| "Put Your Hearts Up" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single byAriana Grande | ||||
| Released | December 12, 2011 (2011-12-12) | |||
| Recorded | 2011 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 3:30[1] | |||
| Label | Universal Republic | |||
| Songwriters |
| |||
| Producer | Matt Squire | |||
| Ariana Grande singles chronology | ||||
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| Audio video | ||||
| "Put Your Hearts Up" onYouTube | ||||
"Put Your Hearts Up" is the debut single by American singer-songwriterAriana Grande. It was released on December 12, 2011 byUniversal Republic.[2] The song interpolates "What's Up?" (1993) by4 Non Blondes.
Grande began working on her debut album while she was filmingVictorious and formally started to work on it with a record label after she was signed toUniversal Republic Records on August 10, 2011.[3][4] By September 10, Grande already had twenty songs prepared and was going through the process of narrowing it down to thirteen.[5]
"Put Your Hearts Up" was written by Matt Squire, Linda Perry and Martin Johnson. It was released as her first single on December 12, 2011. Despite not appearing on her debut albumYours Truly, it was intended as the lead single for the album at the time of release. "Put Your Hearts Up" is a "50s, 60sdoo-wop-inspired"bubblegum pop song which talks about making the world a better place.[6]
Grande let her fans choose the song's cover by allowing them to vote on four possible covers for the single via herTwitter account.[7] After fans voted, the cover was chosen and the release date for the single was announced via Twitter on November 29, 2011. "Put Your Hearts Up" was originally going to be released on December 20, 2011, but was released earlier. "Put Your Hearts Up" premiered onOn Air with Ryan Seacrest on December 9, 2011 and became available for digital download through iTunes three days later.[8]
In an interview onKidd Kraddick in the Morning she said, "It was a learning experience for sure. Sonically it's just not my vibe. I think it would've been a great hit song for somebody else maybe, but it's just not what I like to sing. It's a bubblegum pop record for sure, and I like to sing stuff that's a little more soulful. I love pop music, I'm a huge pop music fan, but I just didn't think that that record was right for me."[9] In an interview published in the August 2013 issue ofSeventeen, Grande said, "It was bubblegum pop, which isn't me, but it was something I thought my fans wanted."[10]
In an interview withRolling Stone in 2014, Grande said that "Put Your Hearts Up" "was geared toward kids and felt so inauthentic and fake. That was the worst moment of my life. For the video, they gave me a bad spray tan and put me in a princess dress and had me frolic around the street. The whole thing was straight out of hell. I still have nightmares about it, and I made them hide it on my Vevo page."[11]
The music video for "Put Your Hearts Up" was shot on November 23, 2011. It was directed byMeiert Avis and Jeremy Alter. On February 14, 2012, the official music video was uploaded onYouTube under ArianaGrandeVevo at a length of 3 minutes and 49 seconds.[12] The video had gained more than 40 million views as of May 2014.[13] In the video, Grande walks through the streets of a city sending love to lonely people while dancing and singing. Prior to this, the video had been uploaded by other channels.
Later in March 2013, when "The Way" music video was released, the music video for "Put Your Hearts Up" was made unlisted on Grande'sVevo account at Grande's request.[11] The video was then made public again in April 2014 and was deleted shortly after.[14]
The single sold 170,000 downloads by August 2013.[15] On July 20, 2014 it was certifiedgold by theRecording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for combined sales and streams of 500,000 units in the US.[16]
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United States (RIAA)[16] | Gold | 500,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)Since joining the cast ofVictorious in 2010, Grande has tried to follow Nickelodeon stars likeMiranda Cosgrove,Big Time Rush and co-starVictoria Justice in fashioning a viable music career (Grande's 2011 single 'Put Your Hearts Up' has sold 170,000 downloads, according toNielsen SoundScan).
