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Stronger (Kanye West song)
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source"Stronger" is the Grammy Award Winning second single from Kanye West's album Graduation. The single was first released digitally on July 31 2007. "Stronger" features a prominent sample from the song "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" by the French house music duo Daft Punk, who received songwriter credit and had their costumes appear in the music video.
History
A snippet of "Stronger" was released from West's Can't Tell Me Nothing mixtape. Shortly after, on May 31, 2007 Mark Ronson played the full-length song on his podcast. On June 27, 2007, "Stronger" was put onto the BBC Radio 1 Up-Front playlist and was later upgraded to the A-List a month prior to its release.The single art was released on West's website on June 28, 2007. It was designed by Japanese pop artist Takashi Murakami. It features a cartoon version of the "Dropout Bear" previously seen on the cover of West's The College Dropout and Late Registration albums wearing sunglasses similar to the those West wears in the video, as well as the robotic heads of duo Daft Punk.
West performed a partial version of this song live at the Concert for Diana held at Wembley Stadium on July 1, 2007 to a crowd of 63,000 people. An estimated 500 million people watched the event in over 140 countries worldwide.
The song was released to iTunes on July 31, 2007 and has reached #1. It debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at #47 and later peaked at the number 1 position same week his album Graduation took the number one spot. It is West's third number one in the U.S., following "Slow Jamz" and "Gold Digger." The song debuted on the UK singles chart at #3 and later became West's first #1 single in the UK. Climbing on downloads alone, it surpassed the prior week's number one single, Robyn's "With Every Heartbeat". It has also topped the Canadian Hot 100 and New Zealand charts.
After getting "jibbed" out of opening the MTV Video Music Awards, West appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres Show and expressed his displeasure at the circumstances which lead up to and came during and after the award show. He then performed "Stronger" on the show. He also performed a portion of the song at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards in a competition between The Office actor Rainn Wilson similar to Don't Forget the Lyrics (which, like the 2007 Emmys, airs on FOX) with host Wayne Brady presiding. West sang the last line of the chorus as "That how long I've been on you" which was supposed to be "That how long I've been on ya", losing to Wilson. West jokingly retorted "I never win", poking fun at his losses at award ceremonies and presented the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality-Competition Program alongside Wilson.
The song can be heard for the promo of the 2007 film The Kingdom. It can also be heard as the introductory song of the Toronto Raptors as well as the Texas Longhorns. Also, the New York Giants entered the field to this song at Super Bowl XLII and during most of their home games during the season. The New York Rangers play it at every home game as well. The song won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance for the 50th Grammy Awards. It is also Featured in Season 4 Ep 4 of Entourage as background music in a night club. The song was also named the number one record of 2007 in the January 2008 issue of Spin Magazine with Kanye West and Daft Punk presiding on the cover. This song was #11 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007.No byline ([[December 11]], [[2007]]). [http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17601851/the_top_50_albums_of_2007/3 "The 100 Best Songs of 2007"] ''Rolling Stone''. Retrieved [[2007-12-21]] This song was also #96 on ''[[MTV Networks Asia|MTV Asia]]'' Daft Punk themselves made a surprise appearance at the 50th Grammy Awards on February 10 2008 to join West in performing a reworked version of the song on stage at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. A press release specified that this was the first televised live performance by Daft Punk in their career.
West collaborated with Timbaland to rework the percussion for the final cut of the song, which appears on the Graduation album. This version contains master use of Edwin Birdsong's "Cola Bottle Baby", a song sampled by Daft Punk for "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger". The pre-album version of "Stronger" known to the public and being used by radio, television and other outlets is merely the version used as the single. 30 Seconds to Mars performed a cover version of "Stronger" on BBC Radio 1, which is featured on Radio 1's Live Lounge – Volume 2. The cover features a slower tempo on guitar and omits the profanity, which was reworded by their lead singer Jared Leto. Leto said that he "hoped that Kanye [was] okay" with the editing. On October 4 2007, a previously unreleased version of "Stronger" was revealed. This version features a singular, unused verse from West. The structure is also different, as it features less synthesizer chords and percussion, with the Daft Punk sample more dominant at the forefront of the production. It is believed that this version was an early draft of the final song. The refrain "That that don't kill me can only make me stronger" stems from Friedrich Nietzsche's quote "What does not kill me, makes me stronger" from his Twilight of the Idols. Although "Stronger" uses references to Nietzche and Charles Darwin, the song references "God" on a number of occasions.
The video features appearances by singer and model Cassie Ventura and the two principal actors from the film Daft Punk's Electroma dressed as Daft Punk, the latter of whom West sampled for the song. The video features multiple scenes which pay homage to the 1988 anime film Akira. These include the light effects on the motorbikes, the hospital scenes and West being scanned by machines. Both West and Williams had originally planned to integrate scenes from the film. West also wears a pair of Alain Mikli sunglasses, which he specifically requested from the designer.
The song's electronica overtones has affected its prevalence on other charts, most notably the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, where it only achieved moderate success, peaking at 30. "Stronger" has seen widespread success internationally, reaching number one in Canada, Turkey, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States, and on the composite United World Chart. The song ended 2007 as the years 19th biggest-selling single in the UK
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"Stronger" features a sample of the popular 2001 song "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" by Daft Punk that consists of a vocal performance by the duo. On July 3, 2007, West told Zane Lowe on BBC Radio 1 that although he believes "Stronger" is "a great song", it does not compare to the sampled original. Daft Punk were delighted upon first hearing the new song on Power 106 while on a San Francisco flight. As Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo of the duo stated, "Our song had a good sound, but when [the radio DJ] put Kanye's record on, the sound was really fat. It sounds really big." The use of "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" was requested through Daft Punk's manager Pedro Winter and approved by the duo. De Homem Christo also clarified that "It's not a collaboration in the studio, but the vibe of the music we do separately connected in what [West] did with the song."Music video
The music video for "Stronger" was directed by Hype Williams and shot over nine days in Japan. It features shots in Aoyama-based clothing store A Bathing Ape and Harajuku clothing store Billionare Boys Club/Ice Cream. The video took three months to complete. A rough cut first premiered at the Tribeca Studios in New York City on June 19, 2007 by West himself. It made its public premiere on June 26, 2007, on MTV Germany's TRL. The video was also shown on the BET countdown show 106 & Park on June 28, 2007. On VH1, BET and MTV, West is credited as "Mr. West" in the "Stronger" video.Track listing
CD single (UK)
CD single (international)
12" picture disc (UK)
Chart positions
"Stronger" entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart on the charting week of August 11, 2007 at number 47, the highest debut single on the chart that week. The song steadily climbed the chart, reaching the number one position on the charting week of September 29, 2007, pushing the previous week's chart topper, Soulja Boy's "Crank That (Soulja Boy)" into the number two position. However, the following week, "Crank That" replaced "Stronger" atop the charts, making the West's single reach its peak for only one week.
Chart (2007)
Peak
position
Australian ARIA Charts
2
Brazilian Hot 100
10
Canadian Hot 100
1
Czech IFPI Chart
27
Danish Singles Chart
7
Euro 200 (EU)
7
German Singles Chart
17
Irish Singles Chart
2
Norway Top 20
3
Polish National top 50
16
Portugal Singles Chart
30
Swedish Top 60
19
Turkish Singles Chart
1
New Zealand RIANZ Top 40
1
UK Singles Chart
1
U.S. Billboard Hot 100
1
U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
30
U.S. Billboard Hot Rap Tracks
3
U.S. Billboard Pop 100
1
United World Chart
1
References
External links
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Friday March 07, 2008 at 22:57:55 PST (GMT -0800)
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