"Now or Never" is a song by American singer-songwriter

Outasight Richard Andrew Conte (born February 17, 1983), better known by his stage name Outasight, is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, and record producer born and raised in Yonkers, New York. Though he is considered a pop artist, he is influenced ...

. It was released on May 11, 2012, as the second single from his debut studio album, ''Nights Like These'', via

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (known as Warner Bros. Records Inc. until 2019) is an American record label. A subsidiary of Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division ...

. The music video was released to

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 ...

on September 17, 2012. It was also the official theme song for WWE's 2012 Survivor Series.

Background

"Now or Never" was released for

streaming Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a network for playback using a media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downl ...

on April 24, 2012, via

SoundCloud SoundCloud is a German audio streaming service owned and operated by SoundCloud Global Limited & Co. KG. The service enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is ...

. The song was officially released as the second single from ''Nights Like These'' on May 11, 2012. In October 2012, students of

Samford University Samford University is a Private university, private Christian university in Homewood, Alabama, United States. It was founded by Baptist Church, Baptists in 1841 as Howard College and located until 1887 in Marion, Alabama. It is governed by an in ...

posted a lip-dub video of the song, recorded at Pete Hanna Center.

Composition

The song was written by Richard Andrew Conte,

Kara DioGuardi Kara Elizabeth DioGuardi ( ; December 9, 1970) is an American songwriter, record producer, music publisher, A&R executive, and singer. She primarily writes music in the pop rock genre. She has worked with many popular artists; sales of albums ...

and Jeffrey Fenster, while production was handled by Andrew Goldstein, who also co-wrote the track. The song has been described as

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 ...

dance pop Dance-pop is a 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 radio. Developi ...

and

pop rap Pop rap (also known as pop hip-hop, pop hop, hip pop, melodic hip-hop or melodic rap) is a genre of music fusing the rhythm-based lyricism of hip hop with pop's preference for melodic vocals, catchy hooks, and positive lyrics on pop-like p ...

Critical reception

Jenna Hally Rubenstein of

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

stated that the song, "is the kind of jam that can carry you through a long drive with the top down... Set to a synth-laden, high-energy dance track, the tune begins with O's infectious vocals." William Goodman of

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio broadcaster CBS. It is headquartered in New York City. CBS News television programs include ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs ''CBS News Sunday Morn ...

complimented the track with a review title of "Great music meets inspiring moments..." and called the tune "upbeat and catchy." Hypebeast described the track as "an infectious mix of electronic flavor and his accustomed vocals."

Music video

The music video for "Now or Never" was released on September 17, 2012, via

. Directed by Isaac Ravishankara, the video was shot in the summer in

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

Charts

References

{{2010s-pop-song-stub 2012 singles Warner Records singles 2012 songs Songs written by Kara DioGuardi Songs written by Andrew Goldstein (musician)