"Beautiful Now" is a song by Russian-born German musician Zedd from his second studio album, True Colors (2015), featuring vocals from American singer-songwriter Jon Bellion. It was written by Zedd, Bellion, Antonina Armato, David Jost, Tim James and Desmond Child. The song was released on 13 May 2015 as the album's second single. The song was commercially successful and has been featured on a number of worldwide music charts.
Background On 8 May 2015, as part of his True Colors promotional campaign, Zedd premiered "Beautiful Now" at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, Illinois. Five days later, he announced that he would release the song onto iTunes at 9:00 PM PST. The official audio for the song was uploaded to Zedd's YouTube channel at that same time.
Composition "Beautiful Now" is a progressive house song with influences of dance-pop written in the key of D major. It runs at 128 BPM. A few hours prior to its release, he tweeted the lyrics from the song's beat break: "BAH BAH BAH BABABAH BAH BAH BABABAH BAH BAH BAH BABABAH BABABABA".
Music video The music video for "Beautiful Now", directed by Jonathan Desbiens, was released on 11 June 2015.
Synopsis The video intertwines five different stories together. The first is of a woman who supposedly drowned her female lover in a pool; the second involves an elderly Central American man who is journeying on an unsuccessful mountain climbing attempt; the third involves the son of a man whose home is invaded by armed robbers; the fourth involves Zedd portraying a liquor store robber who becomes hostile with the management by threatening him with a knife; and the fifth depicts a distraught girl laying down on a railroad.
As the song progresses, the video intercuts to scenes of family happiness, good times with friends, dancing and rejoicing before concluding the five stories. The first woman's lover is pulled from the water before drowning, and the ex realizes the gravity of the situation; the old man attempts to climb the mountain and falls, but survives, without reaching the summit; the armed robbery victim's son confronts the hostiles at gunpoint and subdues them; Zedd's character reflects over what sunk him to his current point in life and seems to change his ways; the suicidal girl is missed by the train and reflects on her life and why she chose such an extreme act. All five people in the stories see themselves in a reflection in various surfaces as their stories are closed and they all resolve to be better people.
Track listing CD single and digital download "Beautiful Now" – 3:38
Digital download (Extended Mix) "Beautiful Now" – 5:14
Digital download (Remixes EP) "Beautiful Now" – 3:55 "Beautiful Now" – 4:00 "Beautiful Now" – 3:19 "Beautiful Now" – 4:15
Digital download (Dirty South Remix) "Beautiful Now" – 3:18
Digital download (Grey Remix) "Beautiful Now" – 3:10
Digital download (Rock Mafia Remix) "Beautiful Now" – 2:53
Grey remix On 29 July 2015, Los Angeles-based duo Grey released their remix of "Beautiful Now" on SoundCloud as a free download. The remix is known for its significant deviation in sound from the original, using a vocoder to give Bellion's vocals a different melody and robotic distortion, and accompanying them with a darker and melodically distinct background inspired by Egyptian music. The remix quickly began receiving coverage across electronic music websites and communities, and was acclaimed for its uniqueness and originality. It also became notable for only being Grey's first release despite its professionality, leading to speculation that the alias belonged to an experienced group of producers now going anonymous. The alias belongs to brothers Kyle and Michael Trewartha, the former of whom previously operated under the alias Singularity.
Eventually, the remix came to the attention of Zedd, who liked and reposted the remix to his official SoundCloud page, and later released the track for purchase on iTunes on 11 September 2015. Zedd has since continued to actively support Grey, playing their remix of Skrillex and Diplo's "Where Are Ü Now" featuring Justin Bieber at his True Colors Tour. He also went on to call Grey "hands down the best electronic music act right now" on Twitter. Grey has since officially remixed two other songs from True Colors; "Papercut" and "True Colors", and toured with Zedd in 2017 as part of his Echo Tour.
Charts
Weekly charts Chart (2015) PeakpositionItaly Airplay (EarOne) 105Lebanon (Lebanese Top 20) 5Mexico Anglo (Monitor Latino) 19Netherlands Dance (Dance Top 30) 24Sweden Heatseeker (Sverigetopplistan) 7
Year-end charts Chart (2015) PositionUS Dance Club Songs (Billboard) 6US Hot Dance/Electronic Songs (Billboard) 14
Certifications
Release history Region Date Format Version Label Various13 May 2015Digital downloadOriginalIntescopeUnited States26 May 2015Contemporary hit radioItaly12 June 2015UniversalUnited States16 June 2015Digital downloadDirty South RemixInterscope10 July 2015Remixes EP14 August 2015Big Gigantic Remix11 September 2015Grey Remix2 October 2015Rock Mafia Remix4 November 2016Lophiile Remix
See also List of number-one dance singles of 2015 (U.S.)
References