I Bet

Album: Jackie (2015)
Charted: 56 43
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Songfacts®:

  • This song finds Ciara telling off a former boyfriend for not appreciating her:

    I bet you start loving me
    As soon as I start loving someone else
    Somebody better than you


    Ciara told Billboard magazine: "I imagine this song will be very meaningful for a lot of people. It is much bigger than any one person's experience."
  • The song was released as the first single from Ciara's album Jackie, which is named after her mother.
  • The slow-tempo tune was written by Ciara with Theron Thomas of the Rock City production team (Fergie's "L.A. Love (La La)"). It was produced by Harmony Samuels (Ariana Grande, Maroon 5, Chris Brown).
  • The ex Ciara lashes out at may well be the rapper Future, with whom the songstress split from in 2014. Some of Theron Thomas' background ad-libs appear to mimic the MC's sound.
  • Harmony Samuels told Billboard magazine about this collaboration with Ciara. "I worked with L.A. Reid a few times, especially with Fifth Harmony," he explained. "We had done a great record and [Reid] was pretty much like, 'Get him in [the studio] with Ciara right now.'"

    "The single 'I Bet' was the second song we did," he added. "We were in the studio six or seven times, and each time was a humongous record. But 'I Bet' was definitely the record that stood out and she was like, 'This is going to be the single.'"

    "She was able to be vulnerable, still herself, explain her story - I don't think anybody had ever seen that side of her until now," Samuels concluded. "She came in with pieces of paper and ideas. She just had this energy that was amazing."
  • The song's sultry music video was directed by Hannah Lux Davis (Jessie J's "Bang Bang," Ariana Grande's "Love Me Harder") and choreographed by Jamaica Craft. We see Ciara portray a contemporary, sultry ballerina; the singer previously showcased her dancing talents in her "Ride" and "Body Party" clips.
  • Though the song was inspired by Ciara's life experiences, she intended to be universal. The singer told MTV News that it would especially appeal to the kind of girl, "that believes in herself and brings nothing but 100 percent love [to a relationship] and knows what it's like for it to not work out, maybe because your guy [didn't] really value that love like he should have. And you have to find the strength in yourself to keep going forward."
  • Jermaine Dupri claimed that this is a clone of Usher's 2001 single "U Got It Bad," which he co-wrote. "I'm clear on what I made and I'm clear on how music influences people and I'm clear on chord changes and how people move things," Dupri said. "It might not be as evident as the 'Blurred Lines' situation, but I believe the same thing happened to me."

    Speaking on Power 105.1's The Breakfast Club, Ciara shrugged it off as the producer expressing his own opinion.

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