Ariana Grande - Break Free (feat. Zedd)
UK chart-run: 20-21-28-28-24-24-23-19-{16}-19-27-32-47-55-60-71-73-65-52-59-63-65-68R(124)->23
I recently posted a thread to commemorate the 5 year anniversary of 'Problem' being released in the UK. This is because the anniversary for its initial release (back in April) was missed and I couldn't let such a big anniversary slide! Now we're all up to date, so moving forward it shall not be restricted to UK release date, instead when the song was first unleashed, so we can celebrate with the rest of the world. Starting with 'Break Free'! In the UK we were still dealing with held-back releases so this didn't chart until September. But July 2nd 2014 is when the world was first introduced to this Zedd collaboration. It smashed in the US with a #4 peak but didn't quite hit those heights in the UK, where it settled for #16. But I believe its chances here were hindered by the messiness of the song being chart ineligible for a few weeks or something. 'Break Free' was released as the second single from Ariana's sophomore album 'My Everything' and was accompanied by a sci-fi themed video.
How has 'Break Free' held up for you 5 years later?
Zedd is very hit-and-miss for me. I really enjoyed 'Clarity' but then found the Hayley and Selena collabs boring. However, this definitely has a bit more life to it! A fun party song that has actually improved over the years if anything for me. The chorus soars and I find it interesting structurally that a drop is left right until the end. I'd definitely love Ariana to explore the dance world a bit more. This was another naff video for me though, this era wasn't the one for visuals
Yeah the chart rule at the time was only one instant grat per album could chart, and Problem was an instant grat so that ruled Break Free out of charting ! It almost definitely screwed it out of a top 10 peak
Such a fantastic song though - blew me away on first listen and I still love it now! The problem is very 2014 yet still holds up very well now, it allows Ari's voice to soar
Her most overrated song imo Good... but fairly throwaway and one of the weakest on the album oops.
Awful video too lol.
Still brilliant!
The video is just...
Song is a banger tho and it makes me smile
L E G E N D A R Y
like words can’t describe how much this song gives me a high
Will she ever have a better song? I don't think so myself.
The video was inspired by Jem's They.
And that chart run is an absolute tragedy. Probably (surely?) would have been a massive top 3 single here...
A song that I thought was throwaway at the time but has just continued to grow and grow in my affections Been a really powerful song and also a complete out and out BOP at the same time. Ugh her mind.
The video is even more horrific as time goes by
The song on the other hand was felt pretty meh and throwaway at the time but like Jack, for me it's been going up and up in my affections since then.
I'm with dobbo, still probably my favourite song she's ever released, such a bop! I still listen to this quite often, but I can't deny it hasn't aged the best. Proper LGTB anthem and confidence anthem, I think my other half went mental how much I was playing this the year it was released, so kudos to him!
The chart rules back then were so annoying, this was riding high in the iTunes chart for a while (which back then actually meant something), also streaming was great for it, I believe it could have charted top 5 in the UK easily without the previous chart rules, am I right?
Like Problem it’s also aged badly for me and I rarely go back to it.
She’s bettered it a lot and even her first album sounded more current than this.
Meh I like it for what it is but she’s definitely better now.
This has really gone down as a classic in gay clubs.
I feel like on the surface it's a basic EDM pop song, but it's so anthemic and I think Ariana herself really elevates it. A real shame about what happened with its chart ineligibility situation.
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