"Grenade" is a song performed by American singer-songwriter and producer Bruno Mars from his debut studio album Doo-Wops & Hooligans. Initially released as a promotional single on September 28, 2010, it was later announced to be the album's second single. The first track from the album, it was written by Mars along with his production team The Smeezingtons with Brody Brown, Claude Kelly, and Andrew Wyatt.

Critical reception has been mostly positive, with reviewers praising the vocals and emotional lyrics of the heartbreak song. It has peaked at number one in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Poland, the United Kingdom, and on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming his third number-one single in both the United States and the United Kingdom. A music video was released in mid-November 2010. It is the second-most bestselling digital single of all time, beaten by a difference of 2.3 million units by yet another Bruno Mars song: "Just The Way You Are".

Background[link]

Doo-Wops & Hooligans spawned two iTunes Store-exclusive promotional singles prior to its release in October 2010—"Liquor Store Blues", which features Damian Marley, and "Grenade". The song was released on September 28, 2010.^[1] In an interview with Idolator, Mars revealed songwriter-producer Benny Blanco played him an unreleased track with similar lyrical themes, which served as the song's inspiration. He also expressed desire to release the song as a single, being his "personal favorite".^[2] In an interview with Digital Spy, Mars revealed plans to follow hit single "Just the Way You Are" with "Grenade".^[3]

Composition[link]

	"Grenade" noicon An 18-second sample of the chorus of "Grenade".
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

"Grenade" is a pop and R&B ballad, co-written by Mars with songwriting-production team The Smeezingtons, Brody Brown, Claude Kelly, and Andrew Wyatt.^[4][5][6] Sheet music published by Sony/ATV Music Publishing shows that "Grenade" is set in the key of D minor and was published in common time, with a moderate tempo of 108 beats per minute. Mars' vocals span from A₃ to D₅ and background vocals are heard throughout.^[6] The song starts softly but crescendoes both musically and lyrically toward the climax of the song, backed by "pulsating, synthesized beats".^[7] According to Jon Caramanica of The New York Times, the song contains elements of 1980s pop and is accompanied by drums similar to those used by Kanye West.^[8] About.com's Bill Lamb noted "classical pop song construction" and The New Zealand Herald's Scott Kara described its beats as Shakira-esque.^[9][10] The song contains elements of Jeff Tweedy's "I'll Fight".^[4] Lyrically, the "Grenade" contains masochistic themes and tells the story of heartbreak caused by a failed relationship: "Gave you all I had / And you tossed it in the trash".^[7][11] The chorus has Mars singing, "I'd catch a grenade for ya," and speaks of unrequited love when the subject girl of his affections "won't do the same".^[9][12] As Mars himself simply told Blues & Soul: "'Grenade' represents the OTHER side of love - where you're in love with a woman and you know for a fact that she doesn't love you the way you love HER."^[13]

Reception[link]

Critical reception[link]

Grenade has been well received by critics. Lamb gave a review of four-and-a-half stars out of five, praising Mars' vocals and emotional lyrics on a track that "cements his position as the top new artist of 2010".^[9] Entertainment Weekly's Leah Greenblatt called "Grenade" the "atmospheric opener" of Mars' debut studio album, and enjoyed it as one of the album's highlights, as did The Washington Post's Sean Fennessey.^[11][14] Roberto Mucciacciaro for MTV noted its strong influence and similarity to Michael Jackson's "Dirty Diana", a song which Mars has coincidentally covered on several occasions.^[5][15] AOL Radio's Amar Toor praised the song, calling it "nothing short of explosive", and Rolling Stone's Jody Rosen recommended it as proof of Mars' capabilities as a "lavishly gifted melodist".^[7][16] However, Slant's Eric Henderson dismissed its unrealistic lyrics and allmusic's Tim Sendra thought the song was "over-the-top"—one of the weaker ones on the album.^[17][18] For the 54th Grammy Awards, the song has been nominated for Song of the Year and Record of the Year.

Chart performance[link]

"Grenade" first debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 the week of October 16, 2010 at the eighty-first position and climbed the chart to number five for the week ending December 18, 2010.^[19] On December 29, it peaked at number 1, making it Bruno Mars' third number one single on the chart, the others being B.o.B's "Nothin' on You", on which he was featured, and "Just the Way You Are". (It later dropped and rose back to #1 two more times, making it one of only five singles in Billboard history to have three distinct runs at #1.) In January, 2011, it became his second solo single to top the 2 million mark in paid downloads.^[20] In February, it topped the 3 million mark taking only 19 weeks to do so. Compared to this feat, "Just the Way You Are" reached this mark only 4 weeks later, in its 23rd week.^[21] The song spent 36 weeks on the Hot 100. As of December 2011, it has now sold 4,836,000 digital copies in the United States making it Mars' second single doing so following "Just The Way You Are".^[22] "Grenade" reached this feat in 29 weeks, six weeks faster than its predecessor. This makes it only the 4th time in Billboard history that back-to-back singles have both sold 4 million copies in the digital era.^[23] The song has peaked at number one in the Canada,^[24] the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia and Sweden.^[25][26] As of February 4, it has spent a total of 4 weeks at the top of the Irish Singles Chart.

Music video[link]

A music video was released on November 19, 2010, directed by NABIL.^[27] It involves Mars's efforts to sing to a woman he loves after dragging an upright piano with a rope tied to it through Los Angeles.^[3][28][29] He wears a suit and encounters a gang and a pit bull along the way.^[28][30] When he reaches the woman's house and finds out she is with another man, he drags himself and the piano in front of a train. As the train approaches Bruno, the video cuts to black. Scenes also feature the singer singing in a dark bedroom, looking out of a rainy window.^[30]

In a behind-the-scenes video, Mars explained, "The concept of the video is my struggle, to tell this girl I'd do anything for her, so I'm going as far as dragging a piano to get to her just so I can sing my heart out."^[28]

The video itself earned Mars three nominations at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, in Best Male Video, Best Pop Video and Video of the Year.

Remix[link]

Lil Wayne created an unofficial remix to the single.^[31] The song is identical except that Lil Wayne provides a 16-bar introduction verse to the song.^[32] When Mars heard it he called it "Awesome and was really excited about it."^[33] MTV described as "Lil Wayne delivering a spoken word-style flow, expressing devotion for his love interest."^[33] The Source described the his bars as "clever and appropriately emo."^[34] R&B girl group RichGirl created a remix to the song, released on their Fall in Love with RichGirl mixtape.^[35]

Live performances[link]

Mars performed the song during a performance at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City on August 25, 2010, with him and his four-piece band dressed in blue tuxedos and black skinny ties.^[5] The song was also performed in a similar manner on the October 9, 2010 episode of Saturday Night Live, as part of a segue from "Nothin' on You".^[36][37] A soulful arrangement of the song was sung for a Billboard Tastemakers video session.^[38] Additionally, Mars made a musical appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman with "Grenade" accompanied by an all-female string section.^[39] The song was performed at the 2010 Soul Train Music Awards on November 28, 2010, where Mars also shared a win for Song of the Year with "Nothin' on You.^[40] He also performed the song on the Dutch television show The Voice of Holland, which will air in the United States from May on NBC as "The Voice of America", on January 21. On February 13, he performed the song live at the 2011 Grammy Awards. Recently Mars has become apprehensive about performing the song because fans have been throwing dummy grenades on stage, some of which are metal and have posed a safety hazard.^[41]

Track listing[link]

• Digital download^[42]

1. "Grenade" – 3:42

• German CD single^[43]

1. "Grenade" – 3:42
2. "Just the Way You Are" (Carl Louis & Martin Danielle Classic Mix) – 5:17

• The Grenade Sessions EP^[44]

1. "Grenade" – 3:42
2. "Grenade" (The Hooligans Remix) – 3:30
3. "Grenade" (Passion Pit Remix) – 6:10
4. "Grenade" (acoustic) – 4:09
5. "Grenade" (music video) – 3:40

Personnel[link]

• Songwriting – Bruno Mars, Philip Lawrence, Ari Levine, Brody Brown, Claude Kelly, Andrew Wyatt
• Production – The Smeezingtons
• Mixing – Manny Marroquin
• Assistant mixing – Erik Madrid, Christian Plata
• Engineering – Ari Levine
• Instrumentation – Bruno Mars, Ari Levine, Brody Brown
• Mastering – Stephen Marcussen

Source:^[4]

Charts and certifications[link]

Chart precession and succession[link]

See also[link]

• List of best-selling singles worldwide
• List of number-one singles of 2010 (Australia)
• List of Hot 100 number-one singles of 2011 (Canada)
• List of number-one hits of 2011 (Germany)
• List of number-one singles and albums of 2011 (Ireland)
• List of number-one singles from the 2010s (New Zealand)
• List of number-one singles of 2011 (Poland)
• List of Hot 100 number-one singles of 2011 (U.S.)
• List of 2010s UK Singles Chart number ones

References[link]

External links[link]

• "Grenade" music video on Youtube
• "Brack Dawn" Movie Trailer on YouTube（Japanese）

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2011)

Mills bomb 36M, dating from 1942.

The term Grenade refers to any explosive device designed to be thrown by hand. Grenade Launchers are firearms designed to fire explosive projectile grenades. There are both grenade launchers that are integrated into other weapons (such as service rifles) and those that are built as individual weapon systems.

Design[link]

schematic of M31 HEAT rifle grenade

Most grenades explode, projecting fragments, i.e., pieces of the casing, serrated wire, or an incendiary material. Some, such as smoke grenades, merely burn, releasing smoke for masking, marking, or signalling. CS riot grenades function the same way. Grenades contain an explosive or chemical filler and have a small opening for a fuse. In modern hand grenades, the fuse is lit by an internal device rather than an external flame. Grenades are not reusable.

Detonation mechanism[link]

Timed fuse[link]

In a timed fuse grenade, the fuse is ignited upon release of the safety lever. Timed fuse grenades are generally preferred to hand-thrown percussion grenades because their fusing mechanisms are safer and more robust than those used in percussion grenades. Air burst grenades are fired from launchers and explode after a preset time corresponding with the distance to the target.

History[link]

Incendiary grenades[link]

Hand grenades filled with Greek fire; surrounded by caltrops. (10th-12th c. National Historical Museum, Athens, Greece)

Incendiary grenades, that use petroleum, appeared in the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, not long after the reign of Leo III (717-741).^[1] Byzantine soldiers learned to use Greek fire, a Byzantine invention of the previous century, which was also in stone and ceramic jars.^[1] Later, glass containers were employed. Byzantine hand grenades from the 10th to 12th centuries are on display in the National Museum at Athens. The use of petroleum for incendiary weapons, or rather variants thereof, spread to Muslim armies in the Near East, where it reached China by the 10th century.^[1] Some medieval petards were small enough to be employed against enemy troops and are sometimes considered to be primitive hand grenades

Explosive grenades[link]

Earliest known representation of a gun (a fire lance) and a grenade (upper right), Dunhuang, 10th century CE.^[2]

After the invention of gunpowder in China, it was applied to early designs to create the world's first explosive grenades, a prototype of the modern hand grenade.^[3] Explosive grenades first appeared in Europe during the 17th century.

China[link]

In China during the Song Dynasty (960–1279AD), weapons known as Zhen Tian Lei were created when Chinese soldiers packed gunpowder into ceramic or metal containers. In 1044, a military book Wujing Zongyao ("Compilation of Military Classics") described various gunpowder recipes in which one can find, according to Joseph Needham, the prototype of the modern hand grenade.^[3]

The first cast iron bombshells and grenades did not appear in Europe until 1467.^[4] Within a couple centuries of this, the Chinese had discovered the explosive potential of packing hollowed cannonball shells with gunpowder. Written later by Jiao Yu (焦玉) in the mid 14th century book of the Huolongjing (火龙经, "Fire Drake Manual"), this manuscript recorded an earlier Song-era cast iron cannon known as the "flying-cloud thunderclap cannon" (飞云霹雳炮; feiyun pili pao). The manuscript stated that (Needham's modified Wade-Giles spelling):

The shells (pào) are made of cast iron, as large as a bowl and shaped like a ball. Inside they contain half a pound of (shén huǒ, gunpowder). Upon detonation, the sound produced from the device was described as "claps of thunder".

—^[5]

This text of the Huolongjing was also important for the understanding of the Chinese hand grenade in the 14th century, as it provided much more detailed descriptions and even printed illustrations of the grenade bombs used.^[6]

Production of Sidolówka hand grenades in an underground Armia Krajowa facility in Lwów during World War II.

Europe[link]

In 1643, it is possible that "Grenades" were thrown amongst the Welsh at Holt Bridge during the English Civil War. The word "grenade" originated in the Glorious Revolution (1688), where cricket ball-sized iron spheres packed with gunpowder and fitted with slow-burning wicks were first used against the Jacobites in the battles of Killiecrankie and Glen Shiel.^[7] These grenades were not very effective (probably because a direct hit would be necessary for the grenade to have effect) and, as a result, saw little use. However, trench warfare favored the grenade.

Etymology[link]

The word "grenade" is the French word for pomegranate.^[8] Soldiers commented on the similar shape of early grenades and the name entered common usage. Early grenades also had round projectile fragments within it that made it further resemble a pomegranate.

References[link]

Three singers-a trio-singing a song while accompanied on a lute played by one of the singers. Das Konzert [The Concert] (c. 1490, Lorenzo Costa).

In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing. A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs. The lyrics (words) of songs are typically of a poetic, rhyming nature, though they may be religious verses or free prose.

A song may be for a solo singer, a duet, trio, or larger ensemble involving more voices. Songs with more than one voice to a part are considered choral works. Songs can be broadly divided into many different forms, depending on the criteria used. One division is between "art songs", "pop songs", and "folk songs". Other common methods of classification are by purpose (sacred vs secular), by style (dance, ballad, Lied, etc.), or by time of origin (Renaissance, Contemporary, etc.).

A song is a piece of music for accompanied or unaccompanied voice or voices or, "the act or art of singing," but the term is generally not used for large vocal forms including opera and oratorio.^[1] However, the term is, "often found in various figurative and transferred sense (e.g. for the lyrical second subject of a sonata...)."^[1] The noun "song" has the same etymological root as the verb "to sing" and the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines the word to mean "that which is sung" or "a musical composition suggestive of song." The OED also defines the word to mean "a poem" or "the musical phrases uttered by some birds, whales, and insects, typically forming a recognizable and repeated sequence and used chiefly for territorial defence or for attracting mates." ^[2]

Cultural types[link]

Art songs[link]

Art songs are songs created for performance in their own right, usually with piano accompaniment, although they can also have other types of accompaniment such as an orchestra or string quartet, and are always notated. Generally they have an identified author and composer and require voice training for acceptable performance. German-speaking communities use the term art song ("Kunstlied") to distinguish so-called "serious" compositions from folk song ("Volkslied"). The lyrics are often written by a poet or lyricist and the music separately by a composer. Art songs may be more formally complicated than popular or folk songs, though many early Lieder by the likes of Franz Schubert are in simple strophic form. They are often important to national identity.

Art songs feature in many European cultures, including but not limited to: Russian (romancy), German (Lieder), Italian (canzoni), French (mélodies), Scandinavian (sånger), Portuguese (canções), Spanish (canciones). There are also highly regarded British and American art songs in the English language. Cultures outside of Europe that have a classical music tradition, such as India, may or may not feature art songs. The accompaniment of European art songs is considered as an important part of the composition.

The art song of the period in which they originally flowered is often a duet in which the vocalist and accompanist share in interpretive importance. The pieces were most often written to be performed in a home or salon setting, although today the works enjoy popularity as concert pieces. The emergence of poetry during this era was much of what inspired the creation of these pieces by Brahms, Schumann, Schubert and other composers. These composers set poems in their native language. Many works were inspired by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Heinrich Heine. Another method would be to write new music for each stanza to create a unique form; this was through-composed form known in German as durchkomponiert. A combination of both of these techniques in a single setting was called a modified strophic form. Often romantic art songs sharing similar elements were grouped as a song cycle.^[3]

Folk songs[link]

Folk songs are songs of often anonymous origin (or are public domain) that are transmitted orally. They are frequently a major aspect of national or cultural identity. Art songs often approach the status of folk songs when people forget who the author was. Folk songs are also frequently transmitted non-orally (that is, as sheet music), especially in the modern era. Folk songs exist in almost every culture.

Popular songs[link]

Modern popular songs are typically distributed as recordings and are played on the radio, though all other mass media that have audio capabilities are involved. Their relative popularity is inferred from commercially significant sales of recordings, ratings of stations and networks that play them, and ticket sales for concerts by the recording artists. A popular song can become a modern folk song when members of the public who learn to sing it from the recorded version teach their version to others. Popular songs may be called pop songs for short, although pop songs or pop music may instead be considered a more commercially popular genre of popular music as a whole.

See also[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Song

• Air (music)
• Animal song: bird song, whale song, zoomusicology
• Aria
• Ballad
• Canticle
• Category:Musical forms
• Hymn
• Instrumental
• Lied
• Madrigal (music)
• Song structure (popular music)
• Vocal music
• Theme song
• Poem and song
• Singing

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Marcello Sorce Keller (1984), "The Problem of Classification in Folksong Research: a Short History", Folklore, XCV, no. 1, 100- 104.