"Sorry" | ||||||||
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Single by Justin Bieber | ||||||||
from the album Purpose | ||||||||
Released | October 23, 2015 | |||||||
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Recorded | 2015 | |||||||
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Length | 3:20 | |||||||
Label | Def Jam | |||||||
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Producer(s) | ||||||||
Justin Bieber singles chronology | ||||||||
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"Sorry" is a song recorded by Canadian singer Justin Bieber for his fourth studio album, Purpose (2015). Written by Julia Michaels, Justin Tranter, Sonny Moore, Michael Tucker and Bieber; the song was produced by Skrillex and Blood. It was released on October 23, 2015, as the second single from the album. A dancehall-pop and tropical house song, "Sorry" contains in its instrumentation "brassy horn bleats", warm island rhythms and a dembow riddim beat. Lyrically, "Sorry" is a plea for a chance to apologize to a lover, with Bieber asking forgiveness and a second chance to redeem himself.
Commercially, the song topped the charts of thirteen countries. It spent 7 weeks at number one on the Canadian Hot 100 and 3 weeks at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100; "Sorry" was replaced by third single "Love Yourself" on the chart dated February 13, 2016, making Bieber the 12th act in the Hot 100's history to succeed himself at number one. He also accomplished the same feat in the United Kingdom, becoming the third act ever to self-replace at the top of the UK Singles Chart.
While working on his then-upcoming fourth studio album, Justin Bieber enlisted American DJ Skrillex to produce songs for the record after successfully working with him on "Where Are Ü Now", which was a song that he sent to Skrillex and Diplo for their project Jack Ü and that became a worldwide hit and helped to revamp his career. Regarding his will to work with the producer, Bieber commented: "Skrillex is a genius. He’s super futuristic and I just love his sounds. I think being able to incorporate that sound with what I’m doing has been super cool because it’s like new and fresh, and I feel like no one’s done it before." Skrillex, on other hand, commented about his involvement on the album, saying: "I heard some well-written songs that were really good that they wanted me to do production on and from there, we wrote some new songs. It was an opportunity to try some stuff that I had never done before and we ended up making something really unique." Skrillex also invited Michael Tucker, under his producer name Blood, to help him produce some tracks for the album. The producer wrote "Sorry" with other songwriters and immediately felt it was a relatable song. Later, he needed to convince Bieber's team that "Sorry" was "the song".