"Break Free" is a song by American singer
Ariana Grande, featuring Russian-German music producer
Zedd. It was released by
Republic Records on July 2, 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.[4][5][2]
"Break Free" peaked at number four on the
Billboard Hot 100, becoming Grande's third consecutive top-ten from My Everything after "Problem" and "Bang Bang", and fourth overall in the US. 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 triple Platinum by the
RIAA and has sold 1.9 million copies in the United States as of 2020, making it Grande's seventh single to have sold over a million. "Break Free" also marked a milestone in Grande's career, as it entered the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100 the same week "
Bang Bang" and "
Problem" 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.[6][7]
The song was originally intended for a male singer, due to her 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. 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!"[6][8] Grande first spoke about collaborating on a song with Zedd in late April in an interview with Billboard. 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] She 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] Ariana Grande commented on the seemingly nonsensical lyrics, telling
Time magazine, "I fought [Max Martin] on it the whole time. I am not going to sing a grammatically incorrect lyric, help me, God! Max was like, 'It's funny — just do it!'"[14]
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."[15]
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.[16]
"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.[17] It was made available for purchase as a digital download on
iTunes a few hours after the TRL premiere.[18][19] It reached the number one spot on the iTunes Sales Chart soon after its release.[20]
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."[21] Lewis Corner from Digital Spy gave the song four stars out of five and said that the track is "too catchy to be generic".[22] 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 in its first week, entering the
Digital Songs chart at number five.[28][29] Following the release of the song's official music video on August 12, "Break Free" soared on the Hot 100 from number 18 to number four, becoming Grande's fourth top-ten single and her third consecutive top-ten single of 2014.[30] Grande's other singles, "
Bang Bang" and "
Problem" were also in the Billboard Hot 100 top ten that week, placing at number ten and seven respectively. With three songs in the top ten, Ariana Grande became the second female lead artist to have three singles in the top ten since
Adele in 2012. In that same week, "Break Free" jumped from 14 to four on the BillboardDigital Songs charts with 116,000 digital downloads sold, 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.[31] This also marked Zedd's second top ten and his highest-peaking single to date in the US. "Break Free" also peaked at number three on the
Dance Club Songs, 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.[32]
Internationally, the song also reached the top ten in Australia,[33] Austria,[34] Canada,[35] Finland,[36] Ireland,[37] Netherlands,[38] New Zealand,[39] Poland,[40] and Sweden.[41]
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.[45]
Music video
The music video was filmed from June 10–12, 2014.[47] 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.[48][49][50][51] 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.[52][53] As of May 2019, the video has received over 1 billion views on
YouTube.[54]
Zedd Music Empire (
ASCAP), all rights administered by Kobalt Songs Music Publishing, MXM (administered by Kobalt) (ASCAP), MXM (administered by Kobalt (ASCAP)
Fantasy-comedy series The Good Place uses the original recording of this song as background music for a sequence in its series premiere "
Everything Is Fine".
Dakota Lotus, Olivia Sanabia and Ruby Rose Turner sing a portion of the song in a 2020 episode of
Coop & Cami Ask the World in their respective roles as Coop, Charlotte and Cami, after Ariana Grande fails to show up at Cami's birthday party. The episode aired during the
COVID-19 pandemic.
The song appears in the 2019
Max Martin jukebox musical & Juliet. The song appears in Act 1, where it is performed by Angelique and Lance.
* 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.
^"
ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Radio Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Change the chart to CZ – RADIO – TOP 100 and insert 201445 into search. Retrieved November 10, 2014.
^"
ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Digital Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Change the chart to CZ – SINGLES DIGITAL – TOP 100 and insert 201436 into search. Retrieved September 8, 2014.
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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.