"Stay" is a song by Norwegian DJ and record producer

Kygo Kyrre Gørvell-Dahll (; born 11 September 1991), known professionally as Kygo (), is a Norwegian DJ and music producer. He first received international attention with his December 2013 remix of the track " I See Fire" by Ed Sheeran and his De ...

, featuring American singer Maty Noyes. The song was produced by Kygo with fellow Norwegian, William Wiik Larsen, who also wrote it with Noyes. It was released as the fourth single from Kygo's debut studio album, '' Cloud Nine'' (2016). An official music video for the song was released on 18 February 2016.

Background

After writing what would eventually become "Stay", Noyes discovered Kygo through a

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he did of

Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gaye Jr. (; April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984) was an American Rhythm and blues, R&B and soul singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He helped shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player an ...

's 1982 single "

Sexual Healing "Sexual Healing" is a song recorded by American singer Marvin Gaye from his seventeenth and final studio album, ''Midnight Love'' (1982). It was his first single since his exit from his long-term record label Motown earlier in the year, followin ...

". Noyes liked Kygo's remix and "figured he could do something with this song", so she talked to her manager, Phoenix Stone, about the possibility of working with Kygo. Stone mentioned that an A&R executive had heard "

Angel An angel is a spiritual (without a physical body), heavenly, or supernatural being, usually humanoid with bird-like wings, often depicted as a messenger or intermediary between God (the transcendent) and humanity (the profane) in variou ...

"—a track Noyes did with

The Weeknd Abel Makkonen Tesfaye (; born February 16, 1990), known professionally as the Weeknd, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor. He is best known for adding Pop music, pop, electronic music, electronic and hip-hop stylings ...

for the latter's debut album ''

Beauty Behind the Madness ''Beauty Behind the Madness'' is the second studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter the Weeknd. It was released on August 28, 2015, through XO and Republic Records. It features guest appearances from Labrinth, Ed Sheeran and Lana Del Rey. T ...

'' (2015)—and was now looking for another song for Kygo to work on. According to Noyes, "We sent

he demo He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

to them and one of his people in his team was playing it for him in his hotel room and he said, automatically, "Send me this I want to do it right now." It worked out really quickly. He had it done within a few days and he said it was one of the fastest songs he ever finished. It was meant to be."

Live performances

Kygo and Noyes gave their first live performance of the song at the

Nobel Peace Prize Concert The Nobel Peace Prize Concert ( Norwegian and Swedish: '')'' has been held annually since 1994 on 11 December to honour the Nobel Peace Prize laureate. The award ceremony on 10 December takes place in Oslo City Hall, while the concert has been ...

on December 11, 2015. In October 2016, Noyes missed a live gig through illness and Kygo's manager, Myles Shear, banned her from performing at the

Hollywood Bowl The Hollywood Bowl is an amphitheatre and Urban park, public park in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, California. It was named one of the 10 best live music venues in the United States by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine in 2018 and was listed on ...

with him as a result. He later apologised.

Music video

The music video was directed by Jason Beattie. It follows the topsy-turvy relationship of a

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

couple.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2015 singles 2015 songs Sony Music singles Maty Noyes songs Kygo songs Song recordings produced by Kygo Songs written by Kygo Songs written by Maty Noyes Songs written by William Wiik Larsen