American Boy
American Boy is a song by British R & B artist Estelle in collaboration with the American rapper Kanye West. The song was released on 24 March 2008 as the second single from her music album Shine. At the 2009 Grammy Awards, the song in the category " Best Rap / Sung Collaboration" was awarded a Grammy, as well as the song was also nominated in the main category "Song of the Year" for a Grammy.
The song was from Pitchfork Media listed at number 238 of the " 500 Greatest Songs of the 2000s decade ."
Background
In February 2008, the singer Estelle the British R & B songwriter Pete Lewis explained how the song was written: "We hung around in the studio and making jokes. Then John Legend said to me " Why do you write no song about how you meet an American boy? " So I said, " Well this is very simple, because I have many male friends in New York City. " So I created ignorant a new ladies' anthem! And Kanye even brought his own style of humor to it. First, he thought, " How am I rapping over a dance beat? " But then he did it "!
The song was written by Kanye West, Keith Harris, Estelle, will.i.am, John Stephens, Caleb Speir, Josh Lopez, and Kweli Washington and produced by will.i.am. The song used passages from Impatient of will.i.am 's album Songs About Girls from the year 2007.
Cover versions and parodies
From the song many cover versions and parodies created:
- "Arab Friend" of Bago Dago.
- "Canadian Boy" Famous and Andreena Mill
- " Cantonese Boy" by Only Won and Larissa Lam.
- "Chinese Boy" by Dave Soul.
- "Armenian Boy" by Hamish & Andy.
- "Egyptian Boy " by EgyptianG.
- " Somerset Boy " by Chris Moyles.
- "Fake American Boy " by Peven Everett.
- "Jamaican Boy" Bost & Bim ft. Brisa by Roché & Lone Ranger.
- "American Boy" John McCain
- " Hungarian Boy" by Ben & Tony.
- " Malaysian Boy".
Music Video
The music video for American Boy was filmed in black and white and shows various dance scenes between Estelle and Kanye West. In addition, many musicians have cameos in the music video, including John Legend, Kardinal Offishall, Taz Arnold of Sa -Ra, Naledge and Double-O of Kidz in the Hall, Danger Mouse, Consequence, Hi- Tek, Ryan Leslie, TI, Brandon Hines, Terrence J of 106 & Park, LL Cool J and even more. It was directed by Syndrome. The music video was nominated for "Best British Music Video" at the MTV Video Music Awards 2008.
Charts
American Boy was in the world's biggest chart hit Estelle Charts far in her career. Overall, the single in 18 countries, was able to place in the charts. In the UK, the song climbed into the UK charts at number 72. The following week, the song fell from the charts and later rose straight to number 1 in the charts again. Thus, the single Estelle is the first number -one hit in their homeland, the song remained for four weeks on the chart peak. American Boy remained for 22 weeks in the charts and became the biggest selling single sechts of 2008 in the UK. In Ireland, the song reached # 2
In the United States the song on the Billboard Hot 100 debuted at number 98, it is the first single by the artist, which could be placed in the United States. After several weeks, the song was also featured in the United States a great success, reaching number 9 in the official charts, so it's in the States her first top ten hit and managed the commercial breakthrough. In the U.S. download charts the song reached number 8 In Canada, the single also reached number 9 in the United States, the song sold over 1.5 million times and has been honored twice with a platinum record.
Furthermore, it was the single, inter alia, in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Brazil and Switzerland, a chart success, reaching in these countries top ten rankings.