Tonight I'm Getting Over You

Background and composition

"Tonight I'm Getting Over You" was written by Jepsen, Lukas Hilbert, Max Martin, Clarence Coffee Jr, Shiloh, and Katerina Loules. The song is primarily electro house, Carly's vocal spans to high note F5 and opens with Jepsen singing, "I wanna smash your fears and get drunken off your tears / Don't you share your smile with anyone else but me". Jepsen addresses her post-breakup feelings, as she gets tired of her boyfriend's lies and broken promises: "I wanna touch your heart, I wanna crush it in my hands / Make you plead and cry as you give up all the lies". Sam Lansky of Idolator wrote that "the tremor in Jepsen's voice in the pre-chorus one of the year's most heartbreaking pop moments". As she closes the pre-chorus singing, "No more crying to get me through / I'll keep dancing till the morning with somebody new", the instrumentation incorporates a LMFAO-style beat as we hear Jepsen repetitively chanting, "Tonight I'm getting over you". According to Candy, the song's message is one of trying to get over a lover, but eventually getting back with them. Of the lyrics, Jepsen told People: "I think it's important to have a bit of a connection to a song that you sing, and there's going to be some grittiness behind it, because otherwise it doesn't come across as sincere. So I do think I tap into those memories in a certain way, but it doesn't make me feel sad. It just makes me feel a little contemplative and in the moment." Jepsen herself spoke out about the song's theme, saying that despite the highs and lows of a relationship, sometimes it's better to move on. Neglecting to reveal the identity of the man who inspired the lyrics, she said, "it's probably better he didn't know it was about him." The official remix of "Tonight I'm Getting Over You" features a rap verse from Nicki Minaj; over a dubstep beat, Minaj raps: "Tonight I'm getting over / Meditating through my yog-er."

Critical reception

"Tonight I'm Getting Over You" received mostly positive reviews from music critics. Jessica Sager of Pop Crush wrote that, if released as a single, the song would likely become a "club staple". Billboard Sam Lansky of Idolator praised the chorus, where he noted the song's transformation from "a 'Give Your Heart A Break'-esque Top 40 lollipop into a noisy, crunchy rave-a-thon." Melinda Newman of Hitfix thought "Tonight I'm Getting Over You" was as risque as Jepsen's previous single, "This Kiss". Adam Markovitz of Entertainment Weekly selected "Tonight I'm Getting Over You" and "Call Me Maybe" as the best songs on Kiss. A negative review came from Carolline Sullivan of The Guardian, who wrote that "set against Dallas Austin and Max Martin's overprocessed beats, [the singer] can't help but fail, as Canadian Idol would put it, to 'own' the songs." Candy wrote that while the theme of Jepsen's new single changed with "Tonight I'm Getting Over You", the upbeat tempo remains, making the track a bona fide party anthem. Music reviewer Sam Lansky noted that the success of "Call Me Maybe" would leave "Tonight I'm Getting Over You" without much mainstream recognition, calling it the "scientifically-engineered-to-be-perfect pop song". Commenting on the Nicki Minaj remix, Jeff Benjamin of Fuse said that while the rapper's addition was silly, it had the potential to rescue Jepsen from becoming a one-hit wonder.

Chart performance

The song remix version with Nicki Minaj debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart of May 25, 2013, at number 90, before falling off the chart the following week.

Music video

On January 27, 2013, Jepsen revealed through her Facebook account that she would film the music video for "Tonight I'm Getting Over You" in Los Angeles the following weekend. Three days later, the singer revealed the filming was already done shooting the music video for the single before heading to Japan for her headlining Kiss Tour. The video premiered through VEVO on February 22, 2013. Jepsen's lover in the music video is model Brandon Gray. The video follows Jepsen as she cavorts with a male model and jumps transcendently before a gray background. Idolator blogged: "That part doesn’t totally make sense, but visually, it's a nice motif, sort of." Brittany Galla of AOL Music wrote that the video for "Tonight I'm Getting Over You" was more mature and emotional than the one for "Call Me Maybe".

Live performance

Jepsen performed "Tonight I'm Getting Over You" on the Believe Tour and The Summer Kiss Tour. On January 26, 2013, the singer performed it at the NRJ Music Awards. She also performed the song live with starting verses from her former single, "Call Me Maybe" on Juno Awards.

Formats and track listings

1. "Tonight I'm Getting Over You" — 3:39

1. "Tonight I'm Getting Over You" (Showtek Remix) — 5:18
2. "Tonight I'm Getting Over You" (Twice As Nice Remix) — 3:40
3. "Tonight I'm Getting Over You" (Reid Stefan Remix) — 6:06
4. "Tonight I'm Getting Over You" (Wayne G & LFB Club Mix) — 7:07
5. "Tonight I'm Getting Over You" (KoKo Club Mix) — 4:53

1. "Tonight I'm Getting Over You" (featuring Nicki Minaj) — 4:02