Mirrors (Justin Timberlake song)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mirrors
Justin Timberlake
publication February 11, 2013
length 8:05 (album version)
4:37 ( radio edit )
Genre (s) Pop , R&B
Author (s) Justin Timberlake, Timbaland , Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon, James Fauntleroy
Label RCA Records
album The 20/20 Experience

Mirrors (German: Spiegel ) is a song by the American pop singer Justin Timberlake . It was released in February 2013 as a single from his third studio album The 20/20 Experience and reachednumber one in the charts in Great Britain and Australia , among others. The song, which was first conceived in 2009, was created with the participation of Timberlake himself, Timbaland and Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon and James Fauntleroy.

Emergence

Mirrors was conceived back in 2009 while working on Timbaland 's third studio album, Shock Value II . It was not until three years later that the decision was made to publish it. The first five minutes represent the original version of the song, which belongs more to pop-rock , while the other three minutes were added years later and are heavily influenced by R&B . In Radio Edit also both parts exist in shortened versions.

In addition to Timbaland and Timberlake, Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon and James Fauntleroy co-wrote the single. It was recorded and mixed by Chris Godbey, Alejandro Baima, Jimmy Douglass and Timbaland. The instrumentalists involved were Elliot Ives ( guitar ), Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon ( keyboard ) and the Benjamin Wright Orchestra ( strings ).

Timberlake announced that it is dedicating the song to his wife Jessica Biel and grandparents. For him, Mirrors was the big comeback after two years of absence from the stage of the international charts.

Music video

With a length of 8:28, the music video alternately shows scenes from three different phases of a couple's life: getting to know each other and the happy first love in their youth in the 1950s, the difficult beginning of marriage with a pregnancy in the 1970s and the end of life.

At the beginning, an older woman remembers her youth, how she met her husband and how they met on a date in a run . In the 1970s, both are shown on a bed with their faces covered in tear-streaked mascara ; it is implied that she is pregnant for the first time. The older woman remembers these scenes while she is shown dancing with her (actually already deceased) husband before she finally packs her belongings into boxes and moves out of the shared apartment. Meanwhile, her husband is shown watching a supposed mannequin in a wedding dress; this turns out to be his middle-aged wife. A book that had been lying on the floor of the young couple's walk-in shop falls into the older woman's hands; afterwards, the middle-aged man is shown putting a wedding ring on his wife. Shortly afterwards, the ring is shown on the elderly woman's hand while she takes it off and drops it and Timberlake catches it in a different shot. The older couple then move towards each other in the room, but do not reach each other and disappear in several mirrors.

In the last section, Timberlake dances and sings himself in a mirror cabinet and is later accompanied by two dancers. At the end it is indicated that both stand in front of a mirror and move synchronously.

The video was directed by Floria Sigismondi , who won the MVPA Award ( Music Video Production Association ) as Director of the Year for her work . The video also won the MTV Video Music Award 2013 .

Timberlake dedicated the video to his grandparents William and Sadie, as the first shot ( "For William and Sadie" ) shows. William had only died in December last year after 63 years of marriage. Critics praised the video, as James Montgomery of MTV described it as "elegant" and "really, truly touching" and rated the scene in which Timberlake catches his supposed grandmother's ring as "passing on the legacy".

reception

Charts

Mirrors reached number one in the charts in seven countries, including three weeks in Great Britain as well as in Australia, Scotland and Poland. In the United States, the song landed at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 , but topped the Billboard Mainstream Top 40 as well as the Billboard Adult Top 40 . In Germany the single reached number two, in Austria number seven and in Switzerland number five.

In Australia, Canada, and the United States, the single achieved double platinum status ; in Germany, Great Britain, New Zealand and Denmark it received the platinum record.

Chart placements
Charts Top ranking Weeks
Chart placements
Germany (GfK) Germany (GfK) 2 (32 weeks) 32
Austria (Ö3) Austria (Ö3) 7th (23 weeks) 23
Switzerland (IFPI) Switzerland (IFPI) 5 (33 weeks) 33
United Kingdom (OCC) United Kingdom (OCC) 1 (36 weeks) 36
United States (Billboard) United States (Billboard) 2 (42 weeks) 42

Reviews

The reviews were generally very positive. Robert Copsey from Digital Spy is Mirrors for "remarkably fresh" and compares this comeback with his first great success Cry Me a River . Also the Billboard Magazine draws the comparison with Cry Me a River and is ten years later, married to Jessica Biel place in an ending relationship with Cameron Diaz that Timberlake is not "broken" but "quite". Bill Lamb from about.com awards four and a half out of five stars and considers it an "excellent pop hit", especially praising Timberlake's falsetto part at the end of the song. Lamb also sums up, however, that "we have heard a lot about it".

Cover versions

In April 2013, the American band Paradise Fears recorded a cover version of Mirrors ; later Boyce Avenue followed with their interpretation. Everything Everything and Ellie Goulding sang their own versions of the song in the "Live Lounge" on BBC Radio 1 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b billboard.com: "Justin Timberlake's November Album To Feature Material From '20 / 20 'Sessions." (English, April 17, 2013, accessed October 7, 2013)
  2. ↑ Booklet for The 20/20 Experience . RCA Records , New York City, 2013.
  3. ↑ dailymail.co.uk: "My ode to Jessica: Justin Timberlake hints his new single Mirrors is about his new wife." (English, March 21, 2013, accessed October 7, 2013)
  4. ↑ videostatic.com: MVPA-Award: Nominees and winners ( Memento of the original from August 13, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English, accessed October 7, 2013) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.videostatic.com
  5. ↑ cinemablend.com: "Watch: Justin Timberlake's Mirrors Music Video Tells A Love Story" (English, March 19, 2013, accessed October 7, 2013)
  6. ↑ mtv.com: "Justin Timberlake Premieres Emotional 'Mirrors' Video" (English, March 19, 2013, accessed October 7, 2013)
  7. ↑ Chart sources: US Mainstream Top 40 US Adult Pop
  8. ↑ a b c d e Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US
  9. ↑ digitalspy.co.uk: "Justin Timberlake: 'Mirrors' - Single review" (February 17, 2013, accessed October 7, 2013)
  10. ↑ billboard.com: "Justin Timberlake, 'The 20/20 Experience': Track-By-Track Review" (March 12, 2013, accessed October 7, 2013)
  11. ↑ top40.about.com: "Justin Timberlake -" Mirrors "" ( Memento of the original from July 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English, accessed October 7, 2013) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / top40.about.com
  12. ↑ highlightmagazine.net: "Paradise Fears Cover" Mirrors "" (English, April 10, 2013, accessed October 7, 2013)
  13. ↑ music-mix.ew.com: "Ellie Goulding covers Justin Timberlake's 'Mirrors'" (English, September 4, 2013, accessed October 7, 2013)