Where Are Ü Now

While writing with Poo Bear for his upcoming album at the time, Justin Bieber heard a demo of an instrumental piano ballad Boyd did with Karl Rubin and enjoyed it, calling it "special". Later, he and Boyd, "bounced words and melodies back and forth over an instrumental track; when they had the lyrics, Bieber sang take after take so Poo Bear could edit together the best reading of every line and every syllable." The song was recorded as a piano ballad and it took an hour and a half to be recorded. According to Bieber, "he didn't want it to be raw, he wanted it to be perfect." As The New York Times writer Jon Pareles recalled, "They reversed the original order of the verses. They took the lone a cappella vocal track they had from Mr. Bieber, cut it to stutter certain words in the introduction, and pitched it higher and lower in various parts of the song, allowing Mr. Bieber to answer himself from below and harmonize above. They toyed with dance beats, keyboard chords and bass lines — thickening the song and then thinning it again. They concocted sounds that were determinedly different from standard dance-club fare; what seems like a snare drum, for instance, is actually a tweaked version of an Indian tabla." and was later released as a bonus track on Bieber's fourth studio album, Purpose (2015). The original version, titled "The Most", was also released as a bonus track on the Japanese version of Purpose. ==Composition==

"Where Are Ü Now" was written by Sonny "Skrillex" Moore and Thomas Wesley "Diplo" Pentz, Justin Bieber, Jason "Poo Bear" Boyd, Karl Rubin Brutus, and Jordan Ware, and produced by Skrillex and Diplo. The song was composed in G major with a moderately fast tempo of 140 beats per minute and a time signature of . Bieber's vocal range spans from the low note of E3 to the high note of B4. Its instrumentation consists in "fluterring synths", skipping tropical house beats and acres of space, as well as sharp dancehall stabs and an Eastern melody. In another part, he complains: "I gave you the key when the door wasn't open, just admit it [...] See, I gave you faith, turned your doubt into hoping, can't deny it, Now I'm all alone and my joys turned to moping." Some critics, such as Complex Khal, pointed out that it "finds him writing what could be a note to anyone—or, ahem, Selena Gomez—who might have left him during his turbulent 2014, longing for someone who could comfort him in his time of need." For Sam Corey of The Huffington Post, during the song "Bieber has been posing quite a few existential questions about his love life," noting that lyrically the song "is a serpentine trip through the emotions of despair, codependence and anxious-ambivalence," as he recalls for his long lost love with Gomez. He also observed that the song "serves as a dark portrait of a man struggling to find himself outside of the confines of a woman's love." ==Critical reception==

"Where Are Ü Now" received critical acclaim. Billboard Jason Lipshutz included "Where Are Ü Now" in its "Top 10 Songs of 2015 (So Far)" list, stating that "[t]his is the Justin Bieber we've been waiting for: emotive, vulnerable and smart enough to join forces with two of electronic music's most reliable maestros. The combination of Justin Bieber's moving falsetto and Skrillex and Diplo's tangled knot of beats makes 'Where Are U Now' a deserved (and much-needed) triumph." Ryan Dombal of Pitchfork wrote the track is "unexpected in all the best ways. It tones down everything you know about Skrillex while retaining his knack for dynamics. Diplo puts his own 10-ton-glowstick tendencies aside as the song combines sharp dancehall stabs and a gloriously sad Eastern melody in a way that recalls golden-age Timbaland. And Justin Bieber sings with something akin to actual human emotion." Markus Papadatos of Digital Journal called it "superb", noting that the song "marks one of Justin Bieber's best vocal performances to date: it is soothing, controlled, delicate and most importantly, extremely radio friendly." In her Entertainment Weekly review, Leah Greenblatt explained that the song is "stripped down for maximum aerodynamics, the vocals mentholated and sweetened with a brushstroke of bass here, a snake-charmer synth line there. For Bianca Gracie of Idolator, the song "solidified a genre-bending sound that was bubbling underground" and "ultimately became the best single of his career thus far." Sam C. Mac of Slant Magazine observed that the song "effectively reinvented Bieber's sound," while Andrew Unterberger of Spin called it "Bieber's cred-establishing and career-redefining." Dan Weiss of the same publication wrote that it "comes outfitted with an addictive bent rainforest flute thing that wouldn't sound out of place on, say, M.I.A.'s Kala." Scott Wilson of Fact called it "the jewel in the crown," describing it as "a combination of slick, modern Disneyfied R&B and a synth riff that sounds like a PC Music take on Booka Shade's 'In White Rooms'." He also referred to it as "Bieber's most memorable, and human, vocal performance to date." Accolades Year-end lists ==Commercial performance==

"Where Are Ü Now" was a commercial success, reaching the top-ten in the singer's native Canada, the U.S., and several other territories. In the United States, "Where Are Ü Now" debuted at number 97, and during its seventh week the song entered the top-forty at number 40. Five weeks later, the song jumped to number twenty, becoming Bieber's 15th top-twenty hit and his first since "Heartbreaker" (2013). It was also Skrillex and Diplo's first as lead artists. The song peaked six weeks later, reaching number eight – Bieber's first top-ten hit since "Beauty and a Beat" (2012). Later, after his performance at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards, the song rebounded to number ten, becoming the first time Bieber had concurrent top 10s for the first time, since his song "What Do You Mean?" was at number-one. The song topped the Dance/Electronic Songs chart, becoming the first leader on the list for all the three artists. In the United Kingdom, the song managed to peak at number three, becoming Bieber's highest-charting single since 2012's "Boyfriend", Skrillex's first top-ten single out of his previous seven entries, and Diplo's first appearance as a solo artist. The song also peaked at number three in Australia and New Zealand, becoming the highest charting entries for Skrillex, Diplo and Bieber in the former. it was also the ninth highest-selling single of 2015 in the latter. The song also reached the top-ten in Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands and Sweden. ==Music video==

From May 29 to May 31, 2015, there was an event held at the Jack Ü headquarters for fans to customize the photo-shoots for the "Where Are Ü Now" music video with crayons and colored pastels. Two teasers for the video were released on June 26, 2015, with Samsung+ debuting the video on June 27, 2015, and YouTube and Vevo on June 29, 2015. According to the duo in a post on YouTube, "We are being overwhelmed, in a good way, by the success of 'Where Are Ü Now' with Justin Bieber, so with the video we wanted to just take it back to the beginning of the record and essentially create an ode to our fans. Doing what we do, it's entirely all about the fans. We walk a fine line by being 'famous' and in the public eye but we are only here because of you, the fans. Justin wrote this record during a tough time in his life and it comes to us that sometimes, as artists, we are also just objects and we have to take that as much as we have to use that to create. We all do this for you, respect that you put us here and it's Ü that made the video." As described by Brittany Spanos of Rolling Stone, "The video opens on an art gallery filled with photos of Bieber's silhouette before shifting to the singer offering an emotional delivery of the track in a dark room. Bieber eventually becomes covered in animated paint, drawings and caricatures. Back in the gallery, Jack Ü fans are providing the illustrations that are appearing over or surrounding Bieber's body as he sings and dances to the track." As noted by Emilee Lindner of MTV News, "The video portrays his internal pain with soft lighting and close-shots, but also displays him as an 'object,' like Jack Ü said, switching to a time-lapse speed while people use him as a canvas for however they want to paint him as." The music video received four nominations at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards, As of May 25, 2024, the music video has more than 1.27 billion views and 6.2 million likes on YouTube. ==Live performances==

Bieber performed the song with Skrillex and Diplo for the first time at the 2015 Ultra Music Festival. Bieber performed the song again during one of Ariana Grande's shows on The Honeymoon Tour. He later performed the song at the 2015 Wango Tango, at a Calvin Klein music event in Hong Kong, at Hard Fest 2015 and during a medley with "What Do You Mean?" at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards. On February 15, 2016, Bieber, Skrillex and Diplo performed a "rock-oriented" version of the song at the 58th Grammy Awards. After performing an acoustic rendition of "Love Yourself", Bieber went to the main stage, with Skrillex "shredding on guitar and Diplo playing keyboard and pounding away on big band drums, flanked by a live drummer and onstage orchestrals." During the performance, "Bieber's crew of dancers tumbled onstage in all-white attire as women suspended in midair did acrobatics against a chrome-y, industrial video backdrop." ==Samples==

"Where Are Ü Now" was sampled in Craig David's single "16". ==Track listing==

Weekly charts Year-end charts Decade-end charts ==Certifications==