"Beautiful Girls" is the debut single by American singer Sean Kingston from his 2007 eponymous debut album; it was first released in 2007, when Kingston was 17 and is considered his "signature song". The song is about a boy who feels "suicidal" (a radio edit changes this to "in denial") over the prospect of dating a "beautiful girl" only to have her break up with him.
The song samples the 1961 song "Stand by Me" by American singer-songwriter Ben E. King.
Rapper Lil Mama and actors Kenny Vibert and Lil' JJ are featured in the music video directed by Marcus Raboy, which hit 1 billion YouTube views on September 8, 2022.
Lyrics controversy
Due to the lyrics containing references to suicide, the song was ineligible to be played on Radio Disney. A re-recorded, clean version with new lyrics was added to the Radio Disney playlist on September 3, 2007. On September 21, 2007, it was reported that the original version of the song was removed from the radio playlist of FM104 in Dublin due to the suicide references.
Track listing
UK CD single
- "Beautiful Girls" (album version) – 4:02
- "Beautiful Girls" (a cappella) – 3:41
- "Beautiful Girls" (instrumental) – 3:40
- "Beautiful Girls" (remix) (featuring Fabolous and Lil' Boosie) – 3:27
- "Beautiful Girls" (video)
Chart performance
The week after the song's digital release it hit number one on Billboard's Hot Digital Songs, debuting with 260,000 downloads in its first week (the second highest digital sales for a new song of 2007, only behind Rihanna's "Umbrella"). Kingston became the first artist born in the 1990s to top the Hot 100. It has also occupied the top spot on the US Hot 100 Airplay and the Canadian Hot 100. It remained on top of the UK Singles Chart for four weeks. The song ended 2007 as the year's 15th biggest-selling single in the UK. On the ARIA charts in Australia, it debuted at number one.
Charts
Certifications
JoJo version
"Beautiful Girls" (also known as "Beautiful Girls Reply") is a song by American singer JoJo. It was released digitally on July 20, 2007, as a cover response to "Beautiful Girls" by Sean Kingston. The song samples Ben E. King's "Stand by Me". Whereas Kingston's version is about a boy who is suicidal over the failure of his relationship with a "beautiful girl", JoJo speaks from a girl's perspective.
Chart performance
The song debuted at number 39 on the Billboard Rhythmic Top 40 chart one month after its release.
See also
- List of Hot 100 number-one singles of 2007 (U.S.)
- List of Hot 100 number-one singles of 2007 (Canada)
- List of number-one singles of 2007 (Ireland)
- List of number-one singles in Australia in 2007
- List of number-one singles from the 2000s (New Zealand)
- List of number-one singles from the 2000s (UK)
- List of European number-one hits of 2007
References
