It 39;s Your Birthday Original Song
Sebasten Lizarraga
"It's My Birthday" (originally "Birthday") is a song by American rapper will.i.am featuring American singer Cody Wise. The song was recorded in 2014 and released as a single in Australia on May 27. The song is about celebrating every day as if it's your birthday. The song samples the Indian song "Urvasi Urvasi" from the soundtrack of the 1994 Indian film Kadhalan, composed by the Academy award winner and Indian composer A. R. Rahman. The song also includes samples of the Jamaican track "Fi Di Jockey" by Aidonia and Bounty Killer. It received mixed to negative reviews from music critics, with some being negative towards will.i.am's lack of originality.
An accompanying music video was released in May 2014 to YouTube and Vine respectively. "It's My Birthday" topped the charts in the United Kingdom and peaked within the top ten of the charts in Australia. It was certified Platinum in the United Kingdom and Australia. In the former country, will.i.am and Wise performed the song on the eight season of Britain's Got Talent in May 2014.
Wise was spotted by will.i.am after a performance of "Who's Lovin' You" by the Jackson 5 at a concert when he was 13 years old.[1] After will.i.am saw Wise's performance, he flew Wise out and the two met.[2] Wise was signed to Interscope Records in early 2014 through the imprint of will.i.am and he recalled being offered a deal with the label a few days after singing for will.i.am and Interscope co-founder Jimmy Iovine.[2][3] After developing his musical skills with will.i.am as his protg, the two recorded "It's My Birthday" in 2014; the song has subsequently become what Wise is best known for.[1][4]
"It's My Birthday" is a hip hop track that includes usage of Auto-Tune.[5][6] will.i.am explained the meaning of it during a web exclusive for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on July 29, 2014 where he was joined by Wise, saying: "You get a license to do whatever you want on your birthday. I try to live in that celebrative, who-gives-a-f perspective and celebrate every day as if it was my birthday."[7] The song uses a sample of composer A. R. Rahman's track "Urvasi Urvasi", from the soundtrack of the 1994 Tamil film Kadhalan, for both its intro and outro.[7] A. R. Rahman revealed on May 21 via Twitter that he was partnering with will.i.am to recreate an early track of his, with will.i.am tweeting out thanks to Rahman the next day.[8] will.i.am spoke about the process of sampling "Urvasi Urvasi" as part of the web exclusive on July 29, saying "We took portions of that song and put it over today's thick, urban electronic-type beat."[7] The song contains an additional sample of the Jamaican track "Fi Di Jockey" by Aidonia and Bounty Killer, with vocals from Aidonia sampled on the chorus and Bounty Killer's chanting of his "Big Ship Sailing" catchphrase also sampled in the song.[5]
The song was originally set to be titled "Birthday" when will.i.am announced on May 21, 2014 that he was planning to release it as a single with Wise on July 6.[10] That same day, a snippet was shared of the song.[10] "It's My Birthday" was released for digital download as a single in Australia and the United States on May 27 and May 29 respectively, marking will.i.am's first musical release since the album #willpower in 2013.[11][12][10] The song was later serviced to US rhythmic contemporary radio stations on June 24, 2014,[13] and released as a single in the United Kingdom on July 6, as previously announced by will.i.am.[14][10]
"It's My Birthday" received mixed to negative reviews from music critics, with will.i.am's lack of originality being mostly panned. Lewis Corner of Digital Spy gave the song three out of five stars, stating: "The final result doesn't wander too far away from his recent successful offerings, but with a hint of the new here and there, will.i.am proves once again he can have his cake and eat it whether it's his birthday or not."[15] Christina Lee of Idolator wrote that "it's rather telling that not even the most bizarre parts of 'It's My Birthday' can distract from the cringeworthy lyrics ('Que bonita, que bonita / I can speak in Japanese / Kawaii, kawaii / Kawaii, I want your body')."[16] RouteNote author RouteBot labelled the song as the worst of 2014, writing: "I actually thought that English was the performers second language, but then I realised it was Will.i.am! Terrible! What the hell has happened to pop music..."[17] Trevor Smith of HotNewHipHop wrote in response to the song: "The rapper/producer channels Bollywood on his new cut, which is more a showcase of Cody Wise's vocals than Will's. It also features some instrumental breaks, placing it firmly in more of an EDM sphere."[18]
The music video was uploaded to YouTube on May 28, 2014, shot in the square aspect ratio of software Vine and directed by Ben Mor.[19] It was uploaded to Vine the next day as over 40 separate clips.[19] The video, which utilizes claymation, features both will.i.am and Wise.[6][20][16] Its scenes include a birthday party going wrong, twerking in a room decorated with pizzas and will.i.am posing as a priest and as Jesus.[16] He can be seen at one point in the delivery room taking a selfie while a woman gives birth to a will.i.am lookalike.[16] Popular Viners such as Giovanni Watson, DeStorm Power, King Bach, Alpha Cat and Jerry Purdrank also appear.[21]
In Australia, "It's My Birthday" peaked at number four on the ARIA Singles Chart and spending a total of 16 weeks on the chart.[26] The song was certified Platinum in 2014 by the Australian Recording Industry Association.[27] It ranked at number 74 on the year-end ARIA Singles Chart for 2014.[28]
"It's My Birthday" also debuted within the top 40 of charts in New Zealand, Ireland and Belgium.[26][29][30] On the German Top 100 Singles chart, the song peaked at number 41.[26] It reached number 58 and number 71 on the Slovakia Singles Digitl Top 100 and Czech Republic Singles Digitl Top 100 respectively.[31][32] It performed the worst in France, charting at number 168 on the SNEP chart.[26]
will.i.am and Wise performed the song in the United Kingdom on May 29, 2014, appearing on the fourth semi-final of the eight season of Britain's Got Talent, with will.i.am dancing around in pink during the performance.[33] This marked will.i.am's debut appearance on Britain's Got Talent.[34] On July 21, the duo performed "It's My Birthday" with virtual body doubles on The Voice Australia, which was said to be "one of the biggest performances of the whole night."[35] On July 29, 2014, they performed the song on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, accompanied by the Roots, and again at the first ever BBC Music Awards on December 11, 2014.[7][36]
In Koichi's previous article, "What It's Like Dating A Japanese Girl," he wrote about Dale's interesting New Year's Eve experience with a Japanese girl, and I thought it would be a good idea to learn about the other special occasions in Japan, such as birthdays and Christmas, Valentine's day & White day. However, again, I'm sorry that we are going at this topic by topic, but each topic contains so many things! Today, we are going to look at how couples celebrate "Japanese birthdays."
Japanese birthdays are not as big a celebration as they are in the West. In fact, there was no custom of celebrating birthdays in Japan until around 1950! Before this, there was only one day on which to celebrate birthdays (everyone's birthday) and that day was New Year's Day. This was because ancient people thought everyone got older on New Year's Day, not the day they were born. Since then, however, Japan has been influenced by Western culture, so they started celebrating people's birthdays on the date of their actual birth.
In Japan, the only time you'll organize your own birthday party is when you are a child, although your parents likely played a bigger part in the actual organization of it than you did. The cake is a "must" and we sing "Happy Birthday" in the dark and blow the candles out on the cake (a 1:1 ratio of candles to years). It's the same as Western culture, isn't it?
Now that I'm an adult, I feel uncomfortable when someone says "Hey, I'm having a birthday party on Sunday. Can you come?" In Japan this discussion would take place in a conversation amongst friends like, "Hey, Mami's birthday is on April 9th, so we are planning a birthday party. Are you available that day?" When someone celebrates their birthday, though they can have a say in where to go or what to do, it's customary that when making arrangements, inviting people to it and paying the bill is not their responsibility. Food is, of course, a big part of Japanese culture, so it is very common to be treated to a meal on your birthday. A lot of restaurants also anticipate birthday parties being held there, so they keep cake and candles on hand for such occasions.
In the case of my husband and I, he doesn't like being the main person of focus or attention, so he never plans an event to celebrate himself. Knowing how much he dislikes it, I've only organized a party for him once.
However, this sort of "surprise" party is usually held a few days before or after the actual birthday because the birthday person may have a boyfriend or a girlfriend and they usually go on dates for special occasions. Even high school students, if they have a boyfriend or a girlfriend, will go on a date for their birthday.
Many of these participants said that the reason for wanting an accessory was "because I want to feel my boyfriend/husband is with me at all times." Isn't that romantic? Lovey-dovey vomit tummy! Ugh, I just tasted the gyuudon I had for lunch.
In regards to presents, most of them actually answered that they would be happy with anything their girlfriends gave them, but they do have a preference for what they would like to do on their birthdays. 28% said that they would like to go on a "dinner date to a fancy restaurant," followed by 16% who wanted to "stay in a hotel," 15% who wanted to go on an "onsen date," 13% who wanted a relaxing night in, 6% who wanted to go to a theme park (ex. Disneyland), 4% who wanted to watch sports, another 4% who wanted to eat at an average restaurant, 3% who wanted an relaxing spa date, 1% who wanted a beach date, and 10% wanting other things (miscellaneous).
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