"The Sweet Escape" is a pop song written by Gwen Stefani, Akon, and Giorgio Tuinfort for Stefani's second solo album The Sweet Escape (2006). As the album's title track, its title was chosen to help market Stefani's music and fashion lines. Akon developed the song's beat before collaborating with Stefani. He designed it based on her previous work with No Doubt, and Stefani later commented that it put her "on the yellow brick road to the No Doubt record I might do."^[1] "The Sweet Escape", which features elements of doo-wop music, is an apology for a fight between two lovers and describes a dream of a pleasant life for them.

The song generally received positive reviews from contemporary music critics, though there was a negative response to Akon's presence as a featured artist. "The Sweet Escape" was released as the album's second single in early 2007 (see 2007 in music) and was commercially successful in mainstream and adult contemporary markets. It entered the top ten of most singles charts and topped the New Zealand Singles Chart and United World Chart. At the 50th Grammy Awards, the song is nominated for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals. To date, "The Sweet Escape" is Stefani's most successful worldwide single and one of the most successful singles of the 2000s. In the song's accompanying music video, Stefani attempts to escape from a golden prison.

Background and writing

Interscope Records' CEO Jimmy Iovine, who helped with A&R for The Sweet Escape, arranged the collaboration between Stefani and Akon.^[2] Interscope sent Stefani a copy of Akon's 2004 debut album Trouble and repeatedly encouraged her to work with him.^[3] Akon readily accepted,^[2] and Stefani accepted after several people had pushed her to work with him.^[4]

Akon looked through Stefani's work with No Doubt through her solo career. He noted that the sound Stefani had cultivated with No Doubt was missing from her solo work.^[2] Stefani, preoccupied with her baby Kingston Rossdale, cancelled their session and commented that she "didn't want to go through the pain of trying to work with someone [she] didn't know."^[3] Iovine called Stefani, telling her, "You can cancel everything else in your life, but don't cancel this session."^[5] She decided to work with Akon and expected that they would work on writing a write a generic hip hop song,^[5] one that would not fit her well.^[4]

When they met, Akon played some of his tracks for her.^[4] They thought about words that would suit the marketing of Stefani's music and her clothing lines L.A.M.B. and Harajuku Lovers, settling on "Sweet Escape". Akon played her the beat he had developed, and they began working on the song.^[2] They wrote it in ten minutes,^[3] coming up with a doo-wop song rather than the hip hop sound Stefani had expected.^[5]

Music and lyrics

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"The Sweet Escape" is a pop song composed in the key of B♭ minor.^[6] The song mixes ska, New Wave, disco, and doo-wop sounds.^[7] It is written in compound quadruple meter, commonly used in doo-wop, and has a moderate tempo of 120 beats per minute. Stefani's vocal range covers nearly two octaves, from G₃ to F₅.^[6]

The song uses two-measure phrases that, aside from the choruses, use a i-III-IV-VI chord progression. The B♭ minor chord is held for 1⅓ of a beat, and a relative transformation is then used to produce a second inversion D♭ major chord, which is held for 1⅔ of a beat. In the second measure, a first inversion E♭ major chord with an added ninth precedes a G♭ major seventh chord; the chords are held for the same durations as the previous two.^[6]

The song opens with an introduction which consists of eight measures of instrumentals, followed by eight measures in which Akon sings "Woohoo, yeehoo". Overdubbing is introduced in the middle of the first verse to produce a sequence of eighth note B♭ minor chords from Stefani's vocals. Stefani's voice is overdubbed again when she sings the chorus twice. Akon performs, and Stefani then sings the second verse and the choruses again. She returns to the latter part of the first verse and repeats the choruses. The song closes as Akon repeats the lines "Woohoo, yeehoo" and "I want to get away to our sweet escape" as the song fades.^[6]

The song's lyrics discuss an argument between spouses.^[8] Stefani apologizes "for acting stank" to her lover. She asks her lover for forgiveness and describes wanting to be a better wife.^[9] Although Stefani acknowledges her misdeeds, she nonetheless pushes off some of the blame in a manner that drew comparisons to Monica's 1995 single "Don't Take It Personal (Just One of Dem Days)" and TLC's 1999 single "I'm Good at Being Bad".^[10] In contrast to her songwriting on No Doubt's Tragic Kingdom (1995), Stefani intimates a desire for a pleasant domestic life, most extensively during the chorus.^[11]

Critical reception

"The Sweet Escape" generally received positive reviews from contemporary pop music critics. All Music Guide described the song as "an irresistible … track, driven by a giddy 'wee-oh!' hook and supported by a nearly anthemic summertime chorus."^[12] OMH Media referred to "The Sweet Escape" as "a lovely, summery bouncy pop song with a very infectious chorus".^[13] It compared the song to Gnarls Barkley's 2006 single "Smiley Faces",^[13] and Blender compared it to the work of The Beach Boys.^[11] The NME compared the song to Madonna's early work but added that it sounded "cringey and saccharine".^[14] LAUNCHcast commented that it sounded like music from 1970, specifically that by soul group Chairmen of the Board.^[15] About.com called the song "a welcome change from the over-produced 'Wind It Up'," but noted that it "easily jets in one ear and out the other leaving little trace of its presence."^[16] MuchMusic's video review program Video on Trial referred to the song as "incredibly intoxicating".^[17]

Akon's presence as a featured artist on the track received negative reviews. PopMatters found that Akon contributed too few vocals to the song and that they were wasted.^[10] Rolling Stone agreed, viewing the song a fumbled attempt to capitalize on the success of Akon's "Smack That" featuring Eminem.^[8] The Observer was displeased with his presence in lieu of higher profile hip hop artists such as Dr. Dre and André 3000 on Stefani's previous album Love. Angel. Music. Baby (2005). It added that the song sounded like a "weirdly flat" version of Madonna's 1986 single "True Blue".^[18] Stylus Magazine described his vocals as "yelping".^[19]

Chart performance

Although "The Sweet Escape" was released as the second single in 2007, it had been sent to radio as early as "Wind It Up" (2006). It debuted on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart at number ninety-three in December 2006,^[20] and it peaked at number two in April 2007 behind Akon's subsequent single "Don't Matter".^[21] The song spent fifteen consecutive weeks in the top ten and remained on the chart for over nine months.^[22] The single was successful in mainstream music, topping the Pop 100 and Pop 100 Airplay and reaching number two on the Top 40 Mainstream chart. It had strong airplay on adult contemporary stations and reached the top five of the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks and Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks.^[23] The song is nominated for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals at the 2008 Grammy Awards.^[24] The song had equal success on Billboard's Canadian Hot 100. It reached number two on unpublished versions of the chart, and debuted at number fourteen when the chart was introduced the week of June 2, 2007, the tenth week that "The Sweet Escape" had been listed.^[25] The song remained on the Canadian Hot 100 for over six months after the chart was officially introduced.^[22]

"The Sweet Escape" was similarly successful in Europe, topping the Billboard European Hot 100 Singles chart in March 2007.^[26] The song peaked at number two for two weeks on the UK Singles Chart, behind Take That's "Shine (Take That song)" and then Sugababes and Girls Aloud's cover of "Walk This Way". It dropped off the chart after twenty-three weeks and returned the next week for another five. The song was successful across Europe, reaching the top five in France, Ireland, Norway, the Netherlands, and Portugal and the top ten in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, and Switzerland.^[22]

Elsewhere, the song debuted at number two on the ARIA Singles Chart and remained there for six weeks, behind Hinder's "Lips of an Angel" and later Silverchair's "Straight Lines".^[22] The Australian Recording Industry Association certified "The Sweet Escape" platinum for shipping 70,000 copies.^[27] In New Zealand, the single debuted atop the chart^[22] and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand in May 2007.^[28] It peaked at number twenty on Top Latino's Hispanic America singles chart.^[29] "The Sweet Escape" topped the United World Chart for eight weeks and spent thirty-four weeks on the chart.^[22] With 6.4 million in sales, the song is twenty-fourth on the United World Chart's list of the highest achieving songs since 1999.^[30]

Music video

The song's music video premiered on January 10, 2007 on LAUNCHcast.^[31] The video opens with scenes of Stefani and the Harajuku Girls in a golden jail (as illusion to "escaping" as suggested in the title and "conviction" to Akon's album). After obtaining the key from a dog, they escape. Stefani is then shown in a penthouse two hours later. She lets down two long braids, allowing the Harajuku Girls to scale the building and cut off the braids. They meet Akon at a parking lot, and Stefani drives off with him. They are pursued by two of the Harajuku Girls as police officers, and the video closes with Stefani back in jail after two hours of chasing. The video is intercut with sequences of Stefani and Akon in front of a letter G in lights.

The video was filmed in December 2006, several days before Christmas.^[32] It was directed by Joseph Kahn and produced by Maryann Tenado of H.S.I. Productions.^[33] The jail and penthouse scenes in the video are symbolic of "being jailed by love". That Stefani cannot escape her metaphoric prisons represents how one cannot escape from oneself. The penthouse scene is an allusion to the nineteenth century fairy tale "Rapunzel".^[32] The video features product placement for two General Motors vehicles, the 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe and the Buick Lucerne.

"The Sweet Escape" premiered on MTV's top-ten video chart program Total Request Live at number seven January 16, 2007,^[34] and it peaked at number two the next month.^[35] After its January 20 debut on MuchMusic's Countdown, it reached number one for two weeks in March 2007.^[36] The video was nominated for Most Earthshattering Collaboration, one of four categories created for the reinvented 2007 MTV Video Music Awards, but lost to Beyoncé Knowles and Shakira's "Beautiful Liar".^[37]

Formats and track listings

These are the formats and track listings of major single releases of "The Sweet Escape".

Personnel

Charts

References

External links

• Gwen Stefani's official site
  • "The Sweet Escape" lyrics
  • The Sweet Escape audio
• "The Sweet Escape" music video on YouTube