"Friends" 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 ...

and American record producer

BloodPop Michael Tucker (born August 15, 1990), known professionally as BloodPop (stylized as BloodPop®), is an American musician, record producer, songwriter, and gaming executive. Life and early career Tucker was born in Kansas City, Missouri, Uni ...

. It was released through Genpop Corporation,

RBMG Records Raymond Braun Media Group (RBMG) and currently under the brand name Scooter Braun, is an American record label founded by R&B singer Usher (whose surname is Raymond) and talent manager Scooter Braun in 2008 as a joint venture. The label was in ...

School Boy Records Schoolboy Records is an American record label established in 2007 by Scooter Braun, as an imprint of Universal Music Group's Republic Records. Schoolboy Records' first success was with Asher Roth's 2009 single, " I Love College," along with his ...

Def Jam Recordings Def Jam Recordings (also simply known as Def Jam) is an American multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It is based in Manhattan, New York City, specializing predominantly in hip hop, contemporary R&B, soul and pop. The l ...

and

Republic Records Republic Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). Based in New York City, it was founded by Avery Lipman and Monte Lipman as an independent label in 1995, and was acquired by UMG in 2000. Republic was initially ...

as a single on August 17, 2017. Bieber and BloodPop wrote the song alongside

Justin Tranter Justin Drew Tranter (born June 16, 1980) is an American songwriter, singer, and activist. Tranter has written songs for artists such as Britney Spears, Gwen Stefani, Linkin Park, Kelly Clarkson, Sara Bareilles, Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber, DNCE, ...

and

Julia Michaels Julia Carin Michaels (''Birth name, née'' Cavazos; born November 13, 1993) is an American singer and songwriter. She has received six Grammy Award nominations, including twice for Grammy Award for Song of the Year, Song of the Year and Grammy A ...

, with production solely handled by BloodPop. "Friends" peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart and number 20 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. On October 20, 2017, Bieber and BloodPop released a remix of the song, which features Michaels.

Background

In July 2017, Bieber played fans a clip of the song at Milan Airport. On August 13, 2017, Bieber first teased the single by tweeting the line: "Can we still be friends". The following day, Bieber announced an upcoming release on social media, the accompanied artwork featured a monochrome illustration of two birds tearing apart a worm in front of highlighter yellow text, captioning: "New music. Thursday noon".

and

later revealed on social media that they co-wrote the single alongside Bieber and BloodPop.

Critical reception

Spencer Kornhaber of ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 185 ...

'' called the single "sleek electro" and "the zillionth child of the

Eurythmics Eurythmics were a British New wave music, new wave duo formed in 1980, consisting of Scottish vocalist Annie Lennox and English musician and producer Dave Stewart (Eurythmics), Dave Stewart. They were both previously in the Tourists, a band t ...

' "

Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" is a song by British synth-pop duo Eurythmics. It was released as the fourth and final single from their second album of the same name in January 1983. It was their breakthrough hit, establishing the duo wor ...

" to approach the public in the past three decades". He wrote that BloodPop provided "an insistent beat", "a tight verse-prechorus-chorus structure" and "an on-trend wordless hook". Jordan Sargent of ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles * Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...

'' thinks that the four songwriters "seem to nod overtly at that song", and that the song "has the same little between-beat drum fills as ' Sorry', as well as its pitched-up vocal counterpoints". Brittany Spanos of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' felt that Bieber "traded in the tropical house leanings of his previous solo hits for a more pop direction" with this song. Maeve McDermott of ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...

'' opined that the song "finally jailbreaks Bieber from the soulless trop-house prison of his other EDM one-offs". Phil Witmer of ''

Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, Habit (psychology), habit or item generally considered morally wrong in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character trait, a defect, an infirmity, or a bad or unhe ...

'' wrote that the song "pretty much sounds like a synth-disco remix" of "Sorry", in which "the chord progression is the exact same". Beatrice Hazlehurst of ''

Paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, Textile, rags, poaceae, grasses, Feces#Other uses, herbivore dung, or other vegetable sources in water. Once the water is dra ...

'' called the song "a shameless club banger".

Commercial performance

In Canada, "Friends" charted 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 ...

within a day of release, debuting at number 96 and jumping to number 4 the following week, marking Bieber's 19th top 10 song. It received a double platinum certification from

Music Canada Music Canada is a non-profit Industry trade group, trade organization that was founded 9 April 1963 in Toronto to represent the interests of companies that record, manufacture, produce, and distribute music in Canada. It also offers benefits to s ...

for more than 80,000 downloads in the country. In the United States, the song had 16,000 downloads counted only on its release day. The following week, the single debuted at US

Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

(No. 28),

Adult Top 40 The Adult Pop Airplay (formerly known as Adult Pop Songs and Adult Top 40) chart is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine and ranks "the most popular adult top 40 as based on radio airplay detections measured by Nielsen Broadcast Data Syste ...

(No. 17),

Dance Club Songs The Dance Club Songs (also known as National Disco Action, Hot Dance/Disco Club Play, and Hot Dance Club Play) was a chart published weekly between 1976 and 2020 by ''Billboard'' magazine. It used club disc jockeys set lists to determine the mos ...

(No. 42),

Mainstream Top 40 Pop Airplay (also called Mainstream Top 40, Pop Songs, and Top 40/contemporary hit radio, CHR) is a 40-song music chart published weekly by Billboard (magazine), ''Billboard'' Magazine that ranks the most popular songs of pop music being played o ...

(No. 11) and

Rhythmic Rhythmic may refer to: * Related to rhythm * Rhythmic contemporary, a radio format * Rhythmic adult contemporary, a radio format * Rhythmic gymnastics Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport in which gymnasts perform individually or in groups on a floor ...

(No. 19). Consequently, it debuted and peaked at No. 20 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 with 32 million impressions on the radio, 39,000 downloads and 13.3 million streams and being his 23rd Top 20 in the country. It also received a platinum certification by the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

(RIAA). In Europe, the song debuted at the top of the charts in Denmark, Norway and Slovakia, dethroning the remix of "

Despacito "Despacito" (; ) is a song by Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi, originally written in 2015. In 2016, Luis sent the song to Puerto Rican rapper and singer Daddy Yankee to give it an "urban injection", and released it as the lead single from Fons ...

" by

Luis Fonsi Luis Alfonso Rodríguez López-Cepero (born April 15, 1978), known by his stage name Luis Fonsi (), is a Puerto Rican singer. He is known for his soulful and dance oriented songs, most notably 2017's "Despacito". Fonsi received his first Latin ...

and

Daddy Yankee Ramón Luis Ayala Rodríguez (; born February 3, 1976), known professionally as Daddy Yankee (), is a Puerto Rican rapper, singer, songwriter, and actor who rose to worldwide prominence in 2004 with the song "Gasolina". Dubbed the "Honorific ...

, which features Bieber, in the second place of five nationalities, including the United Kingdom, in addition to the top 10 of fourteen. He has received platinum certifications from the

Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana The Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana (FIMI) or the Federation of the Italian Music Industry is an umbrella organization that keeps track of virtually all aspects of the music recording industry in Italy. It was established in 1992, when ...

(FIMI), gold from the

Belgian Entertainment Association The Belgian Recorded Music Association (BRMA), previously Belgian Entertainment Association (BEA) is the organisation that represents the interests of the music industry in Belgium. The BRMA is the local record industry association in Belgium of ...

(BEA),

IFPI Denmark IFPI Denmark is the Danish branch of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) is the organisation that represents the interests of the recording industry worldwi ...

Bundesverband Musikindustrie The ( English: Federal Music Industry Association), or simply BVMI, represents the music industry in Germany. The association represents the interests of nearly 280 labels and music industry related enterprises, which comprise 90% of the music i ...

(BVMI),

Productores de Música de España Productores de Música de España (; shortened as Promusicae) is the national organisation responsible for the music charts of Spain. it is a trade association that represents more than 90% of the Spanish recorded music industry. It is the Inter ...

(PROMUSICAE), the

Swedish Recording Industry Association Grammofonleverantörernas förening (GLF) (English: Swedish Recording Industry Association), was an organisation representing the music recording industry of Sweden. It compiled and published the official record charts for the Swedish music recordi ...

(GLF) and the

British Phonographic Industry BPI (British Recorded Music Industry) Limited, trading as British Phonographic Industry (BPI), is the British recorded music industry's trade association. It runs the BRIT Awards; is home to the Mercury Prize; co-owns the Official Charts C ...

(BPI). In Oceania, "Friends" reached at number two both in Australia and New Zealand, receiving double platinum certifications from the

Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) is a trade association representing the Australian recording industry which was established in the 1970s by six major record companies, EMI, Festival Records (Australia), Festival, Sony Music ...

(ARIA) and gold from

Recorded Music NZ Recorded Music NZ (formerly the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ)) is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell recorded music in New Zealand. Membership of Recorded ...

(RMNZ).

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from

Tidal Tidal is the adjectival form of tide. Tidal may also refer to: * ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple * Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim * TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music * Tidal (servic ...

. *

– vocals, songwriting *

– production, songwriting, keyboard, background vocals, bass, synthesizer *

– songwriting, background vocals *

– songwriting * Josh Gudwin – engineering, recording engineering * Michael Freeman – mixing assistance *

Spike Stent Mark "Spike" Stent (born 3 August 1965) is an English record producer and mixing engineer who has worked with many international artists including Madonna, Marshmello, U2, Beyoncé, Björk, Depeche Mode, Echo & the Bunnymen, Grimes, Ed Sheeran ...

– mixing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2017 songs 2017 singles Justin Bieber songs BloodPop songs Def Jam Recordings singles Julia Michaels songs Number-one singles in Denmark Number-one singles in Norway Republic Records singles Schoolboy Records singles Song recordings produced by BloodPop Songs written by BloodPop Songs written by Justin Bieber Songs written by Julia Michaels Songs written by Justin Tranter