I Don't Wanna Live Forever


"I Don't Wanna Live Forever", alternatively titled "I Don't Wanna Live Forever ", is a song recorded by English singer Zayn and American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift for the to the 2017 film Fifty Shades Darker. It was written by Swift, Sam Dew, and its producer Jack Antonoff. The single was released on December 9, 2016 by Republic Records to international commercial success. "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" is an electro-R&B ballad that sees Zayn and Swift exchanging romantic overtures. Its accompanying music video was released on January 27, 2017.
Upon release, "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" received positive reviews from music critics, who praised the duo's vocal performances. Debuting at number six on the US Billboard Hot 100, the song eventually rose to its peak of number two, becoming Zayn's second top-five hit and Swift's eleventh on the chart, and the highest-peaking song from the Fifty Shades franchise. It topped the charts in Sweden and Spain, while reaching the top-five region in several other countries. In the US, the song became one of the top-ten best selling singles of 2016. As of June 2018, it is certified 4× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for selling over 4 million units in the country. "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" is the best-selling western single in Chinese history. The song is certified Diamond in Brazil and France, and has received several platinum and multi-platinum certifications globally.
At the 60th Annual Grammy Awards, "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" received a nomination for Best Song Written for Visual Media. It won the Best Collaboration at the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards, Best Collaboration of the Year at the 2017 MTV Millennial Awards and an IHeartRadio Titanium Award for amassing one billion spins.

Composition

"I Don't Wanna Live Forever" is an electro-R&B ballad. On the track, the pair trade "romantic overtures", while Zayn uses a falsetto on parts of the song, and Swift ponders what the relationship means.
"I Don't Wanna Live Forever" is written in the key of A minor and moves at a tempo of 118 beats per minute in common time. The song follows a chord progression of F–C–G–Am–F–C–G–G–Am, and the vocals span two octaves, from E3 to E5.

Critical reception

Nolan Feenery of Entertainment Weekly gave it a B+ rating: "Welcome to Taylor Swift's Sexy Side." He also praised the vocals of both artists. Lucas Villa of AXS thought the song was not as sexy as Ellie Goulding's "Love Me like You Do" or The Weeknd's "Earned It", writing, "Despite the neutered lyricism, Zayn saves the day and manages to maneuver his most magnificent performance to date."

Commercial performance

The song upon release was available only on iTunes and Tidal. It was not serviced on Spotify upon launch but was later added the following week. In the United States, it sold 188,000 in its first week, in addition to a 25 million radio audience and 3 million streams. It debuted at number six on the Billboard Hot 100. It is Zayn's second top 10 solo single and Taylor Swift's 20th top 10, making her the 16th artist and sixth woman to achieve this. It debuted at number one on the Billboard Digital Song Sales chart, as Zayn's fourth song and Swift's eleventh song to top the chart, tying Swift with Katy Perry for the second-most in the chart's history, behind Rihanna. It is also Zayn's second number-one on the Digital Songs chart in 2016, making him one of only two artists to top the chart with two songs that year, along with Drake. The song later reached a new peak of number two on the Hot 100, but was held off the top spot by Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You" with 109 million in radio audience and 25.7 million streams, becoming Zayn's second top-five single, Swift's 11th top-five single, and the highest-charting Fifty Shades single. It reached over a million in sales by July 2017, and as of November 2017, it has sold 1.4 million copies in the United States. The song was the tenth best-selling song of 2017 in the United States, selling 1,108,000 copies in that year.
Across European charts, the song debuted at number one in Spain and Sweden, becoming Swift's first number-one single in both countries, while becoming Zayn's first number-one in Spain and his second number-one in Sweden. It was certified platinum there. It reached the top 10 in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
The song also saw much commercial success in China. Upon release, it sold over 1.56 million units and became the best-selling western digital single in Chinese history. It also became the second best-selling international single overall, after Big Bang’s "Flower Road", and the best-selling international single by a female lead artist.

Music video

The official music video of the song was released on January 27, 2017 through both Zayn and Taylor Swift's official YouTube account at the same time, and was later uploaded through the official Fifty Shades Vevo account as well. It was directed by Grant Singer and was produced by Saul Germaine. The music video uploaded on Malik's Vevo channel has more than 110 million views on YouTube as of January 2020. The music video uploaded on Swift's Vevo channel has more than 575 million views on YouTube as of January 2020. It was named the fourth best music video of 2017 by Vevo.

Synopsis

The video starts with Malik emerging from his car on a rainy night in London at the St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel as the paparazzi take photos. As he enters the hotel, he starts singing his part, and as the chorus begins he reaches the elevator with red lights, and then we pan over to another elevator with Swift singing her part and proceed to her hotel room. Malik in his room sings the chorus and Swift pours some champagne in a glass. The rest of the video is Malik and Swift throwing objects like glasses, lamps and pillows across their rooms in anger with flashing blue and red lights. The pair are seen standing together, facing backs and singing the chorus together and looking at each other. The video ends with Swift on her bed singing the last part of the song.

Live performances

Swift first performed "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" acoustically as a part of her set list for DirectTV's Super Saturday Night event on February 4, 2017. She later performed the song at KIIS FM's Jingle Bell Ball in Los Angeles and Capital FM's Jingle Bell Ball in London. She included the song in the B-stage portion at her second Manchester performance of her Reputation Stadium Tour.

Awards and nominations

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of '.
Recording
  • Recorded at Rough Coustumer Studio
  • Zayn's vocals recorded at Record Plant
  • Taylor Swift's vocals recorded at Rough Costumer Studios
  • Additional vocals engineered at NightBird Recording Studios
  • Mixed at MixStar Studios
  • Mastered at Sterling Sound Studios
Management
  • Published by Sony/ATV Tree Publishing/Taylor Swift Music, Sony/ATV Songs LLC/Ducky Donathan Music, Sony/ATV Sonata/By the Chi Publishing, UPG Music Publishing and 1320 Music Publishing
  • Zayn appears courtesy of RCA Records
  • Taylor Swift appears courtesy of Big Machine Records
Personnel'''

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history