"Break Free" is a song by American singer Ariana Grande, featuring Russian-German music producer Zedd. It was released by Republic Records on July 3, 2014, as the second single from Grande's second studio album, My Everything (2014). It was written by Savan Kotecha and its producers Zedd and Max Martin. Musically, the song explores EDM and electro genres, a musical departure for Grande, whose discography is primarily composed of pop and R&B.
"Break Free" peaked at number four on the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming Grande's third consecutive top-ten from My Everything after "Problem" and "Bang Bang", and her fourth overall. Similarly, "Break Free" hit number three on the Australian ARIA Charts, and number five on the Canadian Hot 100 and the New Zealand Singles Chart. Overall, the song attained top-ten peaks in multiple countries including Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, and Sweden, as well as reaching the top twenty in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, Poland, Scotland, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
The song has been certified quintiple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and has sold over 1.9 million copies in the United States as of 2020, making it Grande's seventh single to have sold over a million. Its music video was directed by Chris Marrs Piliero and pays homage to science fiction films, and has received over 1.2 billion views on YouTube as of 2024. "Break Free" also marked a milestone in Grande's career, as it entered the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100 the same week "Problem" and "Bang Bang" were charting. Consequently, she became the second lead female artist in chart history to simultaneously hold three positions in the top ten on the Hot 100 after Adele.
"Break Free" was written by Savan Kotecha, Zedd and Max Martin and produced by the latter two.[4][5]
The song was originally intended for Austin Mahone, however the recording never materialized due to conflicting schedules as Mahone was working on his 2013 single "Say Somethin". In a May 2014 interview during which he talked about "Break Free", Zedd spoke about wanting to collaborate with Grande after hearing her voice for the first time at a Universal showcase event where she sang live. He said, "I was backstage and I heard someone sing. And I didn't know who it was, and I just said 'I want to make a song with whoever is singing right now.' I didn't know who it was, and it turned out to be her. And luckily, now there's a song!"[4][6]
"Break Free" is a EDM and electro track, a departure from Grande's typically pop and R&B music.[7][8][2] She first spoke about collaborating on a song with Zedd in late April in an interview with Billboard, where she described the song as "fantastic and super experimental for me" and further stated, "I never thought I'd do an EDM song, but that was an eye-opening experience, and now all I want to do is dance."[9][10] Grande later talked about the song at Wango Tango and shared that she wanted it to be the next single.[11][12]
According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Kobalt Music Services America, "Break Free" is written in the key of G minor.[13] The song features two grammatically incorrect lines, "Now that I've become who I really are" and "I only wanna die alive". Grande told Time magazine that she disagreed with Martin and refused to sing grammatically incorrect lyrics, but Martin urged her to do so because "It's funny".[14] This usage would ten years later be compared with Sabrina Carpenter's song "Espresso" and its line "That's that me espresso".[15]
Release
On May 10, 2014, during an interview after her performance at Wango Tango, Grande revealed that she wanted "Break Free" to be her next single after "Problem". She said, "I did a song with Zedd, who I just met for the first time here, and I'm really excited about that song. I really want that to be the second single. My whole team is like, 'Oh it's too early to pick a new single,' but I'm really leaning towards that one. I love that song so much. He's fantastic and the song is really fun."[16]
Grande began dropping hints about her second single on social media throughout the month of June but did not confirm that it was her Zedd collaboration until June 21, at which point she also revealed the song's name on Twitter. To build hype, Grande started an online countdown for the ten days leading up to "Break Free's" release. On June 28, Grande uploaded a teaser video with a snippet of the song to her Instagram account.[17]
"Break Free" premiered on the one-day revival of the MTV show Total Request Live in a half-hour special titled Total Ariana Live on July 2, 2014.[18] It was made available for purchase as a digital download on iTunes a few hours after the TRL premiere.[19][20] It reached the number one spot on the iTunes Sales Chart soon after its release.[21]
Critical reception
Rachel Sonis from Idolator gave the song a positive review calling it "the club anthem of the summer" and thought that Grande herself is "dipping her toes into exciting new waters for her upcoming record."[22] Lewis Corner from Digital Spy gave the song four stars out of five and said that the track is "too catchy to be generic".[23] Larry Fitzmaurice from Pitchfork also liked the song praising both the production part of the song and the vocal saying that, "from the zippy opening synth line to the verse's insistent pounding, 'Break Free' certainly invites comparisons to Swedish pop mastermind Robyn; as ever, Grande brings her own skyscraping voice in top form, so vocally the comparisons don't stick." He compared the message of the song to Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone".[2]
In the United States, "Break Free" debuted at number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 with 161,000 digital downloads sold within its first week, entering the Digital Songs chart at number five.[29][30] Following the release of the song's official music video on August 12, "Break Free" soared on from number 18 to number four on the Hot 100, becoming Grande's fourth career top-ten single and her third consecutive top-ten of 2014.[31] The same week, Grande's other My Everything singles, "Bang Bang" and "Problem" were also in the Billboard Hot 100 top ten, placing at numbers ten and seven respectively. With three songs in the top ten simultaneously, Grande became the second female lead artist in history to have three concurrent singles in the top ten since Adele did so in 2012. Additionally, "Break Free" jumped from number 14 to four on the BillboardDigital Songs charts with 116,000 digital downloads sold that week, along with "Bang Bang" and the promotional single "Best Mistake" (featuring Big Sean) ranking at numbers two and six, respectively. Consequently, Grande became the first female artist to have three songs placing in the top six of the Billboard Digital Songs chart simultaneously, and the second overall artist since Michael Jackson did so in 2009 following his death.[32] "Break Free" also marked Zedd's second top-ten entry and his highest-peaking single to date in the United States as of 2024. On the Dance Club Songs, the track reached a peak of number three, while topping the Dance/Electronic Songs chart for nine weeks, becoming Grande's and Zedd's first number one in the latter. The song has sold 1.9 million copies in the nation as of June 2020.[33]
Internationally, the song also reached the top ten in Australia,[34] Austria,[35] Canada,[36] Finland,[37] Ireland,[38] Netherlands,[39] New Zealand,[40] Poland,[41] and Sweden.[42]
In March 2022, "Break Free" has received attention in the Philippines during a campaign rally for presidential candidate, Vice President Leni Robredo and her running mate, Sen. Francis Pangilinan. A video of the crowd singing "Break Free" went viral, catching the attention of Grande herself. Grande posted the video on Instagram, stating "I could not believe this was real. I love you more than words". An estimated 137,000 people attended the rally.[46]
Music video
Grande is seen removing clothing while floating in zero gravity, paying homage to the opening scene of the 1968 sci-fi film Barbarella.[47]
The music video was filmed from June 10–12, 2014.[48] It was directed by Chris Marrs Piliero. Having an intergalactic theme, Grande stated that the video was inspired by the 1968 sci-fi film Barbarella, the Star Wars series and space in general.[49][50][51][52] The plot consists of Grande on a fictional planet renouncing her allegiance to an evil regime of extraterrestrials and freeing a group of prisoners from their cages. She subsequently attacks a giant robot using missiles, but the robot managed to release its hand to catch her, bringing her to the planet's overlord. Her character succeeds in defeating the villain, and the clip ends with Grande and the prisoners she rescued flying away in a spaceship, partying with the crew, as Beats by Dre products are visible in the scene. The song's producer Zedd makes an appearance.
It premiered on YouTube on August 12, 2014. It surpassed 100 million views on October 5, making it Grande's third Vevo-certified music video after "The Way" and "Problem". It made its televised debut three days later on Disney Channel during its original movie How to Build a Better Boy.[53][54] As of September 2024, the video has received over 1.2 billion views on YouTube.[55]
Zedd Music Empire (ASCAP), all rights administered by Kobalt Songs Music Publishing, MXM (administered by Kobalt) (ASCAP), MXM (administered by Kobalt (ASCAP)
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. † Streaming-only figures based on certification alone.
^Merol, Vero (October 5, 2015). "Premios Telehit 2015". Vero Merol (in Mexican Spanish). Archived from the original on October 27, 2016. Retrieved December 7, 2018.
^"ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Radio Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Select 45. týden 2014 in the date selector. Retrieved November 10, 2014.
^"ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Digital Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Select 36. týden 2014 in the date selector. Retrieved September 8, 2014.
^"ČNS IFPI" (in Slovak). Hitparáda – Radio Top 100 Oficiálna. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: insert 201444 into search. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
^"ČNS IFPI" (in Slovak). Hitparáda – Singles Digital Top 100 Oficiálna. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Select SINGLES DIGITAL - TOP 100 and insert 201440 into search. Retrieved October 6, 2014.
