We Belong Together

We Belong Together

"We Belong Together" is a song by American singer Mariah Carey from her tenth studio album, The Emancipation of Mimi (2005). The song was released on March 14, 2005, through Island Records, as the second single from the album. "We Belong Together" was written by Carey, Jermaine Dupri, Manuel Seal, and Johntá Austin, and produced by the former three. Since the song interpolates lyrics from Bobby Womack's "If You Think You're Lonely Now" (1981) and the Deele's "Two Occasions" (1987), the songwriters of those respective songs are credited. "We Belong Together" is built on a simple piano arrangement with an understated backbeat. The lyrics chronicle a woman's desperation for her former lover to return. Following a relatively unsuccessful period between 2001 and 2004, critics dubbed the song her musical comeback, as many had considered her career over. "We Belong Together" earned her several music industry awards and nominations throughout 2005 and 2006. The song broke chart records in the United States and became Carey's sixteenth topper on the US Billboard Hot 100. After staying at number one for fourteen nonconsecutive weeks, it joined four other songs in a tie as the third longest running number one song in US chart history, behind Carey's own 1995 collaboration with Boyz II Men titled "One Sweet Day". Billboard listed it as the "song of the decade" and the eleventh most popular song of all time. Additionally, it broke several airplay records, gathering both the largest one-day and one-week audiences in history. "We Belong Together" also topped the charts in Australia and reached the top five in Denmark, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Scotland, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The song's music video was filmed as a two-part story with "It's Like That", which featured Carey at her bachelorette party. The video for "We Belong Together" is a continuation focusing on Carey's wedding to an older and powerful man and ends with the singer eloping with her ex-lover. Rumors arose of the video's connection to her 1993 marriage to Tommy Mottola. Carey performed the song on several award shows and television appearances around the world, namely MTV Movie Awards, MTV Video Music Awards, Macy's Fourth of July Parade, The Oprah Winfrey Show and the 48th Grammy Awards. In Europe the song was performed at the Live 8 charity concert, the Fashion Rocks in Monaco, and the German Bambi Awards. Carey performed the song while on The Adventures of Mimi Tour and the song has been on every tour set list since then.

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