"Saturday" is a song recorded by American musical duo

Twenty One Pilots Twenty One Pilots is an American musical duo from Columbus, Ohio. Initially a band, the group was formed in 2009 by lead vocalist Tyler Joseph along with Nick Thomas and Chris Salih, who both left in 2011. Since their departure, the line-up h ...

, released on May 18, 2021, through Fueled by Ramen, as the third single from their sixth studio album, '' Scaled and Icy'' (2021). It was written and produced by the duo's frontman,

Tyler Joseph Tyler Robert Joseph (born December 1, 1988) is an American singer, rapper, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is best known as the frontman for the musical duo Twenty One Pilots, alongside bandmate Josh Dun. Across his career he has r ...

, with Greg Kurstin and Paul Meany credited as co-producers. A music video for the song was released on July 8, 2021. On August 31, 2021, the song became the ninth by the duo to peak at No. 1 on the US

Alternative Airplay Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks between 1988 and 2009, and Alternative Songs between 2009 and 2020) is a music chart published in the American magazine ''Billboard'' since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-playe ...

chart.

Background

The song's

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

features an audio clip of a phone call with

's wife Jenna, with her encouraging Joseph to move on with the creation of the track. Joseph stated that he was recording and decided it fit perfectly in the song. Jenna wanted to re-record the audio, as she didn't like the way it sounded, but Joseph convinced her to keep it. The song was created while communicating virtually as the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

limited interaction between the members of the band.

Composition

"Saturday" is a pop and

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

song that runs for a duration of two minutes and fifty-two seconds. It is considered a very upbeat song in contrast to the themes of their previous albums ''

Trench A trench is a type of digging, excavation or depression in the ground that is generally deeper than it is wide (as opposed to a swale (landform), swale or a bar ditch), and narrow compared with its length (as opposed to a simple hole or trapping ...

'' and '' Blurryface''. Joseph stated in an interview that he did not want to "hold a mirror up to our circumstances and create a record exactly as it appeared in front of us", continuing "I didn't think that a dismal record was appropriate; the idea of escaping that was more appealing to me. The reason why it feels almost disconnected from the reality in which the record was created is intentional. It's gonna feel a little lighter because of that."

Music video

Upon the release of "Saturday", Twenty One Pilots released a

lyric video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to promote the sale of m ...

to promote the song. It shows depictions of 1980s

synthwave Synthwave (also called retrowave, or futuresynth) is an electronic music microgenre that is based predominantly on the music associated with the Film score, film soundtracks of action films, science fiction films, and horror films of the 1980s. ...

-esque imagery, paired with the colors of '' Scaled and Icy'' – predominantly soft shades of pink, blue and yellow. The official music video directed by Andrew Donoho was released on July 8, 2021, and filmed in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

. It is a continuation of the " Levitate" music video and it features frontman

and bandmate

Josh Dun Joshua William Dun (born June 18, 1988) is an American musician. He is best known as the drummer of the musical duo Twenty One Pilots, alongside Tyler Joseph, but he has collaborated with other artists as well. His band has been nominated for ...

performing the song atop a

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

as people are entering, before the camera pans to the interior, in which a party is occurring and the duo are performing. Moments later, a gigantic sea dragon deliberately crashes into the submarine, causing it to break and begin to flood as the duo continue their performance submerged in water while the guests panic. Eventually, the band manages to escape from the sinking vehicle, and emerges on the surface. The video ends with the sea dragon swimming by, underneath the duo and remaining guests.

Usage in media

"Saturday" appears on the soundtrack for the

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

video game '' NHL 22'', released in October 2021.

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''Scaled and Icy''.

Twenty One Pilots

* Tyler Joseph lead vocals, guitar, bass, organs, keyboards, synthesizers, programming, production * Josh Dun drums, percussion, trumpet

Additional musicians

* Paul Meany production, synthesizers * Greg Kurstin production, programming

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2021 songs 2021 singles Twenty One Pilots songs Songs written by Tyler Joseph Fueled by Ramen singles American funk songs