Released September 23, 2009 Genre Dance pop | Recorded 2008–2009 Label Interscope | |
Format CD single, digital download Length 4:44 (album)
3:45 (radio edit) | ||
"Meet Me Halfway" is the third single from the Black Eyed Peas’ fifth studio album The E.N.D. The song peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100. Outside the United States, "Meet Me Halfway" topped the charts in Australia, Germany, Romania and the United Kingdom. In the latter country, "Meet Me Halfway" became the tenth biggest-selling single of 2009. It is a dance-pop song in the key of D Major.
Contents
Background
The song was released as a promotional single, as part of the "Countdown to The E.N.D." where 3 album tracks were released once each week until the release of the album. This song was the final promotional single in the series, the first two, in order of release, were "Imma Be" and "Alive". The song got early airplay on Today Networks' Hot30 Countdown in Australia, and on radio stations across Canada. Fergie told the Daily Mail that when she was recording her vocals for "Meet Me Halfway", she "transported herself back to 1985, when she was 10 and saw Madonna in concert for the first time on The Virgin Tour. She took on Madonna's persona in that song as homage."
Promotion
Meet Me Halfway was performed live on the week 5 results show of the British TV singing competition The X Factor on the 8th November 2009. The single was released the previous week in the UK and reached #1 in the charts. They performed the song too on the American Music Awards of 2009, along with "Boom Boom Pow". The Black Eyed Peas performed the mix of the song at the 2009 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.
Critical reception
The song received generally positive reviews from music critics. Prefix magazine stated, "Meet Me Halfway is notable mostly for being better than a 'new-wavey' ballad by The Black Eyed Peas has any right to be." Billboard wrote "Fergie elongates each note for a sensual vocal and offers a nice complement to co-producer Will.i.am, who handles the majority of the rhymes over funk guitar, hand claps and distorted pulses. With this track already climbing the Hot 100, the Peas are proving that their hit parade is far from over."
Bill Lamb of About.com stated that: "Fergie has the clear lead vocal here. She will never blow someone away with a bombastic voice or an otherworldly vocal range. However, she has an almost tearful edge to her voice that makes nearly any of her performances sound soaked with emotion. "Meet Me Halfway" is no exception. With the focus clearly on Fergie, this could in some ways be seen as a solo effort. However, the style of the song fits better in the context of The Black Eyed Peas album The E.N.D. instead of Fergie's The Dutchess." Entertainment Weekly also gave a positive review: "When the group's glitchy future-funk beats sync up with Fergie's unabashedly feminine melodies, as on the sweetly insidious Meet Me Halfway, they find pure Top 40 nirvana."
Chart performance
The song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart at #75 for the week ending October 3, 2009 and peaked at #7 in its sixth week (November 7), becoming the third consecutive top ten hit from the album. It makes The E.N.D. the band's first album to contain three Hot 100 top ten hits. The three songs successively overlapped in the Top 10, giving the group 30 consecutive weeks with a Top 10 hit. It topped the ARIA charts, becoming their third consecutive number 1 single from The E.N.D.
In the United Kingdom, "Meet Me Halfway" entered the UK Singles Chart on October 11, 2009 at #67. In its fifth week on the chart (November 8, 2009) it climbed to #3, being the highest non-X Factor related song on the chart, and one of only two songs in the top five non-related to The X Factor, along with Jay Sean's "Down", although ironically The Black Eyed Peas performed "Meet Me Halfway" on the X Factor results show on the very same night, leading to significant exposure. On 13 November, it was announced that "Meet Me Halfway" was outselling its nearest competition, "Happy" by Leona Lewis, and was on course to reach number one. It became The E.N.D.'s third consecutive number one single in Britain, and the band's fourth overall, on 15 November 2009 achieving the same success as in Australia. As of Sunday 27 December, "Meet Me Halfway" has sold 517,178 copies in Britain, making it the 13th best selling single of 2009. On December 20, "Meet Me Halfway" fell to #10, after eight consecutive weeks, but rose to #6 the following week. As on January 3, 2010 it rose again to #3.
On the New Zealand Top 40, the song has so far peaked at number 3, making it their third consecutive top three hit from the album. It was certified Gold after 10 weeks on the chart, selling over 7,500 copies. The song entered the Irish Singles Chart on the 15th October 2009 at number 27, it has so far peaked at number 2 for five consecutive weeks, fended off by Cheryl Cole's "Fight For This Love", the X Factor finalists' cover of "You Are Not Alone" and finally Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance". The song also reached #1 in the German Single Charts making it their 3rd chart topper since almost 5 years (last two were "Where Is the Love?" and "Shut Up" - both in 2003).
Music video
The music video was confirmed by will.i.am to be directed by Ben Mor (director of "I Gotta Feeling"). "This is a very different type of video ... 'Boom Boom Pow' was very futuristic and 'I Gotta Feeling' had a party vibe, but this is more artistic video. It's very arty." The video premiered on October 12, 2009. It was released onto the iTunes Music store on October 13, 2009.
The video features the members in different parts of the Solar System. The video opens on a road in the middle of a desert panning up to the cosmic sky which shifts to scenes of each of the members singing in different locations of space: Fergie lies in the middle of a lush, green jungle, apl.de.ap levitates on a desert planet in nomadic clothing, will.i.am rides an elephant on a moon of Jupiter and Taboo glides around the Sun in a spacesuit. Apl takes out a map and will.i.am uses a compass to search for a path to the other members. After a while, will.i.am finds a dial which reveals gateways for each of the members to go through. All the members use a stargate and turn into shooting stars, and land on the planet (presumably Earth because its a mix of all the different places were the singers are and is a halfway of all the locations in the video), with the road in the middle of the desert. This is the first video of the album that does not end with the phrase "The E.N.D."
Covers
In May 2010, two members of the British hip-hop trio, N-Dubz performed an acoustic mash-up of the song with "Down" by Jay Sean at Live Lounge with singer Ny, as the third member Tulisa was ill, the full trio later performed the acoustic mash-up at Isle of Wight Festival and later on their Love.Live.Life Tour. In June 2010, metalcore band Haste the Day released a cover of the song on the special edition of their final studio album, Attack of the Wolf King. In 2012, a cover of "Meet Me Halfway" featured on The Futureheads a capella album Rant.
Track listing
UK CD Single (2721563)
Digital Download E.P.
Credits and personnel
Source adapted from Discogs.