"Fancy" is a song by Australian rapper Iggy Azalea featuring British singer Charli XCX, taken from the former's debut studio album, The New Classic (2014). It was released on 17 February 2014 by Def Jam Recordings as the fourth single from the album. "Fancy" is described as a hip house, electropop, and pop rap song. It was written by Azalea and XCX, composed and produced by production team the Invisible Men, alongside additional producers the Arcade. It was leaked under the title "Leave It" in December 2013.
"Fancy" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming both Azalea's and XCX's first number-one on that chart. It held the spot for seven consecutive weeks. It also topped the charts in Canada and New Zealand and had general chart success around the world. It reached the top ten in several countries such as Azalea's native country Australia and the United Kingdom. It is XCX's second top-ten single, after her guest spot on Icona Pop's "I Love It" in 2013. "Fancy" was named Billboards Song of the Summer for 2014, as well as the most-streamed song on Spotify and most-watched music video on Vevo in 2014. It won the Top Rap Song category at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards and was nominated for Record of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 57th Grammy Awards. It is one of the best-selling singles worldwide and best selling singles from female rapper, with combined sales and track-equivalent streams of 9.1 million units according to IFPI. In 2017, Billboard named "Fancy" as the biggest hit by a female rapper in history. It was the number-one rap song of 2014 in the U.S., taking the top spot on the Billboard Year-End Hot Rap Songs of 2014. It is certified nine-times Platinum in the US as well as Gold or higher in eleven additional countries.
The accompanying music video for "Fancy" was directed by Director X and released on 4 March 2014. The visuals are inspired by the 1995 American comedy film Clueless, with Azalea playing Beverly Hills socialite Cher Horowitz and XCX as Tai Frasier. The music video was nominated for four awards at the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards, although it did not win any of them. The song was performed by Azalea and XCX on Good Morning America, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and the 2014 Billboard Music Awards. "Fancy" was also covered by many artists, such as Anna Kendrick on the 39th season of Saturday Night Live.
Composition
"Fancy" is a three-minute and 19-second electro-hop, electropop, and pop rap song, which was written by Iggy Azalea and Charli XCX. The song was also composed and co-produced by the Invisible Men (Jason Pebworth, George Astasio and Jon Shave) and the Arcade (Kurtis Mckenzie). The song is played in the key of C minor without any chord progression followed, and Charli XCX's vocals range from G3 to C5. It is in common time and is played at a tempo of 95 beats per minute. The song features stabby synths and repeated hip hop chants of the word 'hey', which bear similarities to DJ Mustard's produced songs. Finger snaps are heard in the original mix.
Release On 5 December 2013, an unfinished song by Azalea, which surfaced with the title "Leave It", was leaked online. Azalea later revealed the song was produced by the Invisible Men and the Arcade, whom she collaborated with on her entire album. On 5 February 2014, Azalea announced that she would be releasing a new single titled "Fancy", featuring English singer-songwriter Charli XCX, later that week. The song was premiered on BBC Radio 1 Xtra the evening of 6 February 2014. After the song's premiere, it was revealed "Fancy" was the song that had leaked titled "Leave It". On 17 February 2014, the song was serviced to urban contemporary radio in the United Kingdom as the album's fourth single.
Critical reception
"Fancy" received overall positive reception from music critics. Brad Stern of MTV Buzzworthy remarked, "Not since Fergie's 'Glamorous' has there been such a spectacularly sass-filled ode to the glam life," praising their chemistry, calling it "a match made in heaven that we never would've expected." Chris Tomas of Hip Hop Wired wrote that the song "could be the hit record Iggy Azalea has been looking for," noting that "Charli XCX also provides a very potent chorus that women will be chanting in their clubs, cars, and the like." Mike Wass of Idolator claimed the track is "the duet we've all been waiting for" and "a swag-drenched hip hop/pop delight." Janice Llamoca of Hip Hop DX defined it as "a hip hop-slash-pop party anthem in which the emcee lyrically displays her confidence."
Joe Gross of Rolling Stone gave the song a mixed score of 3 out of 5 stars, writing that Azalea "deftly handles the ratchet beat while Charli XCX's earworm hook holds it all down," writing that the song "[doesn't] bring '88 back [but] they can swing on chandeliers with the best of them". Jamie Parmenter of Renowned for Sound noted that the song showed the influence of Missy Elliott, and that "Iggy is almost playing a character or parody of herself like Eminem is renowned for," praising Charli XCX for "nicely breaking up the song, sounding like an edgy Gwen Stefani, matching with Iggy's rebel style." Bill Lamb of About.com, like Jake Gross, gave a mixed response, but echoed the same thought as Parmenter, praising "Charli XCX's Gwen Stefani styled vocals on the chorus" and noting that its lyrics has been done even better by Stefani nearly 10 years ago on 'Luxurious'." However, Lamb also stated that the entire song seemed "a bit too recycled" and had a "tiresome obsession with material culture delivered with a straight face." The track was placed at number nineteen on Rolling Stoness 50 Best Songs of 2014 list. It was named iTunes' best song of 2014 on Apple's annual Best-Ofs. "Fancy" was also placed at number one on MTV's Best Songs of 2014. The Village Voices Pazz & Jop annual critics' poll listed "Fancy" at number 26 on their poll for the best music of 2014, along with Ariana Grande's "Problem", on which Azalea was featured.
Accolades
+Awards and nominations for "Fancy"OrganizationYearCategoryResult American Music Awards 2014 Single of the Year ARIA Music Awards 2014 Song of the Year BET Hip-Hop Awards 2014 Best Hip-Hop Video People's Champ Award MTV Video Music Awards 2014 Video of the Year Best Pop Video Best Female Video Best Art Direction Billboard Music Awards 2015 Top Hot 100 Song Top Streaming Song Top Rap Song Grammy Awards 2015 Record of the Year Best Pop Duo/Group Performance iHeartRadio Music Awards 2015 Best Collaboration
Chart performance
In the United States, "Fancy" has peaked at number one, becoming Azalea's first song to chart on the top of the Billboard Hot 100. The song is Charli XCX's second top 10 as a featured artist on the Hot 100 (the first being "I Love It") and her first number 1. On the issue date 17 May 2014 "Fancy" reached number two of the Billboard Digital Songs chart, selling 222,000 units, occupying simultaneously the top two slots of the chart as "Problem" by Ariana Grande, in which Azalea featured, debuted at the summit of Digital Songs chart. With this achievement, Azalea became only the sixth artist to occupy the top two position and the first to do so since Taylor Swift with the singles "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" and "Ronan" in 2012. Azalea also became just the third female artist to place her first two Hot 100 hits in the top five simultaneously, first two being Ashanti and Mariah Carey. It also marked Azalea as the first female rapper ever to have two songs concurrently in the top five of the Hot 100 chart. Moreover, Azalea passed Lil' Kim as the female rapper with the longest-leading number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and moved into a tie for fifth place among lead women who have scored the longest commands on the Hot 100 during the 2010s. The song led the chart for seven weeks, before being succeeded by MAGIC's "Rude". "Fancy" remained in the top ten for 17 consecutive weeks.
On the following week, Azalea became only the second artist in the nearly 10-year history of the Hot Digital Songs chart to have the top two songs concurrently for two weeks and, eventually, for three consecutive weeks. On the week-ending 31 May 2014 the song ascended to number two on the Billboard Hot 100, selling 234,000 units, topped the Streaming Songs chart with 8.4 million impressions and continued to dominate the On-Demand Songs chart for a third week. As it led the Streaming Songs chart for a thirteenth week it tied Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball" for the most weeks tallied at number one. "Fancy" also reached number one on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Rap Songs, where it remained for 16 and 18 weeks respectively making it the longest running number one on these charts. Additionally, she is the first female Australian artist to top the Hot 100 since Olivia Newton-John reached the summit in 1981 with "Physical". Along with "Problem", Azalea has the distinction of being the first act to have its first two Hot 100-charting singles at numbers one and two at the same time since the Beatles, as "Fancy" and "Problem" did, respectively. She is also only the second female artist to have the top 2 singles for multiple weeks, with the first being Ashanti. Azalea also became the fourth female rapper to top the Mainstream Top 40 chart. The song set new single-week records on Spotify's U.S. streaming service for four consecutive weeks. On 3 September 2014, "Fancy" was named Billboard's top Song of the Summer for 2014 having led their weekly Songs of the Summer chart from start to finish. "Fancy" was also named the most streamed song on Spotify in America in 2014. The song became the fifth best-selling song of 2014 in the United States with 3,970,000 copies sold for the year. By 5 February 2015, the song had sold 4,100,000 copies.
In the United Kingdom, "Fancy" became her highest charting single as a lead artist at the time, debuting at number five on the UK Singles Chart and selling 38,320 copies in its first week. In Australia, the song peaked at number five and has been certified quadruple platinum for sales of over 280,000 copies. In its ninth week on the New Zealand Singles Chart, the song climbed from number three to the top position, giving Azalea her second number-one single there, after Ariana Grande's "Problem", having replaced herself at the top, and first number-one there as a lead artist. It also marks Charli XCX's second top-ten single, after Icona Pop's "I Love It", and first number-one single in New Zealand. It has also been certified double Platinum in New Zealand. The track had sold over 7 million copies worldwide, as of October 2014, making it one of the best-selling singles worldwide. On 23 December 2014, it was certified Triple Platinum in Canada after peaking at number one on the Canadian Hot 100, with 346,000 copies sold digitally throughout 2014. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), "Fancy" achieved combined sales and track-equivalent streams of 9.1 million units in 2014, ranking as the seventh best-selling single of the year.
Worldwidely, the song met a successful acclaim, especially in Europe where the song reached top twenty in several countries, such as Czech Republic, Finland and Ireland, top thirty in Belgium, Sweden, the Netherlands and France, top forty in Denmark, and top fifty in Austria, Switzerland and Slovakia. The song appeared equally in Germany, at number 51, becoming Azalea's first entry there and Charli XCX's second.
Music video Background