"Clarity" is a song by Russian-German DJ

Zedd Anton Zaslavski (; born 2 September 1989), known professionally as Zedd (), is a German record producer and DJ. His stage name, Zedd, was derived from ''zed'', the Z#Name and pronunciation, English pronunciation, barring American English, for ...

featuring the vocals of singer

Foxes Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

. It was released on 14 November 2012 as the third single from the former's debut studio album of the same name. The song was written by Zedd (who produced the song),

Matthew Koma Matthew Bair (born June 2, 1987), known professionally as Matthew Koma is an American singer, songwriter musician, DJ and record producer. Songs written or co-written by Koma include "Spectrum (song), Spectrum", "Find You (Zedd song), Find You" ...

Porter Robinson Porter Weston Robinson (born July 15, 1992) is an American DJ, singer, songwriter, and record producer. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Robinson began producing electronic music during his adolescence. He sign ...

and

Skylar Grey Holly Brook Hafermann (born February 23, 1986), known professionally as Skylar Grey, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. In 2004, Grey signed a publishing deal with Universal Music Publishing Group and a recording contract w ...

. It was released as

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

Single of the Week on 2 October 2012, and as an 4-track remix EP on 12 February 2013, by

Interscope Records Interscope Records is an American record label based in Santa Monica, California, owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture ...

. The song impacted US radio on 5 March 2013. Zedd released an extended mix of the song exclusively on

Beatport Beatport is an American electronic music-oriented online music store owned by LiveStyle. The company is based in Denver, Los Angeles, and Berlin. Beatport is oriented primarily towards disk jockey, DJs, selling full songs as well as resources that ...

on 18 February 2018. When Koma listened to

' song "

Youth Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood (Maturity (psychological), maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as bei ...

", he contacted her through

Skype Skype () was a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for IP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also had instant messaging, file transfer, ...

and asked her to be the vocalist on "Clarity". After

did research on

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a free content, free Online content, online encyclopedia that is written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and the wiki software MediaWiki. Founded by Jimmy Wales and La ...

about Zedd, she accepted the offer. In June 2014, following the success of " Stay the Night" featuring

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 ...

in the United Kingdom, "Clarity" was re-released there, and this time reached a better peak of number 27, compared to the previous one of 29 in 2013. It ended up being awarded silver certification by the BPI following the intake of streaming into Official Charts data in the UK. It also reached the top ten in the US and was certified six-times Platinum there as well as Gold or higher in nine additional countries. The extended play of the track was released on 18 February 2013. It features ten remixes including

Tiësto Tijs Michiel Verwest (; born 17 January 1969), known professionally as Tiësto ( , ), is a Dutch DJ and record producer. He was voted "The Greatest DJ of All Time" by ''Mix (magazine), Mix'' magazine in a 2010/2011 poll amongst fans. In 2013, h ...

Headhunterz Willem Rebergen (born 12 September 1985), better known by his stage name ''Headhunterz'', is a Dutch Disc jockey, DJ and Record producer, music producer. Rebergen is also a Voice acting, voice actor. He has done Dubbing (filmmaking), dubbing for ...

and Funkagenda, among others. From December 2012 to 4 February 2013, Zedd hosted a remix contest for the track. There were 982 official entries. The winning remix by Tom Budin was due to be featured on an upcoming Zedd release. "Clarity" won the

Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording The Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Recording (formerly known as Best Dance Recording) is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists f ...

at the 56th Grammy Awards, becoming their first win.

Critical reception

'' Idolator'' editor Sam Lansky praised the vocals produced by Jonny "Ghostwriter" Harris, and praised Zedd for " ransforminghis EDM sound into a lovely, downtempo emo-style set."

Composition

"Clarity" has a tempo of 128 beats per minute, and is written in the A♭ major key. Its main chord progression is B♭m7sus4/E♭/Fm7/Cm7/D♭ – B♭m7sus4/E♭/Fm7/Cm7/D♭/A♭.

Music video

A music video for "Clarity" directed by Jodeb was released on 11 January 2013. The music video featured

and actor and model AJ English as a couple. The video starts with the camera panning over the desert, and later switching to see

and the male lead driving in different cars, until they suddenly collide head-to-head, with enough force for both characters to rocket backward. The male lead wakes up after being knocked unconscious from the collision, and finds the injured

. However, she runs away through the desert, making him follow her until she falls unconscious in the sand. A rewind of the whole event was shown afterwards, before in the final scene, the two people drive in the same car, presumably enjoying themselves. All scenes were accompanied by computer effects of collisions and other images that synchronize with the music. The music video also features a cameo from Zedd.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

External links

*
"Clarity"
on

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

{{authority control 2012 songs 2012 singles 2013 singles Dance-pop songs Electro house songs Foxes (singer) songs Zedd songs Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording Interscope Records singles Songs written by Matthew Koma Songs written by Skylar Grey Songs written by Zedd Songs written by Porter Robinson