Toxic (song)
From Freepedia
| "Toxic" | ||
|---|---|---|
| Single by Britney Spears | ||
| From the album In the Zone | ||
| Released | January 2004 | |
| Format | 12" single | |
| Genre | Pop | |
| Length | 3:21 | |
| Label | Jive | |
| Writers | Cathy Dennis C. Karlsson P. Winnberg H. Jonback | |
| Producers | Avant Bloodshy | |
| Director | Joseph Kahn | |
| certification | Platinum | |
| Chart positions | #9 US #1 UK (1 week) #1 CAN (2 weeks) #1 AU (2 weeks) | |
| Britney Spears singles chronology | ||
| "Me Against the Music" (2003) | "Toxic" (2004) | "Everytime" (2004) |
"Toxic" is the second single from the album In the Zone by pop music singer Britney Spears, released in January 2004. It became her fourth top-ten hit in the U.S., and her fourth number-one hit in the U.K.
The Bloodshy and Avant-produced "Toxic", which has been described as a pop song crossed with a James Bond theme song, boasts both Bollywood strings and slick production, with writing credits from Cathy Dennis and others. The song is about being addicted to a guy's kiss which Spears simply describes as being "toxic".
The track is generally viewed as one of Spears' signature songs, being that it was a major international success and in a way revived her musical popularity in the States, after the somewhat underwhelming performance of her recent singles preceding this one. Due to its popularity, the alternative jazz group The Pulsar Triyo even covered "Toxic" in a heavily modified version as the second track of their self-titled debut album.[1]
Contents |
Music video
Directed by Joseph Kahn, the video for "Toxic" is probably one of her most sexual ever. In fact, it was even banned from MTV for a short period of time (though it still retired on TRL). It starts out with Spears as a flight attendant on a plane. She answers a phone call, dances provocatively with her trolley and spills wine on a man's trousers (and then proceeds to clean up her mess). As this man gets up to go to the bathroom to clean himself up a little more, Spears uses her trolley to push him into the bathroom, where she proceeds to take off the man's mask, revealing a supermodel. They make out, and while the man is distracted, Spears steals a key from him.
Throughout the entire video are scenes of Spears, adorned only in diamonds, rolling around a shining room.
The next part of the video has Spears on the streets in a dominatrix suit, waiting to be picked up. Her transport (a shirtless model riding a red motorcycle) arrives, and the pair head off. Spears toys with the man before he drops her off at her destination, which turns out to be a "toxic" factory. She uses the key she stole from the man on the plane to enter a door that contains the toxin she is looking for. Spears exits the building, but not before having to pass through a series of security measures, including fire and swirling glass wheels.
Following this adventure, Spears makes her way up the wall of a building. Now adorned in a type of superhero costume with a cape, she enters the appartment of her apparent ex-lover. They begin to make love, but for Spears, this is only a distraction so she can use the toxin she stole to kill the man. Shortly after the use of the potion the video ends.
Awards
"Toxic" earned itself a number of award nominations and wins. Predictably, with its popular video, it became one of the most-nominated works at the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards. It also became Spears' first to be nominated in the category for Video of the Year; she was the only female nominated in the category for that year's ceremony. Strangely, however, she still lost to Beyoncé's "Naughty Girl" in the category of Best Female Video, leading to speculation that the awards had been rigged.
Regradless of the VMAs' outcome, "Toxic" still won a Teen Choice Award for Choice Single and, most prominently, her first Grammy in the category of Best Dance Recording.
| Year | Ceremony | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Teen Choice Awards | Choice Single | Won |
| 2004 | MTV Video Music Awards | Video of the Year | Nominated |
| 2004 | MTV Video Music Awards | Best Female Video | Nominated |
| 2004 | MTV Video Music Awards | Best Dance Video | Nominated |
| 2004 | MTV Video Music Awards | Best Pop Video | Nominated |
| 2004 | Ivor Novello Awards | Most-Performed Work | Won |
| 2004 | MTV Europe Music Awards | Best Song | Nominated |
| 2005 | Grammy Awards | Best Dance Recording | Won |
| 2005 | Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards | Favorite Song | Nominated |
Chart performance
A huge worldwide success, "Toxic" also became Spears' biggest U.S. hit since "...Baby One More Time", and her first top ten single on the Billboard Hot 100 since 2000's "Oops!... I Did It Again". The track was a stronger performer on the Hot 100 Airplay for Spears, peaking at number ten. Through the aid of a large amount of digital downloads, the single eventually received a platinum certification. The song also spent twenty weeks on the Hot 100; though this amount is average, it spent quite a number of its time on the chart (sixteen weeks) within the top forty. This later led the single to be ranked at forty-eight on the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End chart for 2004.
On Top 40 radio, the song peaked at number one for four weeks on the Top 40 Mainstream and at number two on the Top 40 Tracks. Notably, "Toxic" went top twenty on the Rhythmic Top 40, her first song to even appear on that chart in years.
Internationally, the song went to number one in all other major music markets: the U.K., Canada, and Australia.
"Toxic" has been voted the world's second favourite song in a global poll of 700,000 music fans.
Charts
| Year | Single | Chart | Position | Number of chart-topper |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | "Toxic" | U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | #9 | — |
| 2004 | "Toxic" | U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Airplay | #10 | — |
| 2004 | "Toxic" | U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles Sales | #52 | — |
| 2004 | "Toxic" | U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play | #1 (1 week) | 2nd |
| 2004 | "Toxic" | U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Radio Airplay | #1 | 1st |
| 2004 | "Toxic" | U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Singles Sales | #3 | — |
| 2004 | "Toxic" | U.S. Billboard Hot Digital Tracks | #1 | 1st |
| 2004 | "Toxic" | U.S. Billboard Top 40 Tracks | #2 | — |
| 2004 | "Toxic" | U.S. Billboard Mainstream Top 40 | #1 (4 weeks) | 3rd |
| 2004 | "Toxic" | U.S. Billboard Rhythmic Top 40 | #16 | — |
| 2004 | "Toxic" | U.S. Billboard Adult Top 40 | #37 | — |
| 2004 | "Toxic" | U.S. Billboard Latin Pop Airplay | #35 | — |
| 2004 | "Toxic" | World Chart Show | #1 (1 week) | 9th |
| 2004 | "Toxic" | Canadian Billboard Top 100 | #1 (2 weeks) | 2nd |
| 2004 | "Toxic" | Brazil Top 100 | #4 | — |
| 2004 | "Toxic" | U.K. Top 40 | #1 (1 week) | 4th |
| 2004 | "Toxic" | German Top 100 | #4 | — |
| 2004 | "Toxic" | France Top 100 | #3 | — |
| 2004 | "Toxic" | Italy Top 50 | #4 | — |
| 2004 | "Toxic" | Spain Top 20 | #5 | — |
| 2004 | "Toxic" | Sweden Top 60 | #2 | — |
| 2004 | "Toxic" | Switzerland Top 100 | #4 | — |
| 2004 | "Toxic" | Ireland Top 50 | #1 (4 weeks) | ?? |
| 2004 | "Toxic" | Austria Top 75 | #5 | — |
| 2004 | "Toxic" | 'Tokio Hot 100' | #7 | — |
| 2004 | "Toxic" | Australian ARIA Top 50 | #1 (2 weeks) | 4th |
| 2004 | "Toxic" | Philippines Top 20 | #1 | 18th |
| 2004 | "Toxic" | New Zealand Top 50 | #2 | — |
Chart trajectory
| Billboard Hot 100 chart trajectory — "Toxic" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | ||||||||||
| Chart position | 53 | 36 | 29 | 22 | 18 | 14 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 14 | 17 | 19 | 19 | 37 | 41 | 51 | 56 | ||||||||||
Categories: Britney Spears songs | 2004 singles | Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play number-one singles | UK number one singles | Australian number one singles | Canadian number one singles
