"First Man" is a song by American singer and songwriter

Camila Cabello Karla Camila Cabello Estrabao (; ; born March 3, 1997) is an American singer and songwriter. She rose to prominence as a member of the Pop music, pop girl group Fifth Harmony, one of the List of best-selling girl groups, best-selling girl gro ...

from her second studio album ''

Romance Romance may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings ** Romantic orientation, the classification of the sex or gender with which a pers ...

'' (2019). It was released by

Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), cong ...

and

Syco Syco Entertainment is a British media entertainment and production company, headquartered in London, founded and owned by British entrepreneur and record executive Simon Cowell. The company focuses on TV production. The company was formed in 2 ...

on June 18, 2020, as the seventh and final single from the album.Sources concerning the single release of "First Man": * * * It was written by Cabello alongside

Amy Wadge Amy Victoria Wadge (born 22 December 1975) is an English singer and songwriter. She has co-written tracks with Ed Sheeran, including " Thinking Out Loud" for which she won the 2016 Grammy Award for Song of the Year. Early life Wadge was born an ...

and Jordan Reynolds, with the latter producing it with

Finneas Finneas Baird O'Connell (born July 30, 1997), also known mononymously by his first name (sometimes stylized in all caps), is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, he has written and pro ...

. An official music video for "First Man" was released the previous day, in celebration of

Father's Day Father's Day is a day set aside for honoring one's father, as well as fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society. "Father's Day" complements similar celebrations honoring family members, such as Mother's Day and, in som ...

. It features clips from Cabello's childhood with many of the footage containing videos of her and her father. "First Man" peaked at number 94 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, following Cabello's live performance of the song at the

62nd Grammy Awards The 62nd Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held on January 26, 2020, at the Crypto.com Arena, Staples Center in Los Angeles. It recognized the best recordings, compositions, and artists of the eligibility year, running from October 1, 2018, to Au ...

. Musically, "First Man" is a

pop rock Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock) is a fusion genre and form of rock music characterized by a strong commercial appeal, with more emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than standard rock musi ...

piano ballad. Lyrically, the song is about Cabello's relationship with her father while she is in a romantic relationship with a "good guy".

Background and composition

"First Man" was confirmed with the album's track list on November 29, 2019. It was written by Camila Cabello, Jordan Reynolds and Amy Wadge. It runs for three minutes and forty-nine seconds. "First Man" is a pop-rock piano ballad. Cabello wrote the song about her relationship with her father while she is in a romantic relationship with a "good guy." In terms of

music notation Musical notation is any system used to visually represent music. Systems of notation generally represent the elements of a piece of music that are considered important for its performance in the context of a given musical tradition. The proces ...

, "First Man" was composed using common time in the key of

G major G major is a major scale based on G (musical note), G, with the pitches G, A (musical note), A, B (musical note), B, C (musical note), C, D (musical note), D, E (musical note), E, and F♯ (musical note), F. Its key signature has one sharp (music ...

, with a

tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given musical composition, composition, and is often also an indication of the composition ...

of 100

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 ...

. Cabello's vocal range spans from the low note D₃ to the high note of D₅, giving the song two octaves of range. The tempo has a passionate feel.

Music video

The official music video for the song was released on Cabello's

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 ...

channel on June 21, 2020, in celebration of

. The video features clips from Cabello's childhood with many of the footage containing videos of her and her father. Cabello watches the footage on a television while singing to her dad. In the description Cabello dedicated the video to her father.

Live performances

On November 2, 2019, Camila performed the song on ''New Music Daily Presents: Camila Cabello'', a special live show from New Music Daily of Apple Music in the heart of Los Angeles celebrating the release of her album ''Romance''. Cabello performed "First Man" at the

ceremony that took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on January 26, 2020.

Commercial performance

Just one day after the Grammy awards ceremony, sales of "First Man" had already increased by over 68,000%, and that rose to over 81,000% a day later. In those two days, the track sold over 11,000 copies. The cut was also the fourth-most-streamed song the day after the Grammys. The track racked up 1.4 million streams in the 24 hours following an increase of 890%. In the US, "First Man" debuted at number 94 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, becoming Cabello's 16th career entry. In New Zealand the song peaked at number 34 on the Hot Singles chart.

Track listings

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from the

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or cassette j-cards. Origin Liner notes are descended from the prog ...

of ''

''. Publishing * Published by Sony/ATV Songs LLC ( BMI) o/b/o Sony/ATV Music Publishing (UK) LTD/Maidmetal Limited (

PRS PRS or prs may refer to: Science and technology * Peripheral Reflex System, an implementation of autonomous peripheral operations in microcontrollers * Personal response system, in audience response * Phenotypic response surfaces, in medicine * P ...

Milamoon Songs Karla Camila Cabello Estrabao (; ; born March 3, 1997) is an American singer and songwriter. She rose to prominence as a member of the pop girl group Fifth Harmony, one of the best-selling girl groups of all time. While in the group, Cabell ...

(BMI) / WC Music Corp. o/b/o itself. Buckeye25 (

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadc ...

) and Jreynmusic (ASCAP) / WC Music Corp. (ASCAP) o/b/o itself. Cookie Jar Music LLP (ASCAP) and

Warner Chappell Music Warner Chappell Music, Inc. is an American music publishing company and a subsidiary of the Warner Music Group. Warner Chappell Music's catalog consists of over 1.4 million compositions and 150,000 composers, with offices in over 40 countries. ...

Ltd. Recording * Recorded by Jordan Reynolds at Jordan's House,

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

* Mixed by

Serban Ghenea Serban Ghenea () is a Canadian audio engineer and mixer. He has been nominated for a Grammy Award a total of 45 times and has won 21 times. Early life and education Ghenea was born in Romania, and in 1976 he moved to Montreal with his family. H ...

at MixStar Studios,

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* Mastered at the Mastering Palace, New York City, New York Personnel *

–

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

, songwriting * Jordan Reynolds –

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

, songwriting *

– production *

– songwriting * John Hanes –

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

– mixing * Dave Kutch – mastering

Charts

Release history

Notes

References

{{authority control 2019 songs 2020 singles Camila Cabello songs Song recordings produced by Finneas O'Connell Songs about fathers Songs written by Camila Cabello Songs written by Amy Wadge Songs written by Jordan Reynolds Pop ballads American pop rock songs