- published: 21 Mar 2016
- views: 2682
"Listen" is a song recorded by American singer Beyoncé Knowles. The song was written by Henry Krieger, Scott Cutler, Anne Preven, and Knowles, and produced by The Underdogs Matt Sullivan and Randy Spendlove for the soundtrack album Dreamgirls: Music from the Motion Picture to the 2006 musical film Dreamgirls, in which Knowles' character Deena Jones sings the song to assert independence over her controlling husband. Columbia Records released "Listen" as the lead single from soundtrack album on December 5, 2006. It additionally appeared as a hidden track on international editions, and on the deluxe edition of Knowles' second solo studio album, B'Day. The Spanish version of the song, "Oye", was released on the EP, Irreemplazable, and the Spanish deluxe edition of B'Day.
"Listen" is an R&B-soul song; its lyrics make reference to tenacity, love, the refusal to defer dreams and finally rise towards fame. Its instrumentation includes bass, drums, guitars, keyboards, percussion, and violins, among others. The song was a critical success. Contemporary music critics complimented the strong and emotional vocals of Knowles, and added that the lyrics perfectly elaborate on Deena Jones's life. "Listen" won Best Original Song at the 2007 Critics' Choice Awards. It was nominated in the same category at the 2006 International Press Academy Satellite Award, at the 2007 Golden Globe Awards, and at the 2007 Academy Awards.
Listen may refer to:
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. However, the term is, "often found in various figurative and transferred sense (e.g. for the lyrical second subject of a sonata...)." 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."