"Sorry" is a song by American singer Beyoncé from her sixth studio album, Lemonade (2016). It was written and produced by Beyoncé, Diana Gordon, and MeLo-X. Columbia Records and Parkwood Entertainment released the song to radio as the album's second single on May 3, 2016. "Sorry" is an electro-R&B and electropop song with a thumping rhythm created by drum beats, synthesizers, and bells. The song's lyrics revolve around the protagonist dealing with the betrayal of a partner with another woman.
The song's music video is part of Beyoncé's 2016 film Lemonade, aired on HBO alongside the album's release. Due to the numerous allegations featured in the song, media linked it to the singer and her husband, Jay-Z. Music critics generally praised the theme and tone of "Sorry" as unapologetic and self-empowering, and its sound as catchy. "Sorry" debuted and peaked at number eleven on the US Billboard Hot 100. It was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for selling over three million copies in the country.
The song's music video is part of a one-hour film with the same title as its parent album, Lemonade, which originally aired on HBO on April 23, 2016. It was later released to Vevo on June 22, 2016, as the first standalone clip from the album. It features a spoken word poetry by Somali-English poet Warsan Shire, Beyoncé dancing along with a group of female dancers with painted bodies and a cameo appearance by tennis player Serena Williams. Beyoncé performed "Sorry" live during The Formation World Tour (2016), at the 2018 Coachella festival and as part of the set list of her co-headlining tour with Jay Z, the On the Run II Tour.
Background and recording "Sorry" was written and produced by Diana Gordon, MeLo-X, and Beyoncé. Hit-Boy served as the track's co-producer, Stuart White handled the additional production and Beyoncé was responsible for the vocal production. It was recorded with the guidance of Stuart White at the Beehive Studios in Los Angeles. White also handled the song's audio mixing and mix engineering. The mastering of "Sorry" was finished by Dave Kutch at two studios: The Mastering Palace NYC and Pacifique Recording Studios located in North Hollywood. Crissy Collins provides backing vocals throughout the song.
Beyoncé first heard of MeLo-X after he had released an EP titled Yoncé-X (2014) consisting of unauthorized remixes of songs from her fifth self-titled studio album. She invited him to collaborate on various projects, including On the Run, her co-headliner tour with Jay-Z. The following year, MeLo-X was invited to work with the singer during the sessions for her sixth studio album, Lemonade; two of the tracks he worked on, "Hold Up" and "Sorry" were included on its final track listing. During an interview with Pitchfork, he elaborated about his work on "Sorry", recalling that it was written in mid-2015. While conceiving the track, MeLo-X tried to incorporate dancehall influences, something that was part of his culture as a Jamaican. He described the idea behind "Sorry" as "pretty simple": "It was just some cool keys, drum patterns, and we started putting down vocal ideas and lyric ideas". Later, Hit-Boy contributed to the song, adding various sounds and layers. MeLo-X further pointed out that "Sorry" was a "vital point" on the record due to "all these different emotions and different sounds and different layers". "Sorry" was sent to rhythmic contemporary radio in the United States on May 3, 2016, as the album's second single. It was also serviced to contemporary hit radio stations in Italy and the United States on May 6 and 10, 2016, respectively.
Composition and lyrical analysis
"Sorry" is an up-tempo electro-R&B and electropop track with a thumping and bleeping beat. Drowned in Sound writer Giuseppe Zevolli called it an emulation of early 2000s R&B. The 405's Samantha O'Connor described it as an "electro-infused" track. It is instrumentally complete with shattering drum beats, synthesizers and bells, the latter instruments prominent throughout the chorus. The drum machines, played with a Roland TR-808, are coated in reverb, and the hi-hats are manipulated with lo-fi effects. The Atlantic writer Spencer Kornhaber likened the electronic layers of "Sorry" to the 2015 song of the same name by Justin Bieber. He further found its chorus similar to Top 40 music, but with a "glassy-eyed distance to the song, a purposeful malaise". Mike Wass of the website Idolator felt that "Sorry" was intended as a female response to "IDFWU" (2014) by Big Sean and further found similar phrases.
The song's lyrics revolve around the protagonist's cheating lover and her way of coping with the adultery. Following the release of Lemonade speculations arose about the singer's husband Jay-Z's alleged infidelity with a mistress referred to as "Becky". Jon Pareles in The New York Times pointed out that many of the accusations were "aimed specifically and recognizably" at him. Similarly, Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone magazine noted the lines "Suck on my balls, I've had enough" were an "unmistakable hint" that the lyrics revolve around Jay Z." Alexis Petridis from The Guardian also interpreted the lines as Beyoncé declaring she was prepared to abandon him and take their daughter along. He also found the lyrics "Big homie better grow up" as a reference of the self-given title by Jay-Z during his guest appearance on their past collaboration "Crazy in Love" (2003). NME writer Larry Bartleet was of the opinion that the singer was "thrillingly honest sucker-punch" on the song's lyrics aimed at Jay-Z. On the other hand, Lindsay Mannering from Bustle magazine felt that it was hard to determine whether the lyrics were inspired by the pair's private life due to the prominent usage of innuendos. However, she later clarified that although the song may not necessarily be autobiographical, "Beyonce has a tendency to reveal her truth through music... so it's possible that 'Sorry' references her emotions after Jay allegedly cheated on her".
"Sorry" has been described as a defiant, spiteful song exemplified in the lyrics, "Looking at my watch, he shoulda been home". The song opens with the lyrics of the hook "Sorry, I ain't sorry", with the protagonist seemingly apologizing for something, but as it turns out later, she adopts an unapologetic stance realizing she was the victim. It features the lyrics "Boy bye" and urges listeners to put their middle fingers up; the singer finds personal empowerment in those lines. The protagonist talk-sings the lines "Today I regret the night I put that ring on" in which she expresses regret over the decision of marrying her husband. She also tells her love interest that she wrote a "Dear John-type letter" for him. During one part, she sings about putting her deuces up which clarifies that she is over the relationship. Andre Grant of HipHopDX noted how the song was a proof of the fast-shifting emotions the protagonist feels throughout "Sorry" as seen in the lines "I ain't sorry / Boy, bye", "He only want me when I'm not there / He better call Becky with the good hair" and "Let's take a toast to the good life / Suicide before you see this tear fall down my eye". Zevolli also opined that the song's second part is "by far one of the most surprising mood-swings on the record".
Critical reception "Sorry" was highly acclaimed by music critics. Corinne Heller of E! Online dubbed "Sorry" as the "most controversial song" on Lemonade due to the alleged infidelity and "Becky with the good hair" mistress discussed in the lyrics. Amy Zimmerman, writing for The Daily Beast deemed "Sorry" by far the most iconic single and coined it as the song which "introduced the world to Jay Z's most infamous alleged mistress, 'Becky with the good hair'". She also felt that the "incredibly shade-laden line" was similar to "Drake's iconic 'Courtney from Hooters on Peachtree' reference". Spin journalist Greg Tate credited the line mentioning Becky for "breaking the Internet" and praised the fact that it was potent enough to promote the new material by the singer with "few dollops of viral poesy and self-inflicted gossip-mongering". Comparing "Sorry" to Beyoncé's own "style-banger" "7/11", Jillian Mapes in a review for Pitchfork noted how "she turns his side-chicks into memes, which will inevitably become 'better call Becky with the good hair' sweatshirts that Beyoncé can sell for $60 a pop". Vulture's Dee Lockett deemed the song to be a "surefire club" hit from the album with an "instant-quotable line". Ray Rahman from Entertainment Weekly called it a "middle fingers up anthem" which was "sure to be sung by spurned lovers for as long as there are Beckys with good hair". PopMatters writer Evan Sawdey opined that "the middle-finger anthem 'Sorry'... come[s] from a new place, one that is distinct, palpable, and yes, relatable". NME writer Larry Bartleet wrote that the singer expresses a "sorry, not sorry" stance in the song and noted how in the lyrics "suck on my balls", "the sense of release is palpable". Emily Blake from the website Mashable called the song "the fiercest kissoff we've seen from Bey so far".
A Rap-Up writer deemed the "Boy, bye" line as one of the album's catchiest lyrics. Kitty Empire of The Observer called it "electrifying". Shahzaib Hussain from Clash magazine dubbed "Sorry" as "another dazzling feminist club anthem, but with a grittier underbelly, the production off-kilter but no less invigorating". Pretty Much Amazing's Peter Tabakis wrote that the tracks "Sorry" and "6 Inch" on Lemonade were "the equivalent of a post-bloodbath hair flip and door slam". Another writer of the same publication named "Sorry" the album's "zeitgeist-capturing single". Sheffield was highly positive of the singer's voice capabilities, saying they were "the most astounding sound... as she pushes to her bluesiest extremes, like the hilariously nasty way she sneers, 'He's always got them fucking ex-cuuuu-ses.' Nows Kevin Ritchi, noted how by the time the story line of Lemonade comes to the anthemic "Sorry, "[t]he poison darts become sharper... and so do her vocals". HipHopDXs Andre Grant emphasized "Sorry" for being "particularly ear worming" with its "softly chiming" bells. Pareles summarized it as "twitchy, flippant song that's by no means an apology" but "a combative, unglossy track on an album full of them" instead. O'Connor classified "Sorry" as "flippant and fierce". Zevolli called it a "standout" on Lemonade. Maeve McDermott of USA Today opined in his review that although the song was not the most meaningful one by the singer, "it's a breezy, beautiful kiss-off that's enough to tell every below-average person in your life, 'Boy, bye.'" A more mixed review came from Idolator's Mike Wass who felt that the track felt "safe" and concluded, "It's a bouncy, infinitely-quotable bop with an infectious, radio-friendly chorus, but the lyrics let it down." However, Wass went on to write that it "makes up for [its lack in finesse] in bluster and called the Becky line "an overnight pop culture phenomenon".
Recognition and accolades Pitchfork named "Sorry" the 41st best song of 2016, while Complex and Spin, the 12th best. In the annual Village Voices Pazz & Jop mass critics poll of the year's best in music in 2016, "Sorry" was ranked at number 15. Billboard ranked "Sorry" at number two on their "100 Best Pop Songs of 2016" list: "Between "Tell 'em boy bye" memes and the "Becky with the good hair" witchhunt, Beyonce's "Sorry" ignited more online chatter than most non-Trump political campaigns this year. But more importantly, Beyonce executes one miraculous vocal tonal shift after another on "Sorry," going from pissed-off exasperation to dignity at any cost ("Suicide before you see this tear"), to small-voiced vulnerability at the very end. On "Sorry," Beyonce proves your life doesn't have to be perfect for you to remain flawless."
Commercial performance