"Favorite Girl" is a song by Canadian singer

Justin Bieber Justin Drew Bieber ( ; born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer. Regarded as a pop icon, he is recognized for his multi-genre musical performances. He was discovered by record executive Scooter Braun in 2008 and subsequently brought to the U ...

. The song was written and produced by D'Mile, and Antea Birchett, Anesha Birchett, and Delisha Thomas also receive writing credits. Bieber debuted the acoustic version of his song in his official

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 ...

account after American singer

Taylor Swift Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Known for her autobiographical songwriting, artistic versatility, and Cultural impact of Taylor Swift, cultural impact, Swift is one of the Best selling artists, w ...

used Bieber's single " One Time" as background music in one of her video tour diaries. The song was later released exclusively to iTunes as the second promotional single from his debut studio release, '' My World'' on November 2, 2009. The song is mid-tempo and merges

teen pop Teen pop is a sub genre of pop music that is created, marketed and oriented towards Preadolescence, preteens and teenagers.Lamb, Bill"Teen Pop". About.com. Retrieved January 28, 2007. Often, the artists themselves are teenagers during their break ...

and R&B elements. It debuted at number 12 and 26 in Canada and the United States, respectively. It also charted at number 92 Australia, and at numbers 76 and 27 in the United Kingdom and the UK R&B chart, respectively. Bieber performed the song on several occasions, most of them being the acoustic version of the song, including as a supporting act on Swift's

Fearless Tour The Fearless Tour was the debut concert tour by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, in support of her second studio album, '' Fearless'' (2008). It began in Evansville, Indiana, United States, on April 23, 2009, and concluded in Caven ...

Background

Singer

used Bieber's " One Time" as background music and music that she and her friends were dancing to in a tour video diary that she posted on her official

account in August 2009. In response to Swift using his song, Bieber posted an acoustic rendition of the then never-before heard "Favorite Girl" on his YouTube. When asked about his learning of Swift using his song, Bieber stated, "It was really funny because I heard about it from a fan. I watched it and it was hilarious!" Bieber and Swift then met in person at the

2009 MTV Video Music Awards The 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, honoring the best music videos from the previous year between June 2008 to June 2009, were presented on September 13, 2009, at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City, and televised by MTV. The ceremony was ...

, and she later invited him to be a special guest on her

when she returned to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. The song was written by Dernst "D'Mile" Emile II, Antea Birchett, Anesha Birchet, and Delisha Thomas. Emile also has production credits. The song was recorded by Blake Eisemen at Icon Studios in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

, where Bieber's career is based. Mixing was done by Dave Pensado and Jaycen-Joshua Fowler, at Larrabee Studios in

North Hollywood, California North Hollywood is a neighborhood and district in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California. The neighborhood contains the NoHo Arts District, El Portal Theater, several art galleries, and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Th ...

. The song became a popular trending topic on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

on the day of its release. "Favorite Girl" be is a

teen-pop Teen pop is a sub genre of pop music that is created, marketed and oriented towards preteens and teenagers.Lamb, Bill"Teen Pop". About.com. Retrieved January 28, 2007. Often, the artists themselves are teenagers during their breakout. While it c ...

song, which integrates characteristics of R&B music. According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Universal Music Publishing, Ltd., "Favorite Girl" is set in

common time A time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, and measure signature) is an indication in music notation that specifies how many note values of a particular type fit into each measure ( bar). The time signature indicates the ...

, and has a moderate tempo of 88

beats per minute Beat, beats, or beating may refer to: Common uses * Assault, inflicting physical harm or unwanted physical contact * Battery (crime), a criminal offense involving unlawful physical contact * Battery (tort), a civil wrong in common law of in ...

. It is composed in the key of

E minor E minor is a minor scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has one sharp, on the F. Its relative major is G major and its parallel major is E major. The E natural minor scale is: Change ...

with Bieber's vocals spanning from the low-note of G₃ to the high-note of B₄. The song follows in the

chord progression In a musical composition, a chord progression or harmonic progression (informally chord changes, used as a plural, or simply changes) is a succession of chords. Chord progressions are the foundation of harmony in Western musical tradition from ...

of C–Em–G

Chart performance

The song had hot shot debuts and limited stays on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and Canadian Hot 100 due to the single being released via

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 ...

only. It debuted in the U.S. at number twenty-six on the week ending November 21, 2009, and remained on the chart for two weeks. The same week it debuted at number fifteen in Canada, remaining on the chart for two weeks. The song returned to the Canadian Hot 100 at number ninety-nine on the week ending January 9, 2010. In 2010, the chart also appeared on the UK Singles Chart at seventy-six, and on the UK R&B Chart.

Performances

Most Bieber performances of the song are of the acoustic rendition. Bieber originally performed the song for the first time, acoustically, when he appeared for a second time on ''

The Ellen DeGeneres Show ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' is an American first-run syndicated talk show that was hosted by Ellen DeGeneres. The show ran for nineteen seasons from September 8, 2003, to May 26, 2022, in which it broadcast 3,339 episodes. It was produced by ...

'' on November 3, 2009, the same day the song was released to iTunes. Regarding the performance,

MTV News MTV News was the news production division of MTV. The service was available in the US with localized versions on MTV's global network and an online news team. In 2016, MTV refreshed the MTV News brand to compete with the likes of BuzzFeed and ...

praised the song as a "funky, groovy, swaggerific jam". Bieber performed the song on the

, during Winter 2009 while performing at radio station-hosted Jingle Ball concerts, and during a live session with MTV, in which he was named MTV's Artist of the Week. During the live session with MTV, he performed the song while playing the

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Mus ...

. In a review of his acoustic performance of the song at Z100's 2009 Jingle Ball, Jon Caramanica of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

Background

Chart performance

Performances

Charts

Certifications

References