"Swan Song" is a song by English and Albanian singer

Dua Lipa Dua Lipa ( ; born22 August 1995) is an English and Albanian singer, songwriter and actress. List of awards and nominations received by Dua Lipa, Her accolades include seven Brit Awards and three Grammy Awards. Lipa worked as a model before v ...

for the

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

of 2019 film '' Alita: Battle Angel''. The singer co-wrote the song with

Justin Tranter Justin Drew Tranter (born June 16, 1980) is an American songwriter, singer, and activist. Tranter has written songs for artists such as Britney Spears, Gwen Stefani, Linkin Park, Kelly Clarkson, Sara Bareilles, Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber, DNCE, ...

, Kennedi Lykken, Mattias Larsson, Robin Fredriksson and

Tom Holkenborg Tom Holkenborg (born 8 December 1967), also known as Junkie XL, is a Dutch composer, multi-instrumentalist, DJ, producer, and engineer. Originally known for his trance productions, he has moved to producing electronica and big beat music and fil ...

, while the production was handled by

Mattman & Robin Mattias Per Larsson and Robin Lennart Fredriksson (known collectively as Mattman & Robin) are Swedish songwriters and record producers. They are published by Wolf Cousins, a publishing company administered by Warner Chappell Music. In 2016, they ...

. Holkenborg also composed the soundtrack and orchestrations he created for it are used in the song. Announced in December 2018, the song was released for

digital download Digital download may refer to: *Downloading, the processing of copying data to a computer from an external source *Digital distribution, a method of downloading software or audio-visual media as opposed to buying it at a traditional point of sale * ...

and

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 24 January 2019 through

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 ...

as the soundtrack's

lead single A lead single (or first single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. A similar term, "debut ...

. "Swan Song" 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 ...

song set to muted electronics, cinematic horns and orchestral stabs. In the song, Lipa references 1980s AIDS activist group

ACT UP AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) is an international, grassroots political group working to end the AIDS pandemic. The group works to improve the lives of people with AIDS through direct action, medical research, treatment and advocacy, ...

and sings about new beginnings and society using their voices to fight for what they believe in. Several critics praised the song for the production. It was nominated for

Best Original Song The following is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various films, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best ...

at the

24th Satellite Awards The 24th Satellite Awards is an award ceremony honoring the year's outstanding performers, films and television shows, presented by the International Press Academy. The nominations were announced on December 3, 2019. The winners were announced o ...

. Commercially, the song reached number 24 on the UK Singles Chart and also reached the top 50 of charts in Belgium (Flanders), Ireland, Lithuania and Scotland. The song was awarded a silver certification in the UK and a gold one in Poland. The

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

for "Swan Song" was directed by

Floria Sigismondi Floria Sigismondi (, born 1965) is an Italian-Canadian film director, screenwriter, music video director, artist, and photographer. She is best known for writing and directing '' The Runaways'', for directing music videos for performers includ ...

and accompanied the song's release. A blockbuster visual, it follows a loose synopsis of ''Alita: Battle Angel'', specifically with the self-discovery themes. The video features Lipa and her crew in the fictional Iron City of the film. They encounter a giant robot and eventually Alita, before Lipa transforms into her towards the end. Several critics complimented the video's sci-fi themes. An acoustic version and a remixes

extended play An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...

were released for further promotion.

Background and development

At the end of 2018,

was contacted about an opportunity to create a song for the new film '' Alita: Battle Angel'', which

James Cameron James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker, who resides in New Zealand. He is a major figure in the post-New Hollywood era and often uses novel technologies with a Classical Hollywood cinema, classical filmmaking styl ...

and

Robert Rodriguez Robert Anthony Rodriguez ( ; born June 20, 1968) is an American filmmaker, composer, and visual effects supervisor. He shoots, edits, produces, and scores many of his films in Mexico and in his home state of Texas. Rodriguez directed the 1992 ...

had been working on. She accepted as she was instantly drawn to the film's titular character, Alita, and wanted to be a part of the film. The film team thought that Lipa would be a perfect fit for ''Alita: Battle Angel'' after seeing her

for "

New Rules "New Rules" is a song by English and Albanian singer Dua Lipa from her Dua Lipa (album), eponymous debut studio album (2017). The song was written by Caroline Ailin, Emily Warren, and Ian Kirkpatrick (record producer), Ian Kirkpatrick. Kirkpa ...

". They thought her performance had the "kick-ass strength, power and attitude" Alita embodies in the film. Lipa was given the film's trailer and synopsis to begin, while she later got to see it prior to working on the song. Lipa wrote "Swan Song" alongside

, Kennedi Lykken, Mattias Larsson, Robin Fredriksson and

. The singer found it exciting to write a song she already had a concept for and experiment with sounds that were different from what she was working on with her album. Holkenborg had composed the score for the film; the writers decided to take the orchestrations he created and use them in the song. The production was handled by

. "Swan Song" was recorded at

Conway Studios Conway may refer to: Places United States * Conway, Arkansas * Conway County, Arkansas * Lake Conway, Arkansas * Conway, Florida * Conway, Iowa * Conway, Kansas * Conway, Louisiana * Conway, Massachusetts * Conway, Michigan * Conway To ...

in Los Angeles, TaP Studio in London and Wolf Cousins Studios in Stockholm.

Serban Ghenea Serban Ghenea () is a Canadian audio engineer and mixer. He has been nominated for a Grammy Award a total of 45 times and has won 21 times. Early life and education Ghenea was born in Romania, and in 1976 he moved to Montreal with his family. H ...

mixed the song at MixStar Studios in

Virginia Beach, Virginia Virginia Beach (colloquially VB) is the most populous city in the U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. The city is located on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in southeastern Virginia. It is the sixth-most populous city in the ...

and

Randy Merrill Randy Merrill is an American mastering engineer who has worked with international artists including Blink-182, DAY6, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Maroon 5, Harry Styles, One Direction, Adele, Imagine Dragons, Beck, Liam Gallagher, Jonas Brothers, Muse ...

mastered it at

Sterling Sound George Marino (April 15, 1947June 4, 2012) was an American mastering engineer known for working on albums by rock bands starting in the late 1960s. Biography Marino was born on April 15, 1947, in the New York City borough The Bronx. He attended ...

in New York.

Music and lyrics

Musically, "Swan Song" is an

track. It is constructed in

verse–chorus form Verse–chorus form is a musical form going back to the 1840s, in such songs as "Oh! Susanna", " The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze", and many others. It became passé in the early 1900s, with advent of the AABA (with verse) form in the T ...

and composed in the

time signature A time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, and measure signature) is an indication in music notation that specifies how many note values of a particular type fit into each measure ( bar). The time signature indicates th ...

of time in the key of

C minor C minor is a minor scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature consists of three flats. Its relative major is E major and its parallel major is C major. The C natural minor scale is: Cha ...

, 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 96 beats per minute and a

chord progression In a musical composition, a chord progression or harmonic progression (informally chord changes, used as a plural, or simply changes) is a succession of chords. Chord progressions are the foundation of harmony in Western musical tradition from ...

of A–B–Cm–Gm7. The song begins with a burst of horns and heavy drums. The production features muted electronics, airy

synths 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 an ...

, stabbing brass samples, vocal chants, percolating percussion, cinematic horns, orchestral stabs, a driving melody, powerful

strings String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...

and a mechanized, cybernetic and pulsating beat. Lipa builds on an urgency feeling in the

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 ...

. The synths build up to the minimal chorus, while the sections progress to the final booming hook. Lipa uses triumphant vocals,

ranging Length measurement, distance measurement, or range measurement (ranging) all refer to the many ways in which length, distance, or range can be measured. The most commonly used approaches are the rulers, followed by transit-time methods and the ...

from G₃ to D₅. In the song, Lipa sings about new beginnings and mentions a series of obstacles she has had to overcome. The writers were inspired by how Alita fights for the lives of marginalized people. They wrote the song about how society constantly needs to speak up about what they believe in and the injustices of the world, as well as how their voices always need to be used; this message was also inspired by the film's empowering message. The song additionally took inspiration from the 1980s advocacy group

, who formed in response to the HIV/AIDS crisis at the time. The bridge paraphrases the group's motto "silence equals death" and the song's title contradicts its meaning. "Swan Song" ends with an abrupt climax that leads to a two-second fade out.

Release and promotion

On 17 December 2018, it was announced that Lipa would record "Swan Song" for ''Alita: Battle Angel'' and that the song would be released ahead of the film's 14 February 2019 release. The same day, Lipa revealed the cover art. Also in December 2018, the film's trailer was released, featuring clip of the song. The following month, it was announced that the song would be released on 25 January 2019. Lipa began teasing the song on social media thereafter. Prior to the song's release, it was previewed in a TV spot for ''Alita: Battle Angel''. "Swan Song" was released for

and

on 24 January 2019 through

as the

from the film's soundtrack, being released a day earlier than originally intended. The following day, the song was sent for

radio airplay Airplay is how frequently a song is being played through broadcasting on radio stations. A song which is being played several times every day (spins) would have a significant amount of airplay. Music which became very popular on jukeboxes, in n ...

in Australia and Italy. On 28 January 2019, it was sent to US

adult contemporary radio Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, ...

formats and

contemporary hit radio Contemporary hit radio (CHR, also known as contemporary hits, hit list, current hits, hit music, top 40, or pop radio) is a radio format common in many countries that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top ...

formats the following day. While promoting the song, Lipa wanted viewers to find a piece of themselves in Alita and inspire one to do good in everyday life. "Swan Song" was included as the closing track on physical releases of the

Milan Records Milan Records is a record label located in Los Angeles, California specializing in film scores and soundtrack albums. In addition, Milan has an electronic catalog which features down-tempo, chillout, and eclectic electronic releases. In July 2 ...

-released ''Alita: Battle Angel'' soundtrack. On 22 March 2019, an acoustic version of the song was released. An

featuring remixes by

DJ Shadow Joshua Paul Davis (born June 29, 1972 in San Jose, California, San Jose, California), better known by his stage name DJ Shadow, is an American DJ and record producer. His debut studio album, ''Endtroducing.....,'' was released in 1996. He uses l ...

and NastyNasty,

Maya Jane Coles Maya Jane Coles is a British music producer, audio engineer and DJ, born in London. Under her real name, she mostly composes and plays house and techno music, while her alias Nocturnal Sunshine creates darker, more bass-driven productions wit ...

, aboutagirl and

Calibre In guns, particularly firearms, but not artillery, where a different definition may apply, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel bore – regardless of how or wher ...

was released on 12 April 2019.

Reception

In ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'', Raisa Bruner viewed "Swan Song" as a "clear battle anthem" where Lipa's "mellifluous" voice adds "weight and smoothness, and a welcome human element". She concluded by stating it echoes a "mix of electronic rhythms and a touch of the real". Writing for ''

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 Pareles Jon Pareles (born 1953) is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of ''The New York Times''. Brennan Carley of '' GQ'' thought Lipa treated the song as a "proper" solo single instead of a soundtrack song while also stating it could be nominated for an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

. Additionally, he said the song "feels properly high stakes, but also kind of weird and murky until its head-rattling chorus kicks in". Ryan Reed 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 ...

'' called the song "cinematic" while

Uproxx Uproxx Studios (stylized as ''UPROXX'') is an American music, entertainment and popular culture website and content studio. It was founded in 2008 by Jarret Myer and Brian Brater. The website was acquired in 2014 by Woven Digital (which later ...

's Chloe Gilke named "Swan Song" a "powerful", "confident, anthemic banger" and Lake Schatz of ''

Consequence Consequence may refer to: Philosophy, science and social sciences * Logical consequence, also known as a ''consequence relation'', or ''entailment'' * Consequent, in logic, the second half of a hypothetical proposition or consequences * Consequent ...

'' viewed it as a "defiant number". For ''

Idolator An idolator is a practitioner of idolatry. Idolator or Idolater may also refer to: * Idolator (website), an American music blog * ''Idolator'' (album), a 2005 album by Blood Stain Child * ''Idolator'', a 1986 album by Ole Evenrud * "Idolater", a ...

'', Mike Nied named "Swan Song" a "soaring anthem" with a "suitably epic production" that "could easily be ipa'snext song to dominate the charts". Chris DeVille of ''

Stereogum ''Stereogum'' is a daily Internet publication that focuses on music news, reviews, interviews, and commentary. The site was created in January 2002 by Scott Lapatine. ''Stereogum'' was one of the first MP3 blogs and has received several awar ...

'' complimented how Lipa experimented with the track and compared it to

Lorde Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor (born 7 November 1996), known professionally as Lorde ( ), is a New Zealand singer and songwriter. She is known for her unconventional style of pop music and introspective songwriting, and has been referred to ...

's " Yellow Flicker Beat" (2014). In ''

Popjustice Popjustice is a music website founded in 2000 by UK freelance music journalist Peter Robinson, who has worked for ''NME'', ''The Guardian'', ''Attitude'' and many others. It is composed of the work of editor Robinson, features editor Michael C ...

'', Peter Robinson praised the "creative and luxurious production" that is "sparse where it needs to be and full of dramatic and unpredictable little flourishes" while also complimenting how the song fades out at the end. Writing for ''

Audacy Audacy, previously known as Radio.com, is a free broadcast and Internet radio Computing platform, platform developed by the namesake company Audacy, Inc. (formerly known as Entercom). The Audacy platform functions as a Recommender system, mus ...

'', Michael Cerio viewed the song as a "sweeping epic, building like a battle hymn into a banger". "Swan Song" was nominated for

at the

. In February 2019, "Swan Song" debuted at number 25 on the UK Singles Chart. In its third week, the song reached a peak of number 24. It spent a total of eight weeks on the chart. The

British Phonographic Industry BPI (British Recorded Music Industry) Limited, trading as British Phonographic Industry (BPI), is the British recorded music industry's trade association. It runs the BRIT Awards; is home to the Mercury Prize; co-owns the Official Charts C ...

(BPI) awarded the song a silver certification in November 2021 for selling 200,000 track-equivalent units in the UK. In Ireland and Scotland, the song had respective peaks of numbers 24 and 27. Additionally, the song reached number 50 in Belgium (Flanders), 63 in Portugal, 67 in Sweden and 96 in Switzerland. In 2020, the song was awarded a gold certification from the

Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry The Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry (; ZPAV) is the trade organization that represents the interests of the music industry in Poland, and the Polish chapter of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). Founded ...

(ZPAV) for track-equivalent sales of 10,000 units in Poland. It reached number 99 in both Canada and Germany. In the United States, the song spent five weeks on the ''

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 ...

Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles (also known as Bubbling Under the Hot 100) is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. The chart lists the top songs that have not yet charted on the main ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Chart ...

chart, peaking at number four. In Oceania, it reached number 68 in Australia and entered the NZ Hot Singles chart at number five.

Music video

The music video for "Swan Song" was directed by

and filmed in December 2018. Lipa described filming the video as different from ones she had done before as a movie team was working on it and CGI was used. She knew she wanted to do a fighting scene and had people from ''Alita: Battle Angel'' come and help her out and teach her how to do the fighting. The only time Lipa had to rehearse for the videos shoot was while she was in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

writing for her album so she would spend the entire day in the studio and then go and practice the moves every night for two to three hours. Sigismondi wanted the video to showcase the self-discovery themes of ''Alita: Battle Angel''. She thought that the film is a powerful story for any girl who does not know her power, a notion the director wanted to play with by putting Lipa into Alita's world and using Alita to help Lipa on a journey to discover she's stronger than she knew. Along with the song's announcement, Lipa revealed that it would also receive a music video. The video accompanied the single's release on 24 January 2019. It follows a loose synopsis of the film and is a blockbuster production. The visual is set in the fictional Iron City from ''Alita: Battle Angel''. It begins with Lipa and her crew rummaging through ruins and picking through mountains of trash, looking for items of value. The singer wears a chain mail dress with a black leather corset alongside heavy gold and silver chain necklaces, chunky lace-up platform boots, black pants and dark eye makeup. Lipa and her crew eventually perform dance and martial arts choreography in the city. Following this, a giant robot pops up to attack them but they escape. Lipa reemerges in another setting as if she had woken up from a nightmare and makes her way to a mirror. She encounters Alita in the mirror and performs a martial arts inspired dance break with her. The singer then transforms into Alita wearing a skin-tight black crop top. To close the video, she puts her cyborg fist into the air, posing in front of the Iron City. Elizabeth Aubrey of ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'' described the video as "sci-fi, futuristic". Robinson thought it marked "the best rubbish dump-based pop video" since " Keep Your Head Up" (2009) by

Girls Can't Catch Girls Can't Catch were a British girl group. Their debut single, "Keep Your Head Up (Girls Can't Catch song), Keep Your Head Up", entered the UK Singles Chart at number 26. Their second single, "Echo (Girls Can't Catch song), Echo", was released ...

. For '' Clash'', Robin Murray viewed the video as "ambitious" and noted the sci-fi theme reminiscent of the film. Cerio compared the video to the 2008 film ''

WALL-E ''WALL-E'' (stylized with an interpunct as ''WALL·E'') is a 2008 American animated Romance film, romantic science fiction film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The film was directed by Andrew Stanton, produced b ...

''. Nied called the music video "dramatic" and thought it does "a great job integrating Dua into the film's world". Gilke viewed the video as "cinematic" and thought it is "a perfect match" to the song.

Track listings

*Digital download and streaming # "Swan Song (From the Motion Picture 'Alita: Battle Angel')" – 3:02 *Digital download and streaming – acoustic # "Swan Song (From the Motion Picture 'Alita: Battle Angel')" coustic– 3:09 *Digital EP – remixes # "Swan Song (From the Motion Picture 'Alita: Battle Angel')" [

and NastyNasty remix] – 3:55 # "Swan Song (From the Motion Picture 'Alita: Battle Angel')" [

rework] – 3:07 # "Swan Song (From the Motion Picture 'Alita: Battle Angel')" boutagirl remix– 3:24 # "Swan Song (From the Motion Picture 'Alita: Battle Angel')" [

remix] – 3:39

Personnel

vocals *

production, programming, drums, percussion, guitar, piano, bass, synths, backing vocals, strings * Lorna Blackwood vocal production * Kennedi Lykken backing vocals *

piano, strings, bass, brass, synths * John Hanes engineering *

mixing *

mastering

Charts

Certifications

Release history

Footnotes

References

External links

* *
Lyrics of this song
at

Musixmatch Musixmatch is an Italian music data company and platform for users to search and share song lyrics with translations. Musixmatch has 80 million users (50M active users), 12 million songs with their respective lyrics, and 115+ employees. In 202 ...

{{Dua Lipa 2019 singles 2019 songs Dua Lipa songs Battle Angel Music videos directed by Floria Sigismondi Protest songs Songs written by Dua Lipa Songs written by Justin Tranter Songs written by Mattias Larsson Songs written by Robin Fredriksson Song recordings produced by Mattman & Robin Songs written for films Songs with feminist themes Electropop songs Songs written by Kennedi Lykken