternative Press'' (magazine), an American music magazine Alternative journalism * Alternative media ** Alternative media (U.S. political left) ** Alternative media (U.S. political r ...

'' named his version of the song as the 34th best "Top 50 Punk Goes Pop covers of all time".

Charts

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Airplanes (Song) 2010 singles 2010s ballads B.o.B songs Sequel songs Songs written by B.o.B Songs written by DJ Frank E Songs written by One Love (record producer) Contemporary R&B ballads Grand Hustle Records singles Atlantic Records singles A&M Octone Records singles Song recordings produced by Alex da Kid Song recordings produced by DJ Frank E Number-one singles in Israel Number-one singles in New Zealand Number-one singles in Scotland UK singles chart number-one singles Songs written by Kinetics (rapper) Songs written by Alex da Kid 2010 songs Hayley Williams songs Rap rock songs Pop-rap songs Songs about airplanes Songs about fame Internet memes introduced in 2021

Background and composition

Music video

Chart performance

"Airplanes, Part II"

2021 resurgence

Charts

Weekly charts

Monthly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications

The Ready Set version

Charts

See also

Notes

References