Yoü and I (song)
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"Yoü and I" is a song written by Lady Gaga in 2010. Gaga performed it publicly for the first time at The White Tie and Tiara Ball, and on July 7th, Gaga revealed during her concert that the song would be featured on her third album, Born This Way. "It's on my new album, so you better learn the words because you'll be singing it for the next 10 years." The song was registered onto BMI on February 12, 2011. On April 9, 2011, Gaga revealed that Robert John "Mutt" Lange was the producer of the song. On July 26, 2011 Gaga performed an acoustic version of the song on 97.1 Amp Radio with Carson Daly, and confirmed it as the next single from Born This Way, following "The Edge of Glory".
On July 29, 2011, Laurieann Gibson tweeted the following: @BoomKack you, madame, are a MAGICIAN!! That choreography was EPIC! #YouandI vid is gonna Rock n' Roll! /via @JairJames
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Writing and inspiration
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During her debut of the song, Gaga said "it's a bit of a rock and roll song, so it will probably never be released as a single. So, it's ok for me to play it for you tonight".
Four days after the debut of the song, Gaga performed the song during The Monster Ball Tour, and revealed the inspiration behind the song.
- "I wrote this song, out of the deepest most pure, happiest place in my heart. And I don't want nothing from you; I don't want you to buy it; I don't want you to pay me anything to listen to it; I'm not even gonna put it on iTunes. I wrote this song because I wanted to write a great record. And I wanted you to hear it, just because I love you, and I know that all you care about is music and freedom."
The song is about Lady Gaga's relationship in 2007-2008 with Lüc Carl. The song was written in New York on her first piano, in her parents' house. According to the lyrics, the song describes Gaga's attempt to retrieve her lost love during her break from The Monster Ball Tour in June of 2010.
During her performance on The Today Show, she revealed more about the inspiration of the song.
- "The most important person that [she'd] ever met, and all [her] friends downtown. Lady Starlight, and Brian, who's here today, playing [the] trumpet, and all [her] friends. They're so wonderful, and they stood by [her] this whole time. So it's for them."
While on the show, Gaga also stated that the song is a completely different sound than the rest of the album. On May 5, 2011, Gaga appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and performed the song, afterwhich she tweeted that she had just performed the album version of the song. The performance featured electric guitars accompanied by Gaga on the piano rather than just Gaga on her piano. During this version Gaga sung new lyrics of the song:
We got a whole lot of money, but still pay rent,
'Cause you can’t buy a house in Heaven.
There’s only three men I served my whole life,
It’s my dad and Nebraska and Jesus Christ
Fernando Garibay discussed the song with The Hollywood Reporter stating "It was near the end of the album and we were on such a time deadline. But she was so busy starting to promote the album, the concerts, still being on tour, doing press, it was insane, so she literally had to record the vocal with a piano live backstage. We sent whatever parts we had to Mutt Lange and there was no time for her to fly out or anything like that. I remember Mutt writing us back and saying, "The vocal's perfect." Considering Mutt Lange is one of the best vocal producers on the planet…"[1]
Gaga pays homage to Bruce Springsteen - who performed with Clarence Clemons during the days of the E Street Band - by referencing the song "Born to Run", and either the album or the song "Nebraska".[2]
Reference in popular culture
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- The song was used in December, 2011 as in a commercial for CBS.
Commercial release
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"Yoü and I" was announced by Gaga on July 22, 2011 as the fourth single from Born This Way. The single cover for "Yoü and I" was released on August 5, 2011, via TwitPic, accompanied with the line: "You will never find what you are looking for in love, if you don't love yourself." It features two black-and-white images of Gaga's male alter ego Jo Calderone, while smoking a cigarette and sporting sideburns. Previously the character of Calderone had made an appearance in June 2010, when Gaga posed as him for a series of photos in London by photographer Nick Knight and arranged by stylist Nicola Formichetti. One shot features him wearing a blazer and white T-shirt with his head down and smoking a cigarette. The other image is of Jo Calderone in silhouette puffing out a cloud of smoke. |
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Physical releases
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Germany
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| Label: Format: Slimline jewel case Released: September 30, 2011 Barcode: 602527836348 Photogaphy: Inez and Vinoodh Design: N/A |
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| # | Name | Time | |||||||
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| 1. | "Yoü and I" (Radio Edit) | 4:07 | |||||||
| 2. | "Yoü and I" (Mark Taylor Remix Radio Edit) | 3:56 | |||||||
| Gagapedia | |||||||||
Europe
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| Label: Format: Limited 7" picture disc vinyl Released: September 9, 2011 Barcode: 60252783309 Photogaphy: Inez and Vinoodh Design: N/A |
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| # | Name | Time | |||||||
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| 1. | "Yoü and I" (Wild Beasts Remix) | 3:51 | |||||||
| 2. | "Yoü and I" (Metronomy Remix) | 4:20 | |||||||
| Gagapedia | |||||||||
Digital releases
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Yoü and I — The Remixes
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| Label: Format: Limited 7" picture disc vinyl Released: September 18, 2011 Barcode: 60252783309 Photogaphy: Inez and Vinoodh Design: N/A |
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| # | Name | Time | |||||||
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| 1. | "Yoü and I" (Wild Beasts Remix) | 3:51 | |||||||
| 2. | "Yoü and I" (Mark Taylor Remix) | 5:02 | |||||||
| 3. | "Yoü and I" (10 Kings Remix) | 4:29 | |||||||
| 4. | "Yoü and I" (ATB Remix) | 8:08 | |||||||
| 5. | "Yoü and I" (Metronomy Remix) | 4:20 | |||||||
| 6. | "Yoü and I" (Danny Verde Remix) | 7:48 | |||||||
| 7. | "Yoü and I" (Hector Fonseca Remix) | 8:03 | |||||||
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Remixes
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Performances
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Concert tours
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| Monster Ball: Arena versions | 2010—2011 (Jun 28—May 5) |
| The Born This Way Ball Tour | 2012 (April 27-TBA) |
Lyrics
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Album version
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It’s been a long time since I came around, |
Live version
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It's been a long time since I came around. |
Music video
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Development
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The music video for the song was filmed in Springfield, Nebraska. In the video, Gaga walks from New York City to Nebraska to get her boyfriend back. According to Gaga: "I'm walking with no luggage and no nothing and it's just me and my ankles are bleeding a little bit and there's grass stuck in my shoes and I've got this outfit on and it's real sort of New York clothing and I'm sprinting... And the [video is about the] idea that when you're away from someone you love, it's torture," she continued. "I knew I wanted the video to be about me sprinting back and walking hundreds of thousands of miles to get him back." Lady Gaga posted on twitter that the music video will be her 1000th tweet.
The video was set to premiere on MTV at 7:50pm EST on Thursday, August 18th, and was to be followed by an announcement by Gaga live from New York City, but on the 16th, Gaga tweeted three lines: "FUCK", "THURS", "DAY", and released the music video via her personal YouTube account.
Synopsis and fashion credits
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New York to Nebraska
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| “ | I've talked about some of it before with all of you, but I've had some really intense experiences when I was younger. Some of which I have shared with all of you and some of which I haven't. And the ice cream truck is meant to be a representation of the destruction of my youth at a very young time in my life. So while I'm walking down this road to find love, the memories of the destruction of my youth get in the way. That's how I wanted to open the video, because I think it sets up the rest of the story. It allows you to imagine that you, yourself, are not just one person, you are so many. And that person inside of you has so many stories and memories and things to draw from and they all affect your journey profusely. So I'm battered quite brutally at the beginning of the video, and by the end I'm not battered, but I'm a bit strange. So it's not meant to be an answer, the video. It's meant to be a profuse number of questions. | ” |
| —Lady Gaga | ||
The music video begins with Gaga, dressed in black clothing and sunglasses with bloody feet and seemingly bionic metal features, walking through a field in Nebraska; having returned on foot after years of absence. Gaga goes to buy ice cream from an ice cream truck, but she suddenly drops it as a toothless man grins at her with a doll in his hand. She begins to then have flashbacks to her time spent in Nebraska - scenes of Gaga having a wedding, being tortured by a man inside a barn and being inside a water tank are shown in quick succession. The song starts playing as the camera slowly zooms towards Gaga, who is standing bent forward as she begins singing. The video continually switches to scenes where Gaga, with little make up, a simple gray-colored hair style and a white dress, plays a piano in the middle of a cornfield, while her male alter ego, Jo Calderone sits on top of the piano, smoking and drinking a beer. As Calderone pulls up his sleeves, present day Gaga is shown still walking through the desert.
During the second verse, a mad scientist, portrayed by Kinney seemingly tortures Gaga, who is wearing a yellow dress with glasses made of barbwire, as another version of the singer with teal-colored hair does a dance routine with her backup dancers in a barn. As the chorus begins for the second time, Gaga is portrayed as Yuyi the Mermaid, with gills on her face and neck, as she lies in a tub filled with dirty water. At the end of the chorus, the camera zooms to a brunette Gaga inside a water tank while she sings "You and I!" in the desert scene and in the cornfield with Calderone. Interspersing scenes again show Gaga having her wedding, Yuyi in her tub, and Gaga seated on a chair with a conveyor belt. During May's guitar solo, Gaga is seen dancing in the cornfield with other dancers dressed in the same white dress, as Yuyi and the scientist kiss. While singing the chorus for the final time, Gaga kisses Calderone in one sequence and runs across the field in another. As the video reaches its conclusion, the tortured Gaga is seen being slid down as the conveyor belt turns on. The video ends with Yuyi and the scientist together in the bath tub, as a depiction of their dream wedding flash across, before a final shot of the barn as the screen turns black.
- Hat by Philip Treacy, jacket by Yves Saint Laurent, pants by Chanel, shoes by Pleaser, sunglasses by France Look ("Rio 24"), metal armour by Millennium FX
In the corn field with Jo Calderone and the nymph
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Synopsis
- Jo Calderone — T-shirt by Uniqlo, pants by Dior Homme, boots by Chanel
- Lady Gaga — Dress by Hussein Chalayan (custom), shoes by Capezio
Lab I
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Synopsis
- Lady Gaga — Dress, shoes by Jan Taminiau (custom) , Hair pin sunglasses by Haus of Gaga
- Taylor Kinny — Pants by Jaeho Choi
Inside the barn
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Synopsis
- Lady Gaga, dancers — harness by Zana Bayne, shoes by Pleaser
Lab II
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Synopsis
- Lady Gaga — Heels by Mugler
In the field
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Synopsis
- Lady Gaga, dancers — Dress (custom) by Hussein Chalayan, shoes by Capezio
Lab III
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Synopsis
- Lady Gaga — Dress (custom), shoes by Jan Taminiau
Yüyi the mermaid
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| “ | A part of the metaphor of this scene is that you can't have sex with a mermaid. Sometimes, in love, you just can't make it work. No matter what you do, there's this giant boundary between you and someone else.So that's what it's all about; perceiving there's something magical inside of you, that you can make it work. | ” |
| —Lady Gaga | ||
- Lady Gaga — Tail by Millenium FX
Wedding
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| “ | I asked her [ Cynthia Germanotta ] if I could use it [her wedding dress] in the video because the love my mother and father have shared for almost thirty years now is what I hope to have some day. | ” |
| —Lady Gaga | ||
- Lady Gaga — Cynthia Germanotta's dress by Norma Kamali (White Pearl Collection, 1983), veil by Haus of Gaga (Perry Meek)
- Taylor Kinny — Outfit by Jaeho Choi
Haus of Ü
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- See main article: Haus of Ü
Credits
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Song
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Personnel
- Programming (including a stomp-clap beat [1]) — Olle Romö
- Guitars — Dr. Brian May [2]
- Guitars recording — Justin Shirley-Smith
- Background vocal — Lady Gaga, Robert John Lange
- Recording — Tom Ware, Horace Ward at Ware House Productions (Omaha
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- Additional recording — Olle Romö in Switzerland and Allertown Hill (
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- Mastering — Gene Grimaldi at Oasis Mastering (Burbank
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- [1] Contains elements from "We Will Rock You" recorded by Queen and written by Brian May. Published by EMI Music Publishing/Queen Music Ltd. Used by permission. Queen appear courtesy of Hollywood Records Inc. for US its Territories and Canada, and Universal International Music B.V. for World excluding US its Territories and Canada.
- [2] Brian May appears courtesy of Hollywood Records for US its territories and Canada and Duck Productions Ltd for the rest of the World.
Publishing
- [BMI] Sony/ATV Songs, LLC/ House of Gaga Publishing / GloJoe Music Inc.
Music video
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- Directors — Laurieann Gibson, Lady Gaga
- Assistant director — Jonas Morales
- Producers — Nicole Ehrlich, Steven Johnson
- Executive producer — George Loucas (Baked FX)
- Production company — Factory Films
- Editor — Jarrett Fijal
- Visual effects — Baked FX
- Digital artists — Kyle Belko, Evan Ghigliotty, Nick Hamer, Ryan Egan (Baked FX)
- Post coordinator — Jessie Mizrahi (Baked FX)
- Online editor — D.J. Sing (Baked FX)
- Fashion Director — Nicola Formichetti
- Stylists — Brandon Maxwell, Anna Trevelyan
- Makeup — Val Garland
- Hair — Frederic Aspiras
- Nails — Marian Newman
- Prostethic — Rob Mayor (Millennium FX)
- Choreography — Lauriann Gibson, Richard Jackson
- Models — Lady Gaga, Jo Calderone, Taylor Kinney
References
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