What Is Love

"What Is Love" was written and produced by German music producer and composer Dee Dee Halligan (Dieter Lünstedt a.k.a. Tony Hendrik) and his partner/wife Junior Torello (Karin Hartmann-Eisenblätter a.k.a. Karin van Haaren) of Coconut Records in Hennef (Sieg) near Cologne. They had previously produced songs for successful groups like Bad Boys Blue and Londonbeat, and were waiting for the right singer for their new song. Trinidadian-born singer Nestor Alexander Haddaway was then chosen to sing it. He used to work as a producer, dancer and choreographer before he was signed to the label. He had lived in the US before moving to Germany. Haddaway didn't actually want to be a solo artist. He just wanted to be a producer, but to help a friend at Coconut that needed to pay the bills, he agreed to do some songs for his friend. The producers of "What Is Love" wanted Haddaway to try singing the song in the style of Joe Cocker. He told them, "I love Joe Cocker, but I'm no Joe Cocker." He then came up with his own idea of how to sing it and the producers let the singer try it his way. Hendrik would lock himself in the studio, and eight or nine days later he came out with the song as was released. Haddaway told Simon Price of Melody Maker in 1994, that the song was originally a ballad and arrived after a year in a basement studio, "In the beginning it was like five different pies, then those five pies became one pie." The female vocal on the track, meanwhile, was a stock sample released on the Zero-G sample compilation CD "Datafile 1" (tracks 62–64), which was produced in 1991 by Zero-G co-founder and Jack 'N' Chill member Ed Stratton, aka Man Machine, and was aimed at dance producers, DJs, programmers and artists. At first, it was difficult to sell the song. Haddaway told in 2018, "Nobody wanted it. Every radio station said no. All the record companies said no. Everybody turned us down. And we got very lucky. There was a new radio station opening in Cologne at the WDR and yeah, they used 'What Is Love' as a jingle. And we sent it out to like a thousand DJs to see what they thought about it and everyone gave a thumbs-up." ==Chart performance==

"What Is Love" reached number one in 13 countries: Austria (9 weeks), Belgium (6 weeks), Denmark (3 weeks), Finland, France (5 weeks), Ireland, Italy (3 weeks), Netherlands (6 weeks), Norway (8 weeks), Portugal (1 week), Spain (4 weeks), Switzerland (5 weeks), and Zimbabwe (4 weeks). In Sweden, Germany and the United Kingdom, it peaked at number two, being kept off the top spot by Snow's "Informer", Ace of Base's "All That She Wants" and Gabrielle's "Dreams". and climbed to the number-one position also on the Eurochart Hot 100, where the song debuted fifteen weeks earlier, at number 79 on 13 March 1993, after charting in Germany. It stayed seven consecutive weeks at the top of the chart. Entering at number 87 on 28 August, the song reached number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. But on the US Cash Box Top 100, it reached the top 10, peaking at number nine. The single also peaked at numbers 12 and 48 in Australia and New Zealand, respectively. ==Critical reception==

Upon the release, Larry Flick from Billboard magazine named the song a "glorious pop/house ditty", and stated that "wildly catchy chorus is complemented by a slick, synth-happy arrangement. Haddaway will conjure up images of Seal and Sydney Youngblood with his worldly baritone delivery. A sure-fire dance hit that has the muscle to push its way onto pop formats with ease." Student newspaper Columbia Daily Spectator said it "will transport you instantly to the golden age of house music." Jim Farber from Daily News noted that "What Is Love" "uses every sound it has to punch the beat: a stabbing synth line, a tense bass, an uplifting lead vocal and an encouragingly frantic female voice to back it up. It's a sound at once insinuating and insistent, sensual and wild." He also named it "the world's natural followup" to Robin S.' "Show Me Love". Dave Sholin from the Gavin Report commented, "Try sitting still seconds after this upbeat entry kicks in." He also noted that Haddaway's style is reminiscent "of the Fine Young Cannibals and just as exciting". In his weekly UK chart commentary, James Masterton stated that the song "is undoubtedly one of the best soul releases of the year". Wendi Cermak from The Network Forty described the track as "splendiferous", and noted that "the eargasmic synth stabs in the extended mix are pulling even odds in Vegas for dance-floor-filling capability and the edit screams for radio airplay..." Luke Turner from The Quietus felt that "What Is Love" "bangs because it manages to be two things—a terrific soul tune but also rather stern as well, with infernally naggy synth lines and drilled repetition in the rhythms." Tony Cross from Smash Hits gave it a score of four out of five, writing, "Haddaway's attempt at producing something along the lines of Seal's 'Crazy' hasn't quite been pulled off, but this foot-friendly dance track is still stonking dance-floor stuff. You don't find out what love is, but that doesn't mean you'll be disappointed." Another Smash Hits editor, Pete Stanton, named it "a disco-dancing, ass-grooving, tum-churning corker of a song". ==Retrospective response==

NME ranked "What Is Love" number two in their list of "Top Five Euro-Hits of All Time" in December 1993, writing, "Haddaway takes one of the fundamental questions of man's existence and puts it to a stomping disco beat. Also features a woman wailing disconsolately in the background whenever Hadders relents from his search." AllMusic editor Jose F. Promis named "What Is Love" "one of the 1990s' quintessential dance tunes". In a 2015 retrospective review, Victor Beigelman from The A.V. Club declared it as a "Europop banger that more than 20 years later remains relentlessly catchy and far more profound than it ever had any right to be." Mike Wood from Idolator featured it in their list of "The 50 Best Pop Singles of 1994" in 2014, calling it a "catchy" anthem, that "permeated our collective consciousness given the heavily-repeated airplay". ==Music video==

The accompanying music video of "What Is Love" was directed by German music video director Volker Hannwacker and produced by AVA Studios. It features Haddaway in a mansion pursued by three femme fatales, at least one of whom is a vampire. Some scenes feature the singer and the vampire running backwards. ==Accolades==

(*) indicates the list is unordered. ==Charts==

Weekly charts Original version "What Is Love" – Remix "What Is Love" – Reloaded Other reissues Year-end charts Decade-end charts ==Certifications and sales==

==Cover versions and sampling==

• In 2007, the song was covered by indie band The Gossip, with lead singer Beth Ditto changing the lyrics to "When Is Lunch?, Baby I'm Hungry, I'm Hungry, For More". • In 2009, singer and songwriter Diane Birch completely rearranged the song, that later was featured on Billboard magazine's Mashup Monday in 2010. • In 2010, Swedish boy band E.M.D. released a piano ballad version of "What Is Love" as the second single from their sophomore studio album Rewind. • In 2010, American rappers Eminem and Lil Wayne sampled the song for the single "No Love" from Eminem's seventh studio album, Recovery. • In 2011, the German melodic death metal/metalcore band Emergency Gate covered the song, in collaboration with Haddaway, for their 2011 EP Remembrance (The Early Days). • In 2014, Canadian singer Kiesza did a "piano-and-synth cover" of the song for her album Sound of a Woman. • In 2016, neofolk act Death in Rome did a cover on their album Hitparade, which consists solely of cover versions of hit songs. • A cover version by Ultraclub 90 is included as one of the tracks in Just Dance 2017. • In 2023, French DJ David Guetta announced his own cover titled "Baby Don't Hurt Me", featuring Anne-Marie and Coi Leray. Klaas version In 2009, German DJ Klaas remixed the song under the title "Klaas meets Haddaway – What Is Love 2K9". This remix charted in several European countries. Lost Frequencies version In 2016, Belgian DJ Lost Frequencies released a cover titled "What Is Love 2016", as a single from his debut album Less Is More. It was actually already produced back in 2014 as a remix for Jaymes Young's cover version of "What is Love". This version was remade for the album and became a hit on a number of European singles charts and topped the Belgian Ultratop Official Singles Chart. Music video An official music video was released directed by Soulvizion. It features the Dutch professional basketball player Don Rigters who plays the role of David Rose, a basketball player who is severely injured trying to make a comeback to the game with encouragement from his girlfriend, (played by Melissa Kanza), his three teammates, (Alkenah Wansing, Jeroen Jansen and Lindy Chippendel) and by his basketball coach (played by J E Rigters). Track listing • Armada / Mostiko, 7 October 2016 • "What Is Love 2016" – 2:52 • Armada / Mostiko, 28 October 2016 • What Is Love 2016" (Regi & Lester Williams Remix) – 4:21 • Lost & Cie / Armada, 11 November 2016 • "What Is Love 2016" (Regi & Lester Williams Remix) – 3:08 • "What Is Love 2016" (Regi & Lester Williams Extended Remix) – 4:10 • Armada / Mostiko, 6 January 2017 • "What Is Love 2016" (Mike Mago Remix) – 3:29 • "What Is Love 2016" (Zonderling Remix) – 3:11 • "What Is Love 2016" (Galactic Marvl Remix) – 2:54 • "What Is Love 2016" (Rose Remix) – 3:08 • "What Is Love 2016" (Mike Mago Extended Remix) – 5:49 • "What Is Love 2016" (Zonderling Extended Remix) – 4:27 • "What Is Love 2016" (Rose Extended Remix) – 4:08 • "What Is Love 2016" (Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike Remix) – 3:29 Charts Weekly charts Year-end charts Certifications ==In popular culture==

In the late 1990s, the song was featured in the popular, recurring Saturday Night Live "The Roxbury Guys" sketches, in which the characters Steve and Doug Butabi (played by Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan, respectively) would wildly bob their heads to the track as they went out nightclubbing and had misadventures. Typically the song would play throughout the sketch, following the brothers wherever they went. The Butabis were sometimes joined by other head-bobbing club-goers portrayed by the show's guests hosts, such as Jim Carrey. In 1998, the sketches spawned a film, A Night at the Roxbury, which prominently featured the song. In the mid-2000s, the sketch became a popular internet meme. "What Is Love" was also used in the 2013 video game Saints Row IV. The song was used in the Disney+ series Percy Jackson and the Olympians. In 1994, "What Is Love" served as the soundtrack to the memorable climax of the "Life of Brian" episode of My So-Called Life, in which Rickie Vasquez and Delia Fisher dance together at their high school's World Happiness Dance. The song was also sung by Ulysses Klaue (played by Andy Serkis) while being interrogated by Everett K. Ross (played by Martin Freeman) in the 2018 film Black Panther. The scene became an internet meme, and was praised as one of the best scenes in the film. ==See also==