"Roxanne" (stylized in
all uppercase[2]) is a song by American rapper
Arizona Zervas. It was released on October 10, 2019.[3] The song was written by the artist himself with Lauren Larue, and produced by 94Skrt and Jae Green.[4]
"Roxanne" reached number one in New Zealand and peaked within the top ten in Australia, Norway, the UK, and the US. It reached the Top 40 in many other European and North American markets, including number four on the
Billboard Hot 100. The success of the song sparked a bidding war among labels, and on November 15, 2019, it was reported that Zervas had signed with
Columbia Records.[5] A remix with American rapper
Swae Lee was released on February 21, 2020. The song depicts a wealthy Californian woman from Beverly Hills. She drives a drop top car, enjoys partying, and returns to broken relationships as long as the man pays her.
Background and release
Zervas teased the release of the song by posting a clip of him dancing to the song on his
Instagram a day prior to the release.[6] The song was released on October 10, 2019.[7] The track quickly became a viral hit on the app
TikTok.[8] Within the first three weeks, the song reached the Top 50 of the US
Spotify and several
iTunes charts.[9]
Chart performance
"Roxanne" became the first track by an unsigned, fully independent artist to top the
Spotify chart since the beginning of 2017.[10] The song subsequently debuted at number 34 on the US
Billboard Hot 100, as well as debuting at number 24 on the
UK Singles Chart and reaching number 1 in New Zealand, becoming his first number one on any national chart. It has so far peaked at number four in the US,[11] where it also topped the BillboardStreaming Songs chart for the week dated November 30, 2019, making Zervas just the fourth artist to top the chart with their first charting song.[12] The song also reached number two on the
Mainstream Top 40 chart for two weeks, behind
Dua Lipa's "
Don't Start Now".
Critical reception
Billboard described the song as "an instantly memorable pop-rap concoction with an attention-grabbing intro, a sing-along chorus and about an album's worth of addicting mini-hooks."[1] Chris Lambert of Forbes compared Zervas' "smooth, dreamy flow" on the song to the likes of
Migos and
Post Malone.[13] Elias Leight at Rolling Stone noted that the singer "likes to syllables and add a light quaver to his vocals" and how the song "sounds like a Post Malone demo".[14]
The video finds Zervas stuck in an "infinite loop" where he dies every day, only to wake up again the next morning, while "Roxanne" channels
Uma Thurman's
Mia Wallace character from Pulp Fiction.[16] Zervas came up with the video's concept, with
Columbia Records vice president of video production Saul Levitz noting how Zervas was "very specific" of how the character of Roxanne needed to be portrayed: "a conceptual hook with her constantly being this source of bad luck and him being stuck in this perpetual ride with her".[16] The video features "colorful fashion and antiquated housing" while capturing a "vintage California aesthetic".[15] Considering the song's popularity on
TikTok, Levitz said they wanted the video to engage the audience in a new way and with that, wanted to uncover some mystery about Zervas, noting how Zervas had no previous videos and "people didn't even have many still photos of him".[16]
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ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Digital Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Change the chart to CZ – SINGLES DIGITAL – TOP 100 and insert 201948 into search. Retrieved December 3, 2019.
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ČNS IFPI" (in Slovak). Hitparáda – Radio Top 100 Oficiálna. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: insert 202007 into search. Retrieved February 18, 2020.
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ČNS IFPI" (in Slovak). Hitparáda – Singles Digital Top 100 Oficiálna. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Select SINGLES DIGITAL - TOP 100 and insert 201946 into search. Retrieved November 19, 2019.