This Day in Pop: Britney releases 'Perfume' single in 2013 (November 04)

[PokemonSpears]

 

On November 4, 2013, Britney Spears released Perfume, the second and last single off her eighth studio album Britney Jean. The song was co-written by Britney, Sia and Christopher Braide and produced by Braide, will.i.am and Keith Harris. Her first ballad to be released as a single in many years, talks about Britney's fears in her relationship, that her partner may have another woman, so she sprays her perfume on him to "mark her territory".

In July 2013, Britney revealed through Twitter that she had written a song with Sia.

In September, during the Desert Performance announcement of her Vegas residency in Good Morning America, she revealed that Perfume was one of her favorite songs of her then upcoming album: "I love the 'Perfume' song. It's really beautiful. I like that song a lot. It's a ballad."

After the release of Work *****, it was announced in October that Perfume would be the second single, after RCA Record's CEO Peter Edge said about the song that "she sings it beautifully and it has a real sincerity to it. And it's outstanding - I think people are not only gonna be surprised but also see another side of Britney." Larry Rudolph, Britney's manager, also commented on the song "a breakup song that's about wanting the next girl to smell your perfume on the guy afterwards. The lyric[s] [are] really unique and she sings the **** out of it."

Though it was scheduled to be released on November 5, the song was made available through her Facebook page on November 03, and it went on sale on November 04.

 

Upon its release, Dr. Luke revealed he had produced a song for Britney Jean and when a fan asked him about Perfume, he revealed that there was another version of the song on the album, a bit rawer (which would later be revealed to be the Dreaming Mix).

 

 

On November 19, a lyric video was uploaded to her Youtube channel.

 

On November 21, Britney and will.i.am discussed the song with Ryan Seacrest at the iHeartRadio album preview:

 

She also revealed the perfume she sprays is none of her several Fantasy spin-offs, but pikake

 

The song didn't have a chart performance as good as its predecessor, peaking at #76 on the BBH100, while hitting #22 on the Mainstream Top 40. It went #1 on Ukraine though, and #6 in South Korea.

A shortened version of Perfume was performed at her Britney: Piece of Me residency in Las Vegas from the beginning until the 2016 revamp, when it was replaced by the Missy Elliott Medley.

 

 

 

 

 

A music video for the song was released in December 10, but we'll cry talk about it later.

[Neydelinska Spearsi]

Dark times....

 

[CallMeTheGovernor]

I want the full MV. 

[Wendy Williams]

[agustinmalandra]

beautiful song, non mature lyrics, her voice sounds great here... the video... well... 

[MomOfTheYear]

The guitar acoustic version is my fave. 

[brymo]

I actually really like the song. Sad and relatable. Too bad it was so poorly promoted. 

[CHAOTIC STYLE.]

A Katy Perry reject, they should have kept in the stash 

[Emil87]

As a fan of almost all her ballads, I tried my best to get into this one..the video officially ruined any chance of that happening. I remember Sias backward head shading the songs “success” also, which I thought was pretty foul of her. She’s an idiot. 

[Rachel Green Geller]

Oh what the music video could have been...