Beauty And A Beat
by Justin Bieber (featuring Nicki Minaj)

Album: Believe (2012)
Charted: 16 5
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Justin hooks up with Swedish hitmaker Max Martin on this dubstep flavored club banger. The Swede is one of the most successful producers of the 21st century having been responsible for numerous hits for the likes of Pink, Britney Spears, Katy Perry and Kelly Clarkson.
  • The song sees Justin singing the lyrics: "We're going to party like it's 3012 tonight." Back in 1983, Prince wasn't looking quite so far ahead when he declared, "Tonight, I'm going party like its 1999."
  • This features a contribution from Nicki Minaj who makes reference to Justin's girlfriend Selena Gomez when she raps: "Buns out, weiner, but I gotta keep my eye out for Selena."
  • This is the only track on Believe where Justin didn't contribute to the songwriting. Max Martin and Nicki Minaj are the credited songwriters.
  • Justin's manager, Scooter Braun told MTV News that Minaj was not their initial choice for this song. "Nicki was getting on another one of our records, and then we did 'Beauty and the Beat,' and she heard it, and she was like, 'I want to get on that,'" he said. "And, actually, we were gonna put Usher on it at first, but then we heard Nicki's verse, and we were like, 'Damn.'"
  • The song was co-produced by Anton "Zedd" Zaslavski, whose remix of Lady Gaga's "Marry The Night" track appeared on the special edition of her Born This Way album. "I made the song and I didn't know who to give it to," Zedd told MTV News. "And Bieber was actually the first, or his people hit us up. They heard the song and they were like, 'Please, let's try it out.' And I wasn't convinced at first, to be completely honest," he added. "But then it started with the fact that he was early in the studio, which just never happens — like never happens. And then he was just extremely fast. He nailed the song in an hour and sounded amazing. And then it was no question for me. I don't need to try someone else out if I know this is right."
  • The music video has a theme of "illegally uploaded" footage. At the beginning there is a disclaimer that the footage is stolen, a reference to a tweet of Justin claiming that someone took his laptop and camera, which turned out to be an elaborate viral stunt. The clip itself mostly takes place in a swimming pool at Raging Waters in San Dimas, California.
  • The video racked up a huge 10.6 million views in its first 24 hours of being online. In doing so Justin surpassed the previous VEVO record held by One Direction's "Live While We 're Young,"which claimed 8.24 million views within its first day.

    Justin's record was smashed by Korean musician PSY in April 2013, when the video for his "Gentleman" single logged 22.5 views in its first 24 hours.
  • The Biebs revealed his true feelings about this song in a 2016 appearance on The Bert Show, where he said: "I never really liked 'Beauty And A Beat.' I understood what it was at the time, and it was music that was popular at that time, but I was never a huge fan of that song."

Comments: 1

  • Siahara Shyne Carter from United StatesCause All I need is a “BEAUTY & A BEAT” Are u talking about me ? lol joke I SUPPORT JB FOREVER
    Congratulations Hailey and JB just got married (I wasn't there BUT MY HEART IS FULL SUPPORT GUYZ)
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