| "Young Forever" | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Single by Jay-Z featuring Mr Hudson | ||||||||||||||||||||
| from the album The Blueprint 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Released | January 11, 2010 (UK) January 26, 2010 (U.S. radio - Rhythm/Crossover)[1] February 23, 2010 (U.S. radio - Top40/Mainstream)[2] |
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| Format | Digital download | |||||||||||||||||||
| Recorded | 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Genre | Alternative hip hop | |||||||||||||||||||
| Length | 4:14 (Album Version) 3:47 (Radio Edit) |
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| Label | Roc Nation | |||||||||||||||||||
| Writer(s) | Jay-Z (as Shawn Carter), Kanye West, Bernhard Lloyd, Marian Gold, Frank Mertens | |||||||||||||||||||
| Producer | Kanye West | |||||||||||||||||||
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"Young Forever" is the fourth single by American hip hop-rapper Jay-Z from his album The Blueprint 3 off the Roc Nation label. It is a mild rework of Alphaville's 1984 song "Forever Young": the original melody is retained, Mr Hudson sings the original lyrics (primarily during the chorus), and Jay-Z raps in place of the verses.
It was released as the third official single in the United Kingdom ("Death of Auto-Tune" was never officially released there). In the UK, the song was originally scheduled to be released on the same day as Mr Hudson's other collaboration with N-Dubz, "Playing with Fire", but the single was pushed back until January 25, 2010.
The song has been performed several times by Jay-Z accompanied by his wife, R&B superstar Beyoncé Knowles in place of Mr Hudson.
The song is produced by rapper and producer Kanye West.
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The music video was released on December 22, 2009 on Jay-Z's official YouTube channel.[3][4] Directed by Anthony Mandler, the video is black-and-white and shows various aspects of youth across America, intercut with scenes of Jay-Z and Mr Hudson performing the song, sometimes in concert. Concert scenes were filmed at Alexandra Palace, London on November 4, 2009.[5] Video produced by Andrew Listermann of Riveting Entertainment.
After strong coverage on the radio throughout December 2009 and January 2010, "Young Forever" began to receive increasing digital downloads.
The single first entered the Irish Singles Chart at #36, on January, 1 2010. On the January 8, "Young Forever" climbed five places in the Irish Chart, reaching #31. On January 15, the single climbed to its current peak of #14.
The single first entered the UK Singles Chart at #27 on January, 3 2010. On January 10, 2010, "Young Forever" climbed eight places in the UK Singles, reaching #19. On January 17, the single climbed six places to reach #13. On January 24, the song remained at #13, despite managing to peak at #8 on the UK iTunes. On January 31, the song peaked at number #10.
Following the release of the album, the song debuted at #75 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached #41 due to strong digital downloads the following week . Following its release as a single, the song re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 at #97 and so far reached #10, giving Jay-Z his 17th top 10 single, reaching a new record previously shared with Ludacris as the rapper with the most Top 10 hits.[6]
The song was the 19th most digitally sold song of the first half of 2010 with over 1,606,000 units sold,[7] as of July 2010 it has sold 2,050,000 copies.[8]
Young Forever was certified Gold in Italy in April 2010.[9]
| Chart (2009–2010) | Peak position[10] |
|---|---|
| Australian Singles Chart | 28 |
| Canadian Hot 100[11] | 21 |
| Dutch Tipparade Singles Chart | 2 |
| Eurochart Hot 100[12] | 28 |
| Irish Singles Chart | 11 |
| Italian Singles Chart[13] | 5 |
| New Zealand Singles Chart[14] | 32 |
| Poland (Polish Airplay Top 5)[15] | 1 |
| Portugal Airplay Chart [16] | 5 |
| Slovakian Airplay Chart [17] | 31 |
| Swedish Singles Chart[18] | 40 |
| Swiss Singles Chart | 44 |
| UK Singles Chart | 10 |
| UK R&B Chart | 2 |
| US Billboard Hot 100 | 10 |
| US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs[11] | 86 |
| US Pop Songs[11] | 10 |
| US Rap Songs[11] | 16 |
| Chart (2009) | Position |
|---|---|
| UK Singles Chart[19] | 199 |
| Chart (2010) | Position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100[20] | 50 |
| Canadian Hot 100[21] | 71 |
| Italian Singles Chart[22] | 32 |
| UK Singles Chart[23] | 100 |
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