Songfacts®:

• This collaboration with singer-songwriter Halsey is about a couple rekindling their romance following a four-year absence. The Chainsmokers tweeted on its release: "This song is dedicated to anyone that hooked up with their EX and right after remember all the reasons why they broke up."
• The song is a duet between The Chainsmokers' Drew Taggart and Halsey. It marks the first time Taggart has sung on one of the duo's tracks.
• This song plays out like a romantic comedy, with Andrew Taggart and Halsey each singing their side of the story as they come together by chance in the end and find a deeper level of love after their time apart. There are just enough details in the song to allow the listener to piece the story together: She lived in Boulder (and made off with her roommate's mattress), they bonded in Tucson, she's not good with money, he drinks too much.
  
  And like a romantic comedy, we don't have to worry about their quotidian coupledom after this initial spark has extinguished and they confront the issues that broke them up in the first place. "We ain't ever getting older," goes the chorus, so we know they won't have to worry about it.
• The Chainsmokers premiered "Closer" in a surprise performance with Halsey at Bonnaroo on June 10, 2016.
• Rory Kramer did the lyric video for this song. He also directed their video for "Roses."
• According to an interview with Radio.com, Andrew Taggart "had all his ex-girls at Syracuse in mind when he wrote this."
• "Closer" was inspired by listening to a Blink-182 tune on repeat. "We were listening to 'I Miss You' and had just started playing it in our sets when we wrote this song," Taggart told Genius in an annotation. "A lot of the inspiration for the song writing comes from bands like Blink-182 and Taking Back Sunday."
• Taggart started crafting the beat during a studio session with Freddy Kennett from Chicago-based EDM duo Louis The Child, before penning the words with Canadian DJ, singer and producer Shaun Frank. "I took the idea, turned it into an entire song and wrote the lyrics with Shaun Frank in one session," Taggart said. "Shaun was the one who made me believe I could actually sing on a song and showed me how to process and layer my vocals."
• The song was the first Hot 100 #1 for both The Chainsmokers and Halsey. "Closer" also topped Billboard's Hot Dance/Electronic Songs and was the first single to reach the summit of both tallies since Baauer's "Harlem Shake" led the charts in March and April 2013.
• The Chainsmokers were the first duo or group to top the Hot 100 in over two years. The previous act to do so was Magic!, which ruled the charts for six weeks in July and August 2014 with "Rude." In the meantime, 19 songs by solo artists had held the top spot.
• The Fray lead singer Isaac Slade and guitarist Joe King were added to the credits after "Closer" drew comparisons to the band's 2005 hit, "Over My Head (Cable Car)." Joe King told ABC Radio that as soon as The Chainsmokers' clocked the similarities between the two songs they reached out to him and Isaac Slade. "They wanted to just work it out before the song came out," he explained. "So...there was no friction or tension. And [I] totally get it, it happens a lot, and unintentionally... So it's all good."
  
  King added that not only does he love "Closer," his daughters do too. "All their friends listen to it, and now I'm like the cool dad," he laughed. "So, yeah, it's great!"
• The song broke the record for spending the most time in the top 5 of the Hot 100. "Closer" spent 27 weeks in the top tier overtaking Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson's "Uptown Funk" and LeAnn Rimes' "How Do I Live," which previously spent 25 weeks on the top five.
  
  Ed Sheeran's "Shape Of You" also spent 27 weeks in the top 5 in 2017. Their record was eclipsed by The Weeknd's "Blinding Lights," which clocked up its 28th week in the Hot 100's top tier in September 2020.
• Ex-Fifth Harmony member Camila Cabello said during an interview with The Elvis Duran Show that she was nearly the featured artist on "Closer." She was a huge fan of the track, but ultimately had to turn down the opportunity because of obligations to Fifth Harmony.
  
  "I loved the song," she said. "But I had to turn it down because I was with the group at the time, and we were about to put an album out. I always tried to do my solo stuff off cycle, so that was super on, and so I had to say no, and then that was the number one song in the world."
• Halsey sings in the second verse:
  
  You look as good as the day I met you
  I forget just why I left you, I was insane
  Stay and play that Blink-182 song
  That we beat to death in Tucson, okay.
  
  Asked what was the Blink-182 song that they beat to death during a Reddit AMA, Andrew Taggart replied:
  "Initially it was 'Feeling This.' It's my favorite Blink 182 song because of the harmonies at the end. Technically it's my friend from college's roommate, not Halsey's."