"Just Look Up" is a song by American singer

Ariana Grande Ariana Grande-Butera ( ; born June 26, 1993) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Her four-octave vocal range has received critical acclaim, and her personal life has been the subject of widespread media attention. She has received ...

and American rapper

Kid Cudi Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi (born January 30, 1984), also known by his stage name Kid Cudi ( ), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, actor and fashion designer. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Cudi would move to New Y ...

. The song was written by both artists, alongside Nicholas Britell and

Taura Stinson Taura Stinson is an American songwriter, producer, musician, composer and author. Stinson has co-written songs for artists including Deborah Cox, Cynthia Erivo, Kelly Rowland, Destiny's Child, Kelis and Jennifer Hudson. She has also written song ...

, for the 2021 satirical science fiction film '' Don't Look Up'' (which both artists star in). The song was issued on December 3, 2021 for streaming and digital download prior to the soundtrack's release. Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi star in the film as pop music power couple Riley Bina and DJ Chello, respectively. In satire fashion, news about their fluctuating relationship dominates the media, eclipsing news of the inevitable destruction of the Earth. "Just Look Up" starts off as a

love song A love song is a song about romantic love, falling in love, heartbreak after a breakup, and the feelings that these experiences bring. A comprehensive list of even the best known performers and composers of love songs would be a large order. ...

, then transforms into a rallying cry to listen to the scientists' message that humankind hasn't much time left on this planet.

Composition

Nicholas Britell read a draft of the script and had talked to the film's director Adam McKay for some time. He went to his piano and came up with a melody "for the chorus where I wanted it to feel like it was going upward". He played the song to Grande, who asked if she could "go into the booth and try some things out ..And she basically laid down the entire vocal top line of the song with no lyrics, just improvising this whole thing." Britell said he then found it difficult to "write lyrics for a song that has to start as a love song and pivot to a song about blowing up" and make it "convincing", so asked

for help, who said she was "intimidated" at first but hearing Grande's melody helped her write.

insisted on writing his verse on his own. Stinson said the song can be taken as being "about

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climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

or the

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. As I sat around the holidays with my family and a mask, it wasn't hard to fathom that." Britell was impressed upon receiving Stinson's lyrics, calling it "such a tricky thing to pull off. .. I's a sincere, real song that happens to express this absurd explanation of what is happening."

Reception

McKay praised Grande's performance of the song. During a run-through of the duet with her co-star and

Republic Records Republic Records is a New York City–based American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). 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 an ...

label-mate Kid Cudi, she began ad-libbing and improvising lyrics to which McKay referred to as "comedic gold". During the film scene where Grande's character performs the song, McKay went on to say that "Ariana sang it live. Every single take that we shot, she sang it live from beginning to end. It was an incredible thing." Jazz Tangcay, an editor for '' Variety,'' praised the song on Twitter, calling it "a banger and a ballad." She added that the song is "crashing into the

Original song "Original Song" is the sixteenth episode of the second season of the American television series ''Glee'', and the thirty-eighth episode overall. It was written by Ryan Murphy, directed by Bradley Buecker, and premiered on Fox in the United Stat ...

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race." The song also received praise for its satirical and message and for Grande's vocals on the tune, with AwardsWatch founder Erik Anderson calling the song "fucking hilarious." Nicholas Gaudet of MusicTalkers called the song “cheesy, and wonderfully so. It’s a power-ballad done anew, all the while being so familiar.” Mitchell Peters of ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

,'' wrote the song “finds Grande steering some romantic balladry with a gorgeous tone and open heart, while Cudi takes a few seconds to fully deploy his croon but sounds comfortable when it arrives.“

Live performances

On December 14, 2021, Cudi and Grande appeared on the season finale of American singing competition series '' The Voice'', where they performed the song together live for the first time.

Accolades

The song has been nominated for Best Original Song by Chicago Indie Critics,

Hollywood Music in Media Awards The Hollywood Music In Media Awards (HMMA) is an award organization honoring original music (Song and Score) in all forms visual media including film, TV, video games, trailers, commercial advertisements, documentaries, music videos and special pr ...

Critics' Choice Movie Awards The Critics' Choice Movie Awards (formerly known as the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award) is an awards show presented annually by the American-Canadian Critics Choice Association (CCA) to honor the finest in cinematic achievement. Writt ...

, Denver Film Critics Society, DiscussingFilm Critics Awards,

Georgia Film Critics Association The Georgia Film Critics Association (GAFCA) is an organization of professional film critics from the U.S. state of Georgia. Inclusion is open to film critics throughout the entire state of Georgia, although the majority of members are concentra ...

, and

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, among others. It won the 2022

Society of Composers & Lyricists The Society of Composers & Lyricists is an organization founded in 1983 to represent composers and lyricists working in visual media, such as television and film. It sought union status in 1984 after the dissolution of the Composers and Lyricists ...

Award for Outstanding Original Song for a Comedy or Musical Visual Media Production.

Commercial performance

"Just Look Up" peaked at number seven on the NZ Hot Singles chart and at 198 on the

Billboard Global 200 The ''Billboard'' Global 200 is a weekly record chart published by ''Billboard'' magazine. The chart ranks the top songs globally and is based on digital sales and online streaming from over 200 territories worldwide. First announced in mid-2 ...

Personnel

Credits for "Just Look Up" adapted from

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

. *Nicholas Britell – composer, organ, piano, producer *Ariana Grande – composer, primary artist *Billy Hickey – engineer, mixing *Kid Cudi – primary artist *Randy Merrill – mastering engineer *Scott Mescudi – composer *Taura Stinson – composer *Casey Stone – engineer *William Sullivan – engineer

Charts

Release history

References

{{authority control 2021 songs 2021 singles Songs written for films Songs written by Ariana Grande Songs written by Kid Cudi Songs written by Taura Stinson Ariana Grande songs Kid Cudi songs Republic Records singles Pop ballads Apocalyptic music American pop songs