"Give Me Everything" is a song written and performed by American singer/rapper Pitbull, American R&B singer Ne-Yo, and Dutch DJ Afrojack, featuring additional vocals from American singer Nayer. The song, produced by Afrojack, was released on March 18, 2011, as the second single from Pitbull's sixth studio album, Planet Pit. Rolling Stone described the song as a "club-pop cut with a plaintive Ne-Yo chorus." In the United States, "Give Me Everything" became the first number-one single on the BillboardHot 100 for every artist except Ne-Yo, who had previously reached number-one with his own "So Sick" in 2006. It also became Pitbull's first number one in the United Kingdom as the main artist. The song has also peaked at number one in Belgium, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands and within the top-five in twelve countries. It was the seventh best-selling digital single of 2011 with worldwide sales of 11.2 million copies, making it one of the best-selling singles of all time.
Background and composition
Following "Hey Baby ", "Give Me Everything" is the second single from Pitbull's sixth studio album, Planet Pit, released on June 21, 2011. The song was released on March 18, 2011 through J Records. It was written by Pitbull, Ne-Yo and Afrojack, the latter two of whom are featured on the song along with Nayer. Pitbull, Ne-Yo, and Nayer have performed the song at MTV's Spring Break 2011 in Las Vegas. According to Paul Grein of Yahoo! Music, the song combines genres of hip hop, pop, and "Broadway-style theatricality"—exemplified with the repetition of the word "tonight", reminiscent of the song of the same name from the musical West Side Story. Pitbull makes references to photography company Kodak, Macy's, Ryan Seacrest and American actress Lindsay Lohan in the line "I got it locked up like Lindsay Lohan". According to the sheet music published at musicnotes.com, "Give Me Everything" is written in the key of E flat major, set in common time and has a tempo of 126 beats per minute. The vocals range from the low note of B4 to the high note of G3.
Critical reception
The song has received mixed reviews from music critics. A review from NME magazine criticized Pitbull and the song for having too many random components. The review said "So, how many types of wrong is this? Well, you’ve got your earnest vocal gibbering about living in the moment. You’ve got your cheap rave wibble, a high frequency irritation that buzzes throughout like a fly trapped in jism."
Chart performance
The song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 on April 16, 2011 at number 60. The next week, it climbed to number 17 with 112,000 copies sold: a 259% increase as a result of prominent advertising in the iTunes Store. In the week ending June 26, 2011, the song topped the Billboard Hot 100 after having spent 4 weeks at No. 2. This gives Pitbull, Afrojack and Nayer their first number-one hit in the US and Ne-Yo's first number-one song on this chart since "So Sick" in 2006. As of May 2014, the song has sold 4,874,000 downloads in the United States. On April 16, 2011, the song debuted on the Canadian Hot 100 at number 46 as the week's highest debut. It climbed to number 26 two weeks later. The song has also debuted in New Zealand at number 10, as well as on the Ultratop charts of both Belgian regions at 35 and 42. On the Australian Singles Chart, "Give Me Everything" debuted at number fourteen and climbed to number five the next week. The song has since been certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association. In Austria and France, the song debuted at positions 20 and 39, respectively. In the United Kingdom, "Give Me Everything" debuted at number 35 on the UK Singles Chart on April 24, 2011. The next week it climbed ten places to number 25. Over the next two weeks it progressed from number 12 to number 4. On May 22, 2011 it went up three places to number 1, knocking "The Lazy Song" by Bruno Mars off the number 1 position, giving Pitbull his second number one in the United Kingdom.
Lawsuit
On August 22, 2011, Lindsay Lohan filed a lawsuit against Pitbull, Ne-Yo and Afrojack due to the song's lyrics referencing her name. A judge ruled that Pitbull's use of her name was protected by the First Amendment and that Lohan was barely mentioned in the song. As a result, Pitbull won the lawsuit.
Music video
The official music video was directed by David Roulsseau. It was released onto Pitbull's official Vevo channel on May 6, 2011. The video was filmed in the Alexandria Hotel in Los Angeles. It features an appearance by Miss Haiti 2010 Sarodj Bertin, former Girlicious member Natalie Mejia, Cheetah Girls' singer Adrienne Bailon and Russian model Eva Skaya. "Give Me Everything" is Pitbull's third most viewed music video after "Rain Over Me" and "Timber" As of January 2020, the video has been viewed over 708 million times on YouTube.
