"Never Really Over" is a song by American singer

Katy Perry Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known professionally as Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. She is one of the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling music artists in hist ...

, released on May 31, 2019, by

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. The song was later included on the track list of her sixth studio album, ''Smile'' (2020), as the first song on the album. It 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 ...

track inspired by Norwegian singer Dagny's "Love You Like That" (2017). The song received critical acclaim for its production and hook. "Never Really Over" peaked within the top 10 in as Australia, Canada, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines and Scotland as well as the top 20 in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Panama, Poland, Singapore, Slovakia, the United Kingdom and the United States. At the

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, "Never Really Over" was nominated for Most Performed Pop Work of the Year.

Promotion and release

On May 27,

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first hinted towards a new project when a few selected fans were invited to a "Katy Perry Fan Event" that took place two days later. Perry announced the song and revealed the official artwork on her

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on May 28. Its cover shows her with blonde hair and wearing an orange dress. The song was made available for pre-save on

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upon announcement. ''

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'' teased the song and the music video on May 30, 2019, before its release the following day. On November 29, 2019, a Black Friday

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limited edition 12" orange

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was released, pairing the song with Perry's next single "

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Composition

"Never Really Over" is an

and

dance-pop Dance-pop is a Music genre, genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1970s to early 1980s. It is generally uptempo music intended for nightclubs with the intention of being danceable but also suitable for contemporary hit ra ...

song that contains a steady

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and

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beat, as well as propulsive

synth 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 ...

chords. Perry co-wrote the song with Gino Barletta, Hayley Warner and its producers

Leah Haywood Leah Jacqueline Cooney, known professionally as Haywood (formerly Leah Haywood), is an Australian record producer, songwriter and singer. Born in New Zealand, she grew up in Perth, Western Australia, and recorded a top-40 album, ''Leah'', re ...

and Daniel James of Dreamlab, as well as

Zedd Anton Zaslavski (; born 2 September 1989), known professionally as Zedd (), is a German record producer and DJ. His stage name, Zedd, was derived from ''zed'', the Z#Name and pronunciation, English pronunciation, barring American English, for ...

, with whom Perry previously collaborated on "

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". The track is inspired by the 2017 song "Love You Like That", performed by Dagny and written by Dagny, Michelle Buzz and Jason Gill, who all received writing credits for "Never Really Over". Despite their credits, Dagny "never sat down in a room with Katy, or wrote the song for her", but had been contacted by Perry's team in early 2019 and told that "they had been really inspired, and had a song that was like their version of Love You Like That". It runs for three minutes and 44 seconds and is performed 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 ...

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.

Critical reception

The song received critical acclaim, with Jillian Mapes of ''

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'' called the song "a promising way forward" for Perry and her best single since 2013's " Walking on Air", appreciating the lyrics for not being "horrendously cheesy (a noted weak spot for Perry and her co-writers)". She wrote that Perry made "bad decisions sound enticing" and hailed it as her "most impressively tongue-tied chorus to date". Chris Willman of ''

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'' shared a similar view, saying the repetition in the chorus "somehow works to the song's tongue-twisting advantage". ''

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''s Gwen Ihant wrote that the track "puts Perry right back in

earworm An earworm or brainworm, also described as sticky music or stuck song syndrome, is a Catchiness, catchy or memorable piece of music or saying that continuously occupies a person's mind even after it is no longer being played or spoken about. In ...

territory" and called it an "impressive showcase" of her vocals with an "addictive hook songwriters dream of". In ''

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 ...

'',

Jon Caramanica Jon Caramanica (born 1975) is an American journalist and pop music critic who writes for ''The New York Times''. He is also known for writing about hip hop music. Biography Born in Brooklyn, New York, Caramanica received his bachelor's degree ...

described it as " Norwegianish

core" and a " bubble-pop" song. ''

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''s Roisin O'Connor regarded "Never Really Over" as a "truly gratifying return" for Perry after "a period of misfires", noting that it has "hooks galore and harks back her '' Teenage Dream'' days of uplifting, bright pop music." Ilana Kaplan 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 ...

'' favored "the return of her hypnotic vocals" and felt the song "puts Perry back where she belongs: on Sugar Mountain." In his review for '' Clash'', Robin Murray deemed it a "pop jewel". Mikael Wood of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' compared the song's "willfully imprecise" lyrics and "carefully reverbed" vocals to " Me!" by

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 ...

, concluding that despite its charms, "Perry is probably no better protected."

Commercial performance

"Never Really Over" debuted at number 15 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 with 31,000 pure sales and 15.8 million streams, giving Perry her 19th top 20 song in the country. It also became her highest debut on the chart since " Chained to the Rhythm" in 2017 as well as her fifth highest entrance there overall. On April 26, 2021, the song was certified

platinum Platinum is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a density, dense, malleable, ductility, ductile, highly unreactive, precious metal, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name origina ...

by the

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for equivalent sales of 1,000,000 units in the United States. In the United Kingdom, the song opened at number 13 on the UK Singles Chart, becoming Perry's 19th top 20 entry in the nation and has since reached number 12. Elsewhere, "Never Really Over" debuted at number 47 in Germany, number seven on Australia's

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 ...

and at number 19 in New Zealand.

Music videos

A music video, directed by Philippa Price, was released along with the single on May 31, 2019. On May 29, 2019, Perry shared a teaser for the music video with the caption "Let it go..." It amassed more than 17.7 million views within its first day of release. It currently has more than 150 million views. The music video was shot at King Gillette Ranch in

Malibu, California Malibu ( ; ; ) is a beach city in the Santa Monica Mountains region of Los Angeles County, California, about west of downtown Los Angeles. It is known for its Mediterranean climate, its strip of beaches stretching along the Pacific Ocean coa ...

Reception

Sal Cinquemani of ''

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'' praised the style and cinematography of the music video. He called it "a playful and imaginative portrayal of love's intoxicating spell and the lengths some of us will go to exorcise ourselves of it." The video has been noted for its cultural references to

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture of the mid-1960s to early 1970s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States and spread to dif ...

era and artistic similarities to

New Age New Age is a range of Spirituality, spiritual or Religion, religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in Western world, Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclecticism, eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise d ...

symbolism. Suzy Byrne of

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noted the video's spiritual themes and called Perry a "New Age goddess". She praised the concept and remarked that it was a "well-choreographed video".

Visual album video

On August 26, 2020, Perry posted a visual album video of "Never Really Over" to her

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. It features a first-person view of an animated person living a day at home whilst in the

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. Perry has said that the video is based on her "experiences with dishes during quarantine".

Live performances

On July 15, 2019, Perry uploaded the first live performance of the song in a bathroom on her official

account. On August 20, 2019, she also performed the song at

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

's Post-Prime Day Concert in Seattle, Washington. Perry also performed the song in May 2020 on

as part of their summer concert series. The song is included on the setlist of Perrys concert residency

Play Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * P ...

. In January 2022, Perry performed an acoustic version of the song on ''

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''.

Track listing

* Digital download and streaming # "Never Really Over" – 3:43 * Digital download and streaming ( R3hab remix) # "Never Really Over" (R3hab remix) – 3:07 * Digital download and streaming (

Syn Cole Rene Pais (born 25 March 1988), better known by his stage name Syn Cole, is an Estonian DJ and record producer. Some of his notable songs include " Miami 82" in 2013, "Bright Lights" in 2014, and " Feel Good" in 2016. Born and raised in Pärnu, ...

remix) # "Never Really Over" (Syn Cole remix) – 3:08 * Digital download and streaming (

Wow & Flutter Wow & Flutter is an indie rock trio from Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the co ...

remix) # "Never Really Over" (Wow & Flutter remix) – 6:11 * 12-inch vinyl # "Never Really Over" – 3:44 # "

" – 2:41

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from Tidal. *

– vocals *

– producer, programming, mixer * Gino Barletta – background vocals * Hayley Warner – background vocals *

– background vocals, producer, programming * Dave Kutch –

mastering engineer Mastering is a form of audio post production which is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the Audio mixing (recorded music), final mix to a data storage device called a master recording, the source ...

* Daniel James – producer, programming * Ryan Shanahan –

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, additional mixer * Brian Cruz – assistant recording engineer

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2019 singles 2019 songs Katy Perry songs New Age in popular culture Songs written by Daniel James (record producer) Songs written by Hayley Warner Songs written by Jason Gill (musician) Songs written by Katy Perry Songs written by Leah Haywood Songs written by Zedd Capitol Records singles Dance-pop songs Electropop songs Songs written by Gino Barletta