Portal:Rhythm and blues/Selected article/11
"We Belong Together" is a pop/R&B song recorded by Mariah Carey for her tenth studio album The Emancipation of Mimi (2005) and released as the album's second single in 2005. Written and produced by Carey, Jermaine Dupri, Manuel Seal, and Johnta Austin, the song was inspired by 1980s R&B and soul. Its arrangement is built on simple piano chords and an understated back beat, and its lyrics chronicle a woman's desperation for her former lover to return after their separation.
Following a career-decline between 2001 and 2003, Carey achieved considerable success with "We Belong Together" as the song topped the charts in many countries, including Australia, Brazil, Croatia, Philippines, South Africa, and the United States Billboard Hot 100 for fourteen non-consecutive weeks. The song is also the most successful song by a female artist in the history of Billboard.
In the U.S., the song also repeatedly broke many BDS Airplay records. The song was warmly received by critics, and won Carey a number of industry awards, including two Grammy Awards in 2006.
Further information: The Emancipation of Mimi
"We Belong Together" was not composed until late into the production of The Emancipation of Mimi.[1] Following an unsuccessful career period between 2001 and 2003, Carey began production on the album in 2004. By November of that year she had considered the album complete, but some of what became its more popular tracks had yet to be written.[1] Antonio "L.A." Reid, the chairman of Island Def Jam Records, encouraged Carey to attempt additional studio sessions with producer Jermaine Dupri. "L.A. was like, 'You and Jermaine Dupri make magic together, why aren't you in the studio with him?'" she recalled. "'I said, 'I love Jermaine, is he free? I know he's doing a million things.' [...] But Jermaine said, 'Come on down.'"[1]