"I Like Me Better" is a song recorded and produced by American singer

Lauv Ari Staprans Leff (born August 8, 1994), known professionally as Lauv (), is an American musician best known for his breakout hit "I Like Me Better"; included on his compilation album ''I Met You When I Was 18 (The Playlist)'', which was releas ...

. It was released on May 19, 2017, and is included on his compilation album ''

I Met You When I Was 18 (The Playlist) ''I Met You When I Was 18 (The Playlist)'' (stylized as ''I met you when I was 18. (the playlist)'') is the debut compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually fr ...

'', which was released on May 31, 2018. The song was written by Lauv and Michael Matosic. It has also been used in an Android Auto app commercial, in the trailer of

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

's romantic comedy ''

To All the Boys I've Loved Before ''To All the Boys I've Loved Before'' is a 2014 young adult romance novel by American author Jenny Han, first published by Simon & Schuster and released on April 15, 2014. Han was inspired to write the book based on her own habit of writing lo ...

'', and in the fall ball episode of

's comedy series '' The Expanding Universe of Ashley Garcia''. "I Like Me Better" reached the top ten in Australia, Austria and Germany, the top-twenty in New Zealand and Slovakia, and the top-forty in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. In his native United States, the song was a

sleeper hit In the entertainment industry, a sleeper hit refers to a film, television series, music release, video game or other entertainment product that was initially unsuccessful on release, but eventually became a surprise success. A sleeper hit may have ...

, spending over six months on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 before reaching number 27 in September 2018. It was also used as background music during the evening gown competition of

Miss Universe 2018 Miss Universe 2018 was the 67th Miss Universe pageant, held at the Impact, Muang Thong Thani, Impact Arena in Pak Kret, Nonthaburi, Thailand, on 17 December 2018. At the conclusion of the event, Demi-Leigh Tebow, Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters of Sout ...

Background and composition

The song was inspired by Lauv's move to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and falling in love shortly afterwards. After arriving at the studio with "no concept, no lyrics, no idea I was going to write that song," he chopped together a voice memo he left himself, intending to change the sound later (although he never did). Musically, "I Like Me Better" is an

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 ...

song that contains elements of

Guitar pop Jangle pop is a subgenre of pop rock and college rock that emphasizes jangly guitars and 1960s-style pop melodies. The "jangly" guitar sound is characterized by its clean, shimmering and arpeggiated tone, often created using 12-string elect ...

snap Snap or SNAP may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Snap'' (film), the initial release title for the 2013 film ''Enter the Dangerous Mind'' * '' The Stanly News and Press'', a newspaper in Albemarle, North Carolina, US * "Snap" (''Duty Free'') ...

and

Alt-pop Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

, as well as vocal effects. According to the sheet music published at musicnotes.com, the song is written in the key of

A major A major is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has three sharps. Its relative minor is F-sharp minor and its parallel minor is A minor. The A major scale is: Changes needed for the ...

. The song's verses are resigned and have a quaint and simple sound, laden with a simple,

jangly Jangle or jingle-jangle is a sound typically characterized by undistorted, treble (sound), treble-heavy electric guitars (particularly twelve-string guitar, 12-strings) played in a drone (music), droning chord (music), chordal style (by strummi ...

guitar loop, an

Electric piano An electric piano is a musical instrument that has a piano-style musical keyboard, where sound is produced by means of mechanical hammers striking metal strings or reeds or wire tines, which leads to vibrations which are then converted into ele ...

and a sparse, finger-click

beat 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 inte ...

that transitions into drum beats in the chorus. Lauv's vocals span from the low note of B2 to the high note of C#5. It features a prominent sound effect that sounds similar to a

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

. The sound was Lauv's voice, which he recorded on his phone.

Commercial performance

After spending a number of weeks on the

Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles (also known as Bubbling Under the Hot 100) is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. The chart lists the top songs that have not yet charted on the main ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Chart ...

chart, "I Like Me Better" made its official debut on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 at number 96 for the issue dated February 24, 2018. It has since reached number 27, becoming his first top-forty hit on the Hot 100. On the

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 ...

chart, "I Like Me Better" reached the top 10 after a historic 35-week climb, breaking the record for the longest time to reach the top 10 on the chart. "I Like Me Better" proved to be a strong hit in parts of Europe and Oceania. In Australia, the song peaked at number eight on the

ARIA Singles Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

, with it being certified triple Platinum by 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) for exceeding 210,000 sales and streams. Similarly, the song peaked at number 13 on the

New Zealand Singles Chart The Official Aotearoa Music Charts, formerly the Official New Zealand Music Chart (), is the weekly New Zealand top 40 singles and albums charts, issued weekly by Recorded Music NZ (formerly Recording Industry Association of New Zealand). The M ...

, and obtained a platinum certification there. The song also reached success in Austria and Germany, where it peaked at numbers five and seven respectively. It ranked as the forty-second best selling song on the

Official German Charts The GfK Entertainment charts are the official charts for music, home video, and video games in Germany and are gathered and published by GfK Entertainment (formerly Media Control and Media Control GfK International), a subsidiary of GfK, on be ...

year-end list of 2017, selling 400,000 copies there.

Music video

A music video of "I Like Me Better" features Lauv himself and

Paige Spara Paige Spara is an American actress best known for her main roles as Audrey Piatigorsky in the ABC Family sitcom '' Kevin from Work'' and Lea Dilallo in the ABC medical drama '' The Good Doctor''. Early life Spara was born in Washington, Penn ...

as the younger self of the actors Richard Bergman and Michelle Star, respectively.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{authority control 2017 singles 2017 songs Lauv songs Songs written by Lauv AWAL singles