Dancing on My Own


"Dancing on My Own" is a midtempo dance-pop and electropop ballad by Swedish singer Robyn, taken from both her fifth studio album Body Talk Pt. 1 and compilation of songs already released that year with new tracks, Body Talk. Written and produced by Robyn and Patrik Berger, the song was inspired by disco anthems by Ultravox, Sylvester and Donna Summer. It depicts a female protagonist who's dancing on her own in a club while watching her ex-lover with another woman. The public first heard the single's radio version with the posting of its music video to Robyn's Vimeo account on May 31. The song's album version was then released on 1 June 2010 as Body Talk Pt. 1's lead single in Sweden and the United States. The song's radio version was distributed for mainstream airplay in the United States on 2 November 2010.
"Dancing on My Own" received glowing reviews from critics who compared its theme of loneliness to Robyn's previous singles "With Every Heartbeat" and "Be Mine!" As the 2010s came to a close, new and heightened critical appreciation was lauded on the track, noting its influence as a 'sad banger' on the poptimism movement. Acclaimed Music would go on to list it as the greatest song of the decade.
The song was premiered live at Swedish TV show Sommarkrysset on TV4 5 June 2010.
The song peaked at the top of the Sverigetopplistan chart, becoming Robyn's first number one in her native country. The song also reached the top ten in Denmark, Norway, and the United Kingdom. In the United States, the song managed to reach number three on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart. "Dancing on My Own" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording.
The accompanying music video was directed by Max Vitali, showing Robyn walking and dancing alone on the outskirts of a club and then through the crowds, with cutscenes of her standing and dancing in front of a microphone pole in a stage-like rehearsal setting. Robyn has performed the song numerous times, notably on Saturday Night Live, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards with deadmau5, and the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Concert. "Dancing on My Own" was also used on television shows such as Gossip Girl, Orange is the New Black, Girls, and RuPaul's Drag Race.
Across genres and countries, several covers have been released. Robyn's own downtempo acoustic piano ballad version, which she performed for Capital FM, Studio Brussel, and BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge, then released in October 2010 on Radio 1's Live Lounge - Volume 5, was covered in a rock version by band Kings of Leon also performed on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge, inspiring a pop rock release by singer/songwriter Calum Scott in August 2016 that became a hit throughout Europe - especially the UK, where it reached number 2 on the UK Singles Chart.

Creation

In the middle of new sessions with prior collaborator Klas Åhlund in early 2009, Robyn broke up with longtime boyfriend and collaborator Max Vitali and started therapy. 'Tired of a broken heart,' her 'love of inherently sad, gay disco anthems', such as Ultravox's "Dancing with Tears in My Eyes" and songs by Sylvester and Donna Summer inspired the track's name and concept: "that god-awful feeling of a woman who is watching her ex get with someone new at a club."
Desperate to move on but stuck toying with the song, she reached out to another prior collaborator, Patrik Berger, for a different perspective. Berger's preparation for their session at his Stockholm studio with a "slew of his own electronic beats and tracks for her to write over" was for naught as the "...first thing she said was, ‘Can we sit down and write a song on an acoustic guitar today? I’m so tired of writing over electronic beats and tracks.'" Their first result was an "acoustic campfire" demo with "three chords resembling a country song." The chorus came first quickly, followed by the chords and then the melody. Then, after days of "fattening up" the demo, they realized "...they preferred the original and stripped it all back down again, swapping the acoustic guitar for synthesizers with frayed edges and a beat that aimed for a TKO."
From there, a 'long time' was spent "...on the individual components of the song: the drums, the bass and the pounding staccato it starts with." Lyrically, Robyn and Patrik were "super picky" and took even longer. Obsessively trying to come up with the right words to not "sugar-coat the experience" of all of the "messy moments of rejection," they both wanted "uncomfortably honest" lines designed to have each phrase read like a "little poem." Weeks were spent on each stanza, filling at least six notebooks by the end, as "every single word needed to feel right."
Robyn was conflicted at the end of the album's sessions, recalling being initially 'excited' to send the song to her collaborators and friends but now at its completion debating even submitting the final product. Early promotion was "incredibly difficult" as she felt the song's themes of "nostalgia and sentimentality" now came across like a "teenage version of herself" she was relieved to let go of, not ringing true to her any longer. Years later, after "taking a step back from what she'd created", then "working on herself", she felt the song had "moved on from its beginnings," and was no longer conflicted about playing it live, seeing that it had "become something that took on meaning for a lot of people in different ways."
As Pitchfork's Ryan Dombal described the single as sounding "...like what we've come to expect from a Robyn song," Robyn explained that she "felt like I really found my voice on the last album And I wrote 'With Every Heartbeat', so there's a reason why 'Dancing on My Own' sounds similar. For me, that's a good thing."

Composition

"Dancing on My Own" was composed by Robyn and Patrik Berger. Incorporating elements of electro and disco, two versions of the midtempo dance-pop and electropop ballad were released. The 'stark' album version focuses on the baseline and hammerdrill throbbing synth undergirding the track, accented with twinkling effects. The 'blended' radio version "drastically" pulls back that focus to combine additional electronic percussive lines and chiming arpeggiated fifths a couple of octaves up from the main melody. James Montgomery of MTV News described the song as "a computerized kaleidoscope of chippy, chiming blips and piston-like drums."
The song is performed in the key of G major with a tempo of 117 beats per minute in common time, which NPR's Sam Sanders notes was 'perfectly situated pretty close to what scientists say is the preferred walking tempo for humans', following the 'immediately familiar one-five-four' chord progression of G–D–C, with Robyn's vocals spanning from D4 to E5.
USC musicologist Nate Sloan highlighted the "miraculously sparse" six seconds of silence between each line in the verses - "not a lot of time in the abstract" but "eons on a pop song" - as deliberate: "Robyn wants you to live in that space — to give you time to insert all of your emotions and stories and feelings into the seconds between the lines.
Robyn told BBC Newsbeat that she's "proud" of the track as "it features elements of 'many different worlds' she loves, including 'Prince songs, 80s rock ballads and queer electronica.'"
"Dancing on My Own" has been described as a heartbreak anthem, with emotional lyrics compared to the themes of her previous singles, "With Every Heartbeat" and "Be Mine!" Under the "big black sky over my town", the song speaks of a woman who is dancing alone in a club, while watching her ex-lover with another woman. Her attempts to be noticed and/or muster the strength to interrupt fail when a small bell effect resembling last call at the climax of the bridge indicates her time to get his attention has run out. Robyn has not revealed publicly that the experience of her stand-in female protagonist in a club was in fact hers with her then ex-boyfriend Max Vitali.
Montgomery noted that the "thoroughly sad song about Robyn losing her man to another woman, but also about the notion of feeling alone in a crowded room, of being lost and unloved and having no other choice but to be OK with those things," featuring lines such as, "I'm in the corner, watching you kiss her. I'm right over here, why can't you see me? I'm giving it my all, but I'm not the girl you're taking home." Robyn and Patrik describe "I just wanna dance all night" as representing the precise moment on the dancefloor you have to get your 'desperation, frustration and sadness out.'
In contrast to "With Every Heartbeat" being "grimly optimistic", The Guardian's Peter Robinson noted that "Dancing on My Own" offers "no hope that things may get better." Robyn told MTV News "I mean, for me, of course it's a sad love song, but it's a strong song as well, or at least that's what I want people to feel when they listen to it." "I'm a fan of light and dark at the same time," she explained to Kindness at Red Bull Music Academy: "When there's just happiness or just sadness, it just gets boring. That's so predictable. The magic to me is when there are lots of things going on at the same time. That's much more satisfying. That's what I'm drawn to when I make music."
Berger explained his favorite lines to BBC Newsbeat and NPR as "I know where you're at, I bet she's around," representing the 'self-destructive part of you, when we know we shouldn't go there....like scratching a wound,'" and "...one that gets at an extremely teenage feeling: "Yeah, I know it's stupid, I just gotta see it for myself." 'You're not being the smartest person on the planet,' he says, unpacking the words. 'You're not being the nicest, you're not being the best. You're just a loser — and that's fine.'"

Reception

Critical

"Dancing on My Own" received widespread acclaim from music critics and publications. Nick Levine of Digital Spy gave the song five out of five stars and wrote that "'Dancing on My Own' is a misty-eyed electro-disco tune that's every bit as emotive as 'With Every Heartbeat' and 'Be Mine' If your bottom lip's not quivering like the bassline by the time the second chorus hits, you've taken waaay too many mood stabilisers." Luke Lewis of NME referred to the song as "a comet-trail of sadness and exhilaration that's easily the equal of Robyn's breakthrough hit, 'With Every Heartbeat'." The Guardians Michael Hann stated that song's "pulsing synths and electronic percussion manage to sound both jackbooted and ineffably melancholy." Jer Fairall wrote for PopMatters that "he aggressive stun-gun rhythm of 'Dancing on My Own' can't hide a classic drama-played-out-on-the-dancefloor scenario inherited from standard bearers like ABBA's 'Dancing Queen' and Madonna's 'Into the Groove', nor is it cold enough not to melt at the touch of Robyn's warm, yearning vocals or the song's shimmering keyboard chime." Matthew Horton of BBC Music described "Dancing on My Own" – along with "Fembot" and "Cry When You Get Older" – as "scorchingly catchy, and laced with Robyn's familiar cordial of sparkling hook mixed with unutterable poignancy."
Slant Magazine named "Dancing on My Own" the best song of 2010, writing: "Few artists risk Robyn's emotional nakedness, and with 'Dancing on My Own' she reveals the exquisite flipside to her more empowered 'With Every Heartbeat'". The Guardian named it the best song of the year as well, writing: "'Dancing on My Own' is an extraordinary addition to Robyn's canon of skewed love songs; thoughtful and romantic enough for stuck-on-repeat listening, but with a pop sensibility that makes you want to head out in search of a dancefloor." Pitchfork named it the fourth best of 2010, saying that it "demonstrate that she is the Rocky Balboa of pop music." Rolling Stone named it the twenty-sixth best song of 2010, writing: "The Swedish diva spots her beloved with another girl — then turns her sadness into sparkling pop, perfect for solo freakouts." The song landed at number six on MTV's Best Songs of 2010, with James Montgomery writing: "as soon as 'Dancing' gets to that hair-raising build — a breathless rush of drums and adrenaline — you're no longer thinking about what Robyn's saying, really." In January 2011, the American music magazine The Village Voices Pazz & Jop annual critics' poll ranked "Dancing on My Own" at number three to find the best music of 2010. The song was nominated at the 53rd Grammy Awards in the category Best Dance Recording, but lost to "Only Girl " by Rihanna.

Commercial

"Dancing on My Own" debuted at number two on the Sverigetopplistan chart on the issue dated 11 June 2010. The following weeks, the song ascended and descended between number two and number three, before reaching the top position on the issue dated 30 July 2010. The song became Robyn's first number one on the chart, as well as her seventh top-ten hit. In Denmark, "Dancing on My Own" debuted at number thirty-three on the issue dated 18 June 2010. After steadily ascending on the chart for several weeks, the song reached its peak of number two on the issue dated 6 August 2010. It has since then been certified platinum by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry in Denmark for selling over 30,000 units. In Norway, the song debuted at number six, which became its peak.
The song peaked at number twenty-two on the European Hot 100 Singles chart, becoming her highest peaking song on the chart. On the UK Singles Chart, it debuted and peaked at number eight on the issue dated 26 June 2010, immediately becoming Robyn's best charting single in the country since "With Every Heartbeat" in 2007. "Dancing on My Own" also reached number three on the UK Dance Chart. In the United States, "Dancing on My Own" debuted at number forty on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart. On the issue dated 17 July 2010, it reached its peak of number three and stayed on that position for two weeks.

Legacy

2010s

Taking "...nine-and-a-half years for its impact to become full realized, moving from curiosity to shock and awe," and a "...month after an impromptu post-concert dance party to the song in a filthy Manhattan subway in March 2019 for the song to finally be certified platinum in America - cosmic justice for a song that never touched the Billboard Hot 100 but still served as a lodestar for so much of this decade’s pop," a critical mass was reached at the end of the decade with heightened appreciation for the song, newly lauded as a cultural watershed.
Compiling over 35 global outlets' countdowns and 550 tracks, critics' algorithmic aggregator Acclaimed Music went on to rank "Dancing on My Own" as the greatest song of the 2010s.
Rolling Stone, NME, Stereogum, Slant Magazine, Consequence of Sound, The Associated Press, Insider, Esquire, iNews, Audiofemme and Vanyaland were just some of those outlets to specifically rank it at number 1, calling it "...the signature track of the poptimism movement," an "...exultant epiphany reminding you just how alive you are," "...the zeitgeist's last gasp of collective solace and visceral catharsis before the world crashed around us," "...Europe's signal flare heralding the end of "The Club" era of songwriting, changing the trajectory of pop, indie, and dance," "...a primer on subdued defiance," "...the crowning dancefloor elegy from the popstar's popstar," "...the epitomization of the increasing irrelevance of radio, the term 'single', and even the charts themselves," "...a pop anthem in the classical vein and a universal scream into the void, burning an effigy of loss and betrayal," the "...killer single that elevated her to something approaching voice-of-a-generation status among America's burned-out youth," an "...alt-pop masterpiece that set the tone for the decade's greatest passions: A lifestyle of voyeurism and a desire for what isn't ours" and "...a timeless encapsulation of heartbreak and self-sabotage...In a nutshell: it's perfection".
In other ranked lists, Paste and Good Housekeeping named it second, Pitchfork third, Elle fourth, USA Today ninth, Gorilla vs. Bear twelfth, Crack Magazine thirteenth, and Uproxx eighteenth.

Influence

Music critic Sasha Geffen saw the track as the ultimate payoff for the enormous risks Robyn took with the last things she'd try before "quitting music": "leave the teen-pop machine behind", make her own label, and on her image less than ten years later: "She succeeded because she still has teen pop in her heart, even if she broke up with that part of the industry. It's important to see her as a teenager who survived. She's learned to carry the intensity of teenage emotion into perfectly adult pop songs... which I think is incredible."
BBC's Mark Savage noted Robyn and the single 'influenced an entire generation of songwriters,' solely attributing to them the domination over the pop landscape of the 'sad banger: a song whose instrumental sets you up for good times, only to sucker punch your heart with lyrics of Biblical sadness'.
Singer/songwriter Lorde, whose 'friendly fixation' with Robyn has been covered by several outlets, credited the track as her inspiration for continuing to do music and named it among the songs suggested by friends in the studio as the song she wished could remain 'immortal'.
Out singer/songwriter Sam Smith "...observed that it made Robyn "a huge part of the LGBTQ community because we get to dance our pain away," with Rolling Stone calling it one of the '25 Essential LGBTQ Pride Songs'.
Héloïse Letissier of Christine & The Queens, who would present her with the NME Award for 'Songwriter of the Decade', said "As a songwriter I can only marvel at a song like Dancing On My Own...it's a gem of pop. I watched her gig in Oslo last year and it was the most cathartic thing I ever saw." Singer/songwriter Taylor Swift, after being introduced by and handed the award for "Best Solo Act" from Robyn at the same ceremony, thanked her for it: "You inspire every single artist doing pop music right now. Honestly, you really do."
The manager of pop industry titan Max Martin went on to tell her Max thought it was "one of the best pop songs ever made." Years later Max would go on to tell her at a dinner that he continued to have a "lot" of female artists come into his studio, "...put your album on the table," and say, "I wanna make this!" Robyn described his response as "Well, fuck you, go work with her then!" which she found "very sweet."

Music video

The music video for "Dancing on My Own" was filmed in a studio in Stockholm, Sweden. It was directed by Max Vitali, who previously worked with Robyn on the second music video for her 2005 single "Be Mine!", styled and choreographed by Maria "Decida" Wahlberg and produced by Nils Ljunggren. Visually, Vitali wanted the video to be simple, resembling Robyn's live performances and her then-upcoming tour. In a behind-the-scenes video, Robyn said, "It's going to be looking a little bit like what I'm going to bring on tour. So it's a performance video but it's also going to be in I guess something like a rave or like a club or somewhere where people are dancing, " explaining that the video is about being sad on the dance floor.
The video features a darkened club setting, where Robyn is walking and dancing amongst the edge of the crowd then through the crowd, occasionally watching her ex with another woman and trying to get his attention - though there is no overt reference as to who they are among the many club goers depicted. In cutscenes, Robyn is standing in a "harshly lit rehearsal space" with an elaborate stage-like contraption wall of spotlights, sound and lighting equipment, fog machines and mirrors behind her whist singing while standing in front of an empty microphone stand.
Decida's choreography for Robyn to turn her back to the camera and feign intimacy with another person by wrapping her arms around herself was designed as a "moment of levity" from her "serious" attempts to get her ex's attention, while her punching gyrations were inspired by the "angry energy" of Rosie Perez's famous opening sequence in Spike Lee's seminal 1989 film Do The Right Thing. Robyn would continue to use both moves in subsequent live performances of the song.
The video premiered via Robyn's official Vimeo account on 21 May 2010. One day earlier, a behind-the-scenes video was uploaded to her official website. Ryan Dombal of Pitchfork wrote of the video, "When you're a star, sometimes all you need to do is put on a casually stylish outfit, gaze into a lens, move your limbs around in a rhythmic manner, and-- just like that-- a high-quality music video is born. Robyn is a star. And that's exactly what happens in this video." Leslie Simon of MTV Buzzworthy named it a "Video You Need To Know" and wrote, "Amid a sea of strobe lights and PDA-stricken couples, Robyn seems cautiously fed up with dancing solo. Sad. We'll dance with you, lady!"

Live performances

Robyn performed the song on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge on 16 June 2010. She also performed the song on Capital 95.8 FM during a live session on 23 June 2010. The first live performance on US television was on the Late Show with David Letterman on 19 July 2010. Robyn performed the song on the All Hearts joint tour with American singer Kelis. On 30 July 2010, she took a break from the tour to appear on iHeartRadio in New York City, where she performed "Dancing on My Own" and a cover of Alicia Keys' "Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart". On 12 September 2010, Robyn performed a remixed version of the song with in-house DJ deadmau5 at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards. The two did not rehearse the performance until the morning of the show, and Robyn said, "I met him for, like, five minutes, and then we were playing." A few days later, Robyn spoke to MTV News about the performance, saying, "usually, awards shows can be so strange, but felt really real. There were so many stars there and so many expectations, so I wanted to make sure I went up onstage and did something that felt real, and I got all this love from all the people at MTV. I felt really wanted. It was really amazing."
The song was featured on 1 November 2010 episode of the teen drama Gossip Girl, titled "War at the Roses", where Robyn also performed an acoustic rendition of "Hang with Me". On 11 November 2010, she performed the song on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. On 24 November 2010, she performed it on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. On 11 December 2010, she performed it alongside "Indestructible" and "Jag vet en dejlig rosa" at the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway. She also performed the song on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on 13 April 2011, followed by a performance on the outdoor stage on Jimmy Kimmel Live! the next day. She also performed the song during the Body Talk Tour. On 10 December 2011, Robyn performed the song on Saturday Night Live.

Formats and track listings

  1. "Dancing on My Own" – 4:39
  2. "Dancing on My Own" – 6:25
  1. "Dancing on My Own" – 3:37
  2. "Dancing on My Own" – 7:28
  1. "Dancing on My Own" – 3:37
  2. "Dancing on My Own" – 4:36
  3. "Dancing on My Own" – 4:06
  4. "Dancing on My Own" – 3:37
  5. "Dancing on My Own" – 6:22
  6. "Dancing on My Own" – 5:52
  7. "Dancing on My Own" – 4:10
  8. "Dancing on My Own" – 5:57
  1. "Dancing on My Own" – 4:43
  2. "Dancing on My Own" – 7:45
  3. "Dancing on My Own" – 7:46
  4. "Dancing on My Own" – 4:10
  5. "Dancing on My Own" – 4:21
  6. "Dancing on My Own" – 7:30
  7. "Dancing on My Own" – 7:30
  8. "Dancing on My Own" – 7:28
  1. "Dancing on My Own" – 4:48
  1. "Dancing on My Own" – 7:30
  2. "Dancing on My Own" – 4:10
  3. "Dancing on My Own" – 7:45
  4. "Dancing on My Own" – 5:05
  5. "Dancing on My Own" – 6:25
  1. "Dancing on My Own" – 4:39
  2. "Dancing on My Own" – 6:25
  3. "Dancing on My Own" – 6:00
  4. "Dancing on My Own" – 4:10
  5. "Dancing on My Own" – 5:51
  6. "Dancing on My Own" – 7:30
  7. "Dancing on My Own" – 7:45
  1. "Dancing on My Own" – 4:42
  2. "Dancing on My Own" – 7:44
  3. "Dancing on My Own" – 7:30
  4. "Dancing on My Own" – 4:09
  5. "Dancing on My Own" – 7:27
  6. "Dancing on My Own" – 3:24
  7. "Dancing on My Own" – 5:59

    Credits and personnel

Source

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Certifications

Year-end charts

Radio dates and release history

Other versions

Belgian singer :nl:Kato Callebaut|Kato Callebaut performed Robyn's acoustic version as part of her audition on Idool 2011 then released her studio cover, receiving a gold certification for 10,000+ copies sold. A cappella group Pentatonix released a cover in 2017 with a music video, their first track as a quartet instead of a quintet.
Actress Elle Fanning performed the midtempo electropop version for the 2018 movie Teen Spirit and it was subsequently released as part of the soundtrack with a promotional music video depicting her role, aiming for pop stardom. Singer/songwriter Kelly Clarkson covered the downtempo acoustic version on February 28, 2019 in Dallas, Texas on her Meaning of Life Tour.
American folk singer Willie Watson, former founding member of Americana and bluegrass band Old Crow Medicine Show released a folk version of the song in May 2020. Alternative rock band Grouplove released an indie pop cover of the midtempo version, promoting it on Cover Nation, Sirius XM and ALT 98.7.

Calum Scott version

Inspired by Kings of Leon's own rock cover of Robyn's downtempo ballad version, which they also performed on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge, British singer Calum Scott performed a transposed arrangement of Robyn's acoustic take for his audition on Britain's Got Talent.
He subsequently released his cover as a pop rock song for his debut solo single on Independent label Instrumental, who are part-owned by Warner Music Group. It was released with Capitol Records on 3 June 2016.
Despite little radio airplay, apart from on West Hull FM, it climbed into the top 40 and slowly reached number 4 in July. It was then added to BBC Radio 2's C List playlist and peaked at number 2 on the UK Singles Chart on 5 August. In October, a remix was released by Tiësto.
As of April 2020, the original audition video has been viewed over 280 million times on YouTube, while the music video has been viewed over 390 million times.

Critical reception

Reception to the cover varied widely, with Metro Weekly lauding the "stellar and powerful confessional" and Pitchfork lambasting the "dubious" soft-focus cover as "weepy."

Chart performance

The song debuted at number 40 on the UK Singles Chart, before reaching number 2 after spending several weeks climbing. On 1 September 2016, it was revealed that "Dancing on My Own" was the most bought song of the Summer in the UK. Scott told the Official Charts Company: "I am absolutely over the moon at this news". This song has sold over 1,000,000 copies in the UK.

Awards and nominations

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications