(Arguments for Marriage Equality)

Bigot: a person who is intolerant toward those holding different opinions.

Homophobia: dislike of or prejudice against homosexual people.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances

Hate speech is speech that offends, threatens, or insults groups, based on race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, disability, or other traits.

“If we want to defend the centuries-old understanding of marriage, we should start by looking carefully at what God has to say about it. When we speak of the "sanctity of marriage," we mean to say that marriage is a holy and sacred institution created not by man, but by God. That means that no matter what legislators or justices say, the definition of marriage is not ours to tamper with.”

God didn’t create marriage we did. Marriage was once seen as a social contract between two people to keep a bloodline going; keep an inheritance within a family and to keep a last name going. Most importantly it was seen as a union of two people who loved each other and wanted to spend their lives together. “No matter what legislators or justices say the definition of marriage is not ours to tamper with?” We created marriage not god! Secondly I’m glad the government has finally stepped in and said it is unconstitutional to ban gay marriage and it is also unconstitutional to use your religion to deny that right to the LGBT community. It’s fine that you don’t agree with someone being gay but it’s not okay to openly hate and use your religion as a justification to spew your hatred.

Marriage can and should be redefined because it was once illegal for interracial couples to get married and now that gay marriage is deemed unconstitutional to ban, we are redefining it again. Sorry to tell you that the world you once knew is changing and this is a great accomplishment allowing gay couples the right to get married. This should’ve been granted a long time ago!

“First, we in the Christian community need to apologize for the way we have interacted with the LGBT community. As those who have been forgiven by God through Christ's sacrificial death on our behalf, we must exhibit the love of Christ to all men and women. We can stand for the truth and be loving at the same time. This we must do.

Second, our authority to speak to the needs of our nation today is the Word of God. The Scriptures teach that there are absolutes and that there is such a thing as right and wrong. Truth is never tolerant of a lie. The real battleground around this debate on homosexual marriage begins with the question: Who is your authority? We believe that the timeless truth of Holy Scripture gives us the authoritative blueprints for life. We respect those who wish to deny the truth of Scripture. We would ask for a mutual respect in return.”

 

Yes you are correct it is your job to go out and spread the word of god; but what you fail to realize is that our government shouldn’t be promoting an ideology of any shape or form. I would be offended if the government made radical claims suggesting that there is no god. The only job the government has regarding religion is protection of and protection from religion. No, you shouldn’t proselytize to those who don’t want to hear it, yes you have the right to worship whatever god you choose as long as it doesn’t infringe upon the rights of others then it becomes a problem.

 How can you ask for mutual respect in return when you are basically telling gay people that they can’t get married because of god! It angers me that you can sit here and say it’s okay for you to dictate someone else’s life because your bible tells you it’s okay. Well it’s not okay! Freedom of and freedom from religion remember that!

“ It's important to emphasize two things here. First, marriage is not about us; it's about God. From the beginning our purpose—as individuals and as couples in marriage—is to glorify God. We were created with the capacity to enjoy a relationship with God and to love and serve Him. As Jesus says in Matthew 22:37, the greatest commandment is, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind."

It’s important to emphasize something here, marriage was not created by god and if you want your marriage to be about god that is fine. However, we live in a society where people get married because they love each other and want to spend their lives together. I don’t understand why we keep having this same discussion over and over again? Not everyone believes in your god and to throw bible verses at them saying this is why gay people can’t get married is plain stupid. You have your religious views? Cool great; but do us all a favor and keep them to your fucking self.

“Second, God ties His image to human sexuality. Marking human beings as distinct from the rest of creation, Genesis 1 says "In the image of God He created him—male and female He created them." In other words, our gender differences as men and women are part of how we understand who God is.”

Let’s look at the creation of man. Adam was created from dirt and Eve was created from the rib of Adam. We don’t see people just popping into existence from bones and dirt; also let’s just tell the truth because the bible does a good job at it. Adam was created to be a robot and Eve was just a baby factory who has no voice and no rights. Created in the image of god? We don’t even know if god does or doesn’t exist and there is no empirical data to suggest otherwise. Please use your brain!

“Homosexuals have suggested for years that their practice is an acceptable alternative lifestyle. Many claim that their sexual attraction is something they were born with. Some have even suggested that God made them as homosexuals. While the impact of nature vs. nurture can be debated, God makes it clear in Scripture that acting on homosexual attraction is sin.”

“The practice of homosexuality isn't a preference or an uncontrollable desire—it's actually a stark confirmation of a person's rebellion against the Designer. Romans 1:21-27 tells us that, as humans failed to honor God, their "foolish heart was darkened" and "they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator ... For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error."

“The issue of sexual behavior isn't a matter of simple preference. Our sexual choices and behavior reflect on the image and glory of God. Our stand against homosexuality is ultimately a stand for the wisdom and perfection of the created design and a choice to honor the Designer.”

People who are gay are gay because they are rebelling against god? What kind of drugs are you on to even come to a conclusion like this? Science has proven that being gay is not a choice and shouldn’t be treated like that. In fact being gay was once considered a mental illness because people used their bible as a weapon to openly discriminate and justify their ignorance. Sexual orientation is not a preference; no one wakes up and says oh I used to be gay but now I’m not. I’m going to date women and be heterosexual. No! No! No! That is not how the world works! Again what if I don’t believe in your god? All you’ve said here is say that the LGBT lifestyle is invalid and they hate god. Nice job on the straw man and insult of a whole community of people who by the way don’t hate your god. They just hate the concept of him and how he is used to discriminate against people.

 A second purpose for marriage is to produce children.  In Genesis 1:28 when God commands Adam and Eve, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth..." The most obvious aspect of this command is that God designed male and female to join physically and reproduce children. Procreation is an integral part of God's design for marriage.

In addition, God set up the family as one of his primary institutions (the other being the Church) to tell each succeeding generation about who He is and how they can know Him. God's original plan called for the home to be a sort of greenhouse—a nurture center where children grow up to learn character, values, and integrity. Psalm 78 instructs parents to teach their children to "...put their confidence in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments..."

This training in obedience is not only an essential responsibility of the family, but it also is designed to be an outgrowth of the marriage. Research studies make it clear that a stable family with both father and mother provides the best environment for children to thrive, mature, and become responsible citizens of any nation and culture.

Male-male or female-female relationships cannot produce children unless something extraordinary is done to assist them. While it is true that gay couples can raise children, and can adopt needy children, they will not, however, multiply a godly legacy when they are living in rebellion to God. In addition, gay couples cannot model what God designed for a child to experience growing up: a complete picture of a male and female completing one another in the marriage relationship. Children were made by God to be nurtured by the love of a mother and a father from birth.

Marriage is about sharing your life with the person you love and if you so happen to want children then that’s fine. However, the only purpose of marriage is not to have children because you are basically shaming every sterile couple who cannot physically have children and this time I won’t bring up an elderly couple. What if a couple doesn’t want children? Are you going to shame them too? Why is marriage about glorifying god and producing children? But not once did you ever mention these people actually want to glorify him or if they actually even believe in him.

There are families with no mom present and vice versa. Some kinds don’t even have both parents at all in their life and they are raised by a grandparent or a sibling. It really is cruel to say that they don’t have a family because it doesn’t fit your biblical standards of what a family should be. Science has proven that a kid can be raised by two people of the same-sex and grow up just like kids who have parents of the opposite sex. Training to glorify god? Please don’t indoctrinate kids into religion until they are fully aware and able to make their own decisions regarding religion. Kids aren’t born hating they learn to hate from their parents. I just hope if you have kids that they don’t take this type of view on marriage; especially a marriage not harming other people.

AGAIN!!! What if the couple is sterile and incapable of having a child on their own? What if the couple doesn’t want a CHILD! Marriage isn’t about having CHIDLREN!!!! Also just because two people of the same-sex can’t physically have a child doesn’t give you the green light to DENY THEM MARRIAGE!  Please get it through your thick skull.

“These passages in Genesis 1 and 2 also make it clear that God not only created the institution of marriage, but He also is intimately involved in bringing a husband and wife together physically through the act of intercourse in marriage. He gave Adam a helper specifically designed for him. God designed a man and a woman to complete one another and He commanded them to become "one flesh." As Jesus said, just after quoting from Genesis 1:27, "So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate" (Matthew 19:6).”

“Male and female were created to be complementary to one another in every way—from their emotional and spiritual needs to their anatomical structure. While same-sex couples may attempt to experience some aspects of this "completion," they nevertheless are maintaining a lifestyle built around a sexual rebellion against God. In most cases, this will lead to an inability to make the type of commitment God desires in marriage. Studies show, for example, that even when homosexual men commit themselves to a partner, many still regularly engage in sex with other men several times a year.”

“The physical act of a husband and wife becoming one within marriage is easily understood. They were designed by God for one another. However, two men or two women were not designed by God to become one flesh with one another. The physical joining of two men or two women is not a natural act.”

God is very sexist and do you want to know why? Well let’s start with the story of Adam and Eve and how they fucked up and sinned; even though they weren’t created without a sense of right and wrong. God banished them from the Garden of Eden and punished both of them with mortality and he made child birth for Eve painful. Continue reading the bible and you’ll learn that women aren’t to be trusted because apparently they are all backstabbers and are only objects used to pop out babies. They have no voice and must marry their rapist if they get married; also they can be stoned to death if they aren’t a virgin.

Please tell me more about how two men and two women can’t have a meaningful relationship and they weren’t designed by god; yes also tell me how the world is less than 10,000 years old and god spoke the universe into existence. I find this to be so much more factual than two people who love each other of the same-sex wanting to spend their lives together. How dare they want to be happy? That’s a sin!

Science has proven that being gay is not a choice and is perfectly natural. Being a bigot is a choice however, as well as being homophobic, ignorant and stupid.

“An unselfish commitment to God and to each other is the foundation of a godly home and the bedrock of a stable culture. The more we seek to redefine marriage, and chip away at God's original design for the home, the more we put our families and our nation at risk.”

“This debate about same-sex marriage is the latest outgrowth of a culture that for decades has been drifting from biblical standards of truth and morality. The sexual revolution, for example, sought to bring legitimacy to sex outside of marriage. The women's liberation movement worked to revolutionize the roles of men and women in marriage and in our society. Throw in a rising emphasis on materialism and personal happiness, and you end up with a dramatically new way of looking at marriage. In her book, The Divorce Culture, Barbara Dafoe Whitehead writes:”

“... Americans began to change their ideas about the individual's obligations to family and society. Broadly described, this change was away from an ethic of obligation to others and toward an obligation to self... This ethical shift had a profound impact on ideas about the nature and purpose of the family... People began to judge the strength and "health" of family bonds according to their capacity to promote individual fulfillment and personal growth.”

“When millions of Americans view marriage from the mindset of "What's in it for me?" concepts like responsibility, self-sacrifice, and lifelong commitment become secondary. Is it any wonder that our divorce rate is so high? Or that the number of children born outside of marriage continues to rise? Or that an increasing number of couples are opting to live together instead of marrying?”

“And now the continuing push to legalize same-sex marriage is seeking to redefine marriage even further. From the moment God created marriage, it was designed with a man and woman in mind. God designed two sexes male and female—He did not create four sexes. Same-sex marriage cannot fulfill God's purposes for marriage.”

I’m personally glad we’ve chipped away from the so called ‘godly home’ because if you look at the way homes were in the bible they were pretty terrible. People were forced to marry people they didn’t love because that’s what god wanted? Also if you look at the way men treated women and how women are depicted in the bible it’s just awful. Please tell me how you want to revert back to the dark ages? Gay marriage was deemed unconstitutional to ban because it infringes on the rights of the LGBT community. We have a separation of church and state for a reason! Please open your mind and look at this not from a biblical stand point but from an actual person’s stand point. How would you feel if I came to your wedding and said you couldn’t get married because it offends me? You would what still get married am I correct? Now what gives you the authority to tell someone else they can’t get married your bible? That’s not a credible source!

The same arguments used against interracial marriage were used and again that was deemed unconstitutional to ban. Same happened with gay marriage; we redefined it because we created marriage not god! I’m so happy we as a society have moved forward so radically and seeing gay marriage allowed in all fifty states proves that we are shifting away from religious views and the government isn’t promoting an ideology. You keep throwing god in every argument as if that’s going to make it any more valid. It’s one thing to oppose but it’s another to oppose and not have a real reason because quite frankly I can say your god is an asshole because he rather force people to live the way he wants even though he created free will; also god isn’t even good source of morale because he’s had people do unspeakable things in the bible especially in the old testament. You’re opposed to two people loving each other? I’m opposed to you spewing hatred and being discriminatory towards those who have no effect on your life.

The worst arguments for homophobia

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Pride Month: Britney Spears song facts

WORK BITCH by BRITNEY SPEARS

This club banger was released as the first single off Britney Spears' eighth album. It was written by:

Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am, who executive-produced the record.

Swedish DJ and music producer Otto Knows, who had a Europe-wide hit with his song, "Million Voices."

Irish singer-songwriter, Ruth-Anne Cunningham, who at the age of 17 won an ASCAP Pop Award for co-penning JoJo's hit "Too Little, Too Late."

Anthony Preston, who has worked closely with Will.i.am as well as with co-penning Nicole Scherzinger's "Boomerang."

Sebastian Ingorsso of the EDM trio Swedish House Mafia was also listed as a songwriter, but spoke out to distance himself from the track. He explained that he passed along a song created by his protégé Otto Knows to the Black Eyed Peas frontman for Spears' new project. "I don't really know why they put my name in there," Ingrosso told Billboard magazine. "It's a really good song and I'm looking forward to what's going to happen with it. But I can't really take credit for it."

Ingrosso previously worked with will.i.am on his 2012 UK chart-topper, "This is Love" alongside his SDM colleague Steve Angello and Swedish hitmaker Max Martin.

The club ready tune opens with Spears giving fans a pep talk about releasing their potential:

"You want a hot body?
You want a Bugatti?
You want a Maserati?
You better work bitch!"

Britney previously used the 'b' word when she introduced her 2007 single "Gimme More" with the iconic phrase "It's Britney, bitch." Will.i.am later interpolated a sample of the phrase on his 2012 collaboration with Spears, "Scream & Shout."

Britney assumes a British accent in this song, perhaps because her name is BRITney, but possibly so she could let loose in character like Nicki Minaj does in some of her songs (Nicki also uses the accent in interviews from time to time). Madonna and Lady Gaga have both been known to speak in the British tongue from time to time as well, so this certainly has precedent.

The "you better work" call to action and its variant "work it" were popularized by RuPaul, who before his bout with reality TV stardom on the show RuPaul's Drag Race had a 1993 Dance hit (#45 on the Hot 100) with "Supermodel," where he used "work" in the fashionista sense where it means to present yourself with confidence, especially on the runway. The phrase "Work It" wormed its way into the popular lexicon as encouragement for just about any kind of performance, but Britney uses it in a far more literal sense, explaining that a hot body requires hard work, as does the attainment of luxury goods.

The song title and lyrics caused some radio programmers concern, leading to some stations playing an edited version titled "Work Work." It's not the first Britney release to be censored - the video for her racy chart-topping single "3" substituted the word "this" for the word "sin" during the pre-chorus.

The steamy music video was directed by Ben Mor ("Scream & Shout") and shot between September 7-10 in Malibu, California. The S&M themed clip finds Britney portraying a dominatrix bad girl who seductively whips her dancers into shape. Mor commented: "You can't have soft visuals for a song called 'Work Bitch,' and we sure as hell didn't."

Spears admitted during an interview with the TJ Show on Boston's AMP 103.3 that she toned down what was originally filmed. "We showed way more skin and did way more stuff for the video than what is actually there," Spears said. "I cut out, like, half the video because I am a mother; I have children. And it's hard to play sexy mom while you're being a pop star as well, but I have to just be true to myself and feel it out when I do stuff."

Despite being released as the lead single from Britney Jean, the album doesn't necessarily take all of its cues from the tune's vibe. "That song is a reflection of Britney more so than the album," will.i.am told Billboard magazine. "The album is what the album is, but we felt that song needed to come out to keep the foundation on what Britney represents. But it shouldn't reflect the album -- an album is a body of work as a collective. If we had to pick a song like, 'Oh, what song fits every color of the record,' you shouldn't do that… We felt that song represents 'Piece Of Me,' that Britney oomph."

Asked about her use of the word bitch in this song, Britney explained to UK chat show host Alan Carr that it was a reference for her gay following. "I don't call everyone… that word. I just use it as, it's like in respect to the gays as a term of endearment," she said. "It's like a street slang for everyone, you know, like you get to work, that's what you do when you get to work and it's like, cool."

Britney told Alan Carr that she had expert tuition for the scene in the song's video where she whips one of the dancers. "We had a whip instructor come in and actually show me how to use it, and actually bring it around the back of my head, and actually use it, and it you do it the wrong way you can actually hurt yourself and cut yourself with it, because it's really powerful," she said. "They're really strong."

GIMME MORE by BRITNEY SPEARS

This was Britney's first single release since her very public divorce from Kevin Federline and subsequent meltdown, when she lost custody of her children and made various court appearances.

Spears performed this to open the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards. As soon as she turned to look at the audience, she seemed to freeze up and struggled through a very stiff performance which was mocked by a number of media outlets. Despite this performance, the song proved to be Spears' most successful single in the US since her debut hit "Baby One More Time," achieving Golden Status with more than 500.000 copies sold in just 4 weeks.

The song was produced and co-written by Timbaland protégé Nate "Danja" Hills.

This opens with Spears saying, "It's Britney Bitch." MTV had the exclusive rights to sell the ringtone of this phrase.

Co-writer Jim Beanz came up with the expression. He told MTV UK: "She was amazing to work with, she is a very hard worker. Just as hard as she works on her dance steps she is the exact same in the booth. She was basically open to any and everything that I mentioned. The phrase came last minute right at the end of the session. We recorded that while she was pregnant with her second child. It was really difficult to try to make her sound really sexy an at the same time she was pregnant. We knew that as soon as she had the baby she was the one to be able to push that song. We needed that one catch phrase to really bring her back and put her stamp on the industry and that stamp was 'It's Britney Bitch.'"

This was only the second Top 3 US hit for Spears. Her first was her debut single "Baby One More Time."

This was co-written by Keri Hilson, who also contributed to three other songs on Blackout. Hilson developed a nickname for Britney, "One-Take Jake." She explained to Rolling Stonemagazine: "With Britney, I need to get as much of any song done as I can [before she enters the studio]. She likes to record quickly, partly because she doesn't like to stand up for too long."

The song's music video was filmed over a two day period in July 2007 at a warehouse in downtown Los Angeles. It was directed by Jake Sarfaty, who was handpicked by Spears. According to makeup artist Mikal Sky, who worked personally with Spears on the clip, the singer refused to follow the agreed script. "She had just shaved her head and was getting nothing but bad press," Sky told Money Making Makeup Artist. "She sabotaged the director by refusing to perform and follow the script. So, what we got was her dancing on a stripper pole with her friends."

I WANNA GO by BRITNEY SPEARS

This Max Martin and Shellback penned up-tempo number features a Euro-pop whistle motif. The song was one of seven that co-executive producer Max Martin contributed to Femme Fatale and his relationship with Spears goes way back to her debut single, "…Baby One More Time," which he wrote. Spears told Rolling Stone why the Swedish hitmaker gets the best out of her: "Max played a huge role on this album and he has been there since the beginning so there is such a huge level of trust. He gets exactly what I am saying when I tell him what I want and don't want musically. His melodies are incredible and he is always coming up with weird sounds, which I love. The whistle on 'I Wanna Go' still gets me every time I hear it. Who would have thought of that? There is nobody I feel more comfortable collaborating with in the studio."

The Chris Marrs Piliero directed video was filmed in Los Angeles, California and finds Britney poking fun at the idea of the sexy pop star. It co-stars Weeds and Half Baked actor Guillermo Diaz as the convertible driver.

One of many pop culture references that litter the video is a movie theater marquee that reads "Crossroads 2: Cross Harder," alluding to the 2002 film, in which Britney had her first major role. Piliero told the New York Post it was, "a fun Easter egg for fans. Plus, Die Hard 2: Die Harder is the most ridiculously awesome way to title a sequel. It just felt like the right thing to do. When Britney saw it, she loved it."

IF U SEEK AMY by BRITNEY SPEARS

This is Spears' raunchiest tune to date mainly because its title is a sneaky way of saying "F--K Me." The song has upset a number of parents who bought Circus for their young children only to find them walking around the house singing what sounds like the F word. This clever wordplay isn't totally original; both Memphis Slim and April Wine have songs called "If You See Kay."

The "ha ha hee hee" chorus is appropriate to the album's carnival theme.

This was written by the Swedish songwriters Max Martin, Shellback and Alexander Kronlund, along with the Texan Savan Kotecha. Martin, who wrote and produced Spears' first hit "Baby One More Time," also produced this track.

An edited version called "If U See Amy" was quickly released when some radio stations refused to play the original.

Co-writer Savan Kotecha comes from a very traditional Indian family. He recalled to Music Business Worldwide their horrified reaction when this song was released:

"My mum saw it and she called me and was like [upset voice]: 'My friend's son is becoming a doctor. And my son? My son is writing pop songs about sex!!!'

Then my dad got on the line and was like, 'You're being indecent.' I wasn't allowed to have a girl call my house until I was an adult. So maybe a lot of pent-up sexual stuff comes out in my songs… and that's quite a foreign thing to my parents."

OOH LA LA by BRITNEY SPEARS

This song plays at the end credits of The Smurfs 2 movie. Britney had her own two children, Sean and Preston in mind when she agreed to record the tune. "I have always loved the Smurfs as a kid and now my boys are the biggest Smurfs fans EVER," she said. "I wanted to surprise them with a song in the movie. I know they'll think it's Smurftastic!"

The song was penned by hitmaker Bonnie McKee ("Hold It Against Me") along with J Kash, Lola Blanc and Fransisca Hall and produced by Spears' Femme Fatale collaborators Dr. Luke, Ammo and Cirkut. Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Lola Blanc told Idolator: "We originally wrote 'Ooh La La' for me — it was me, Fran Hall and Ammo. I came up with the title, which was sort of a play on my name, and then Dr. Luke heard it and was like, 'I want this for Britney!'"

Britney is not the only music superstar to contribute to the movie - Katy Perry returns to repeat her role as the voice of Smurfette in the CGI sequel.

Britney's two sons, Sean and Jayden, made cameos in the song's music video. They were 7 and 6 years old at the time, a younger age than their mom when she made her showbiz debut on Star Search at the age of 10. Britney told Ryan Seacrest that during filming, her kids were pros. "They were actually really, really good on set," she told the radio presenter. "They were, like, acting, and my oldest son, Preston, was right on cue every time they would tell him to do something. Later on I got to see what they actually did on camera and it was adorable."

Britney explained the song's meaning to Ryan Seacrest on his radio show. "It's about feeling good," she said. "Like when a guy makes you giddy. It's more of a feeling. When I eat chocolate I have that 'ooh la la' feeling."

Bonnie McKee and her frequent collaborator, Katy Perry, secretly recorded background vocals on the song. Katy and Britney didn't meet as they laid down their parts separately.

McKee's contribution was to tweak the lyrics to make them family friendly. "I actually came in and was the doctor behind it. A lot of it was already written. It was a great song to begin with. ... They wanted it for the Smurfs movie, and it was originally pretty sexy," she recalled to MTV News. "I was like, 'OK, how do I take this sex-drenched song and make it Smurfs friendly?'"

"That was kind of my task, but it still had to work at radio and be something that people would buy as a Britney Spears song because she's not a Smurf," McKee added. "So, it was just kind of fun to find double entendres to put in there and kind of trick the parents into thinking it's kid friendly."

Whitney Houston Song facts

MY LOVE IS YOUR LOVE by WHITNEY HOUSTON

This song was co-written and co-produced by Jerry "Wonda" Duplessis, who helmed Fugees' 1996 album The Score and also acted as the group's bass guitarist. Fugees member and Wonda's cousin Wyclef Jean was the other co-writer and co-producer.

Wonda recalled the story of the song in an interview with The Boombox: "It's actually a song that I remember me and Clef cooked the beat for on the bus while we were on tour," he said. "When Whitney showed up, she was with her daughter and I remember when we put her daughter [in front of the mic] and she said, 'Sing Mommy!' She loved it so much, it was like, she'd be like, 'Cue my daughter's voice loud!' We'd turn it up, she'd be like, 'No! Louder! Louder!"'

The tune was a massive hit worldwide, becoming another one of Houston's signature songs. It topped the European Hot 100 Singles Chart for a week and also peaked at #1 in New Zealand.

The song featured backing vocals from The Family Friends Community Choir.

This was sampled by Duke Dumont on his 2014 UK chart-topper "I Got U." He told MTV UK: "With things like that you need to seek permission to use the vocal and Wyclef is kind of quite tough with his music. He doesn't let people use his music for a lot of things but he was willing for us to use the Whitney recording. That was quite nice getting a little bit of respect from his side. So that was a nice touch to it."

EXHALE (SHOOP SHOOP) by WHITNEY HOUSTON

This was featured in the movie Waiting To Exhale, which starred Houston as one of four women struggling to deal with the men in their lives. The song reflects the emotional state of the women in the film.

In the US, this spent 11 weeks at #2 after a single week at #1. It marked the longest consecutive stretches that the same two records have been 1-2 on the chart (this and "One Sweet Day" by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men), and spent the most weeks at #2 after being #1.

According to BBC Radio 2 DJ Paul Gambaccini, the song's writer, Babyface, couldn't call this "The Shoop Shoop Song" as Betty Everett had already recorded a song with that title, so he put "Shoop Shoop" in brackets instead.

Babyface said he included the "Shoop Shoop" part because he couldn't think of any other lyrics. He told Billboard: "It felt like it should groove there. But I knew it couldn't groove without any vocals, so I started humming along with it and that's what happened. The 'shoops' came. But they felt so good, I thought 'Why not?' It doesn't have to mean anything."

This won a Grammy Award in 1997 for Best R&B Song. It was also nominated for Song of the Year, Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, and Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.

Actor Forest Whitaker made his directorial debut with the film and also directed the music video, which features close-ups of Houston singing and includes scenes from the movie. Several US theaters used the clip as a trailer to promote the movie.

R&B singer Robin Thicke covered the song in 2012 shortly after Houston's death.

In an interview with Songwriter Universe magazine, Babyface explained his ability to write songs from a female perspective: "When I wrote for female artists, I knew from being in relationships or having my heart broken, what the woman was feeling, because I would be feeling the same emotions. So when I wrote for a female, I could understand how to write from their perspective, because it was from the heart."

HEARTBREAK HOTEL by WHITNEY HOUSTON

Most definitely not to be confused with the classic of the same name made famous by Elvis Presley, "Heartbreak Hotel" was written by Kenneth Karlin, Tamara Savage and Carsten Schack. Recorded in September 1998, it was released on the Arista label on December 15. The album version runs to 4 minutes 41 seconds, the radio edit to 4 minutes 8 seconds. Though not a particularly memorable song, it may well become Houston's epitaph, because she died in a Los Angeles hotel room on the eve of the February 2012 Grammy Awards.

The song features R&B vocalists Faith Evans and Kelly Price, who offer empathetic vocals alongside the heartbroken Whitney. Faith Evans is best known to many for her contribution to Puff Daddy's tribute to her late husband, Notorious B.I.G, "I'll Be Missing You." Kelly Price also has a connection with the fallen rapper, having provided the female vocals on Biggie's hit single "Mo Money Mo Problems."

Whitney performed the song with Faith Evans and Kelly Price for the first time live on the November 23, 1998 episode of The Rosie O'Donnell Show.

THE GREATEST LOVE OF ALL by WHITNEY HOUSTON

This was written by songwriters Michael Masser and Linda Creed. Linda Creed was recovering from breast cancer when they wrote the song in 1977. Originally recorded by George Benson, his version went to #24 in the US. In 1985, the song was revived by Whitney Houston, and on May 17, 1986, it went to #1 for the first of three weeks.

Creed's cancer claimed her life on April 10, 1986. She was later inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame on the strength of this song and the many hits she co-wrote for The Spinners, The Stylistics, and other acts on the Philadelphia International label. Phil Hurtt, who also wrote for the label, told us, "There are thousands of ways to say I Love You, and the difficulty is trying to find a nuance, a new way to say what's been said thousands of times, and Linda Creed is someone who was able to do that."

Masser and Creed wrote this for the 1977 film biography of Muhammad Ali, The Greatest, and the song first appeared on the film's soundtrack recorded by George Benson. Ali played himself in the movie, essentially recreating his defining moments intercut with clips of his actual fights. Ali was the heavyweight champ at the time of the film's release.

Houston's version was originally the B-side of "You Give Good Love" but the amount of airplay it received persuaded Arista to release it as a single

I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU by WHITNEY HOUSTON

Dolly Parton wrote this and did the original version in 1974, which went to #1 on the Country chart that year. She recorded another version for the 1982 movie The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas, which also hit #1 on the Country chart. She wrote the song after the breakup of the musical partnership she had with country singer Porter Wagoner. They were never romantically involved.

The lyrics are sad in the sense that the singer will always love the person she is singing to, yet she knows they are not right for each other and must let him go. It is often misinterpreted as a song about people who will be together forever, and even gets played at some weddings.

This was featured in the movie The Bodyguard, which Houston starred in with Kevin Costner. Houston played a famous singer and Costner her bodyguard. Of course, they fall in love. Costner picked it for the movie.

Whitney originally intended to cover Jimmy Ruffin's "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" as the lead single from The Bodyguard. However, after she found out the song had been used just one year earlier in the 1991 film Fried Green Tomatoes, Costner suggested she record Dolly Parton's country hit instead. Houston loved the choice but Clive Davis, the Arista Records boss who acted as mentor for the singer throughout her career, was puzzled by the selection. Costner, who also produced the film, knew it would be perfect for the picture and stuck to his guns. "I said, 'This is a very important song in this movie,'" he recalled to CMT. "I didn't care if it was ever on the radio. I didn't care. I said, 'We're also going to do this a cappella at the beginning. I need it to be a cappella because it shows a measure of how much she digs this guy - that she sings without music.'"

Parton's original version was a country ballad. Houston's recording had more lavish production and became a pop, soul, and adult contemporary hit. The tremendous crossover appeal meant that radio stations of many different formats played the song, giving it a huge audience. It ended up being a groundbreaker, but it was a big risk, as there wasn't much crossover between the country and R&B audiences. "Truth be told, the musical side of her camp was very unsure about this little country song," recalled Kevin Costner.

While she was crushing the convention that a soul singer shouldn't do country, Houston also proved that her fans would accept her in an on-screen interracial romance, which she had with Costner in the movie. In the film, the race issue wasn't mentioned.

This stayed at #1 US for 14 weeks, a record at the time. In 1995, this record was broken by "One Sweet Day" by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men, which held the top spot for 16 weeks. "I Will Always Love You" does hold the record for the most weeks at #1 for a song that first appeared on a soundtrack.

For a time, this was second only to "We Are The World" as the biggest-selling single ever. It was bumped to #3 n 1997, when Elton John's new version of "Candle In The Wind" became the biggest.

Houston performed this at the Grammys in 1993. It won for Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. The song also won the 1992 Soul Train Music Award for R&B Song of the Year.

It did not, however, win an Oscar, since it was not eligible for the Best Original Song award. That award can only go to songs that are written specifically for a film.

According to Kevin Costner, he really wanted Whitney Houston to star in The Bodyguard with him, so much so that he postponed shooting for a year until she was available. Costner was one of the few people in Hollywood who could convince a movie studio to do this; he had lots of sway after his movie Dances with Wolves won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1991.

The Bodyguard is the best-selling soundtrack of all time.

In 2002, while the US was preparing to go to war with Iraq, Saddam Hussein ran TV and radio ads using this song as he prepared to be re-elected. Houston's record label filed a complaint with the Iraqi mission to the United Nations.

Elvis Presley wanted to record this song but demanded half the publishing rights. Dolly Parton refused and was vindicated when years later Whitney Houston's version earned her $6 million. Parton commented to Observer Music Monthly April 2008: "'I think stories like that are the reason why younger female artists say I've influenced them."

In an interview with UK music magazine Q, Dolly Parton said she "was blown away" by Whitney's version. She said: "The way she took that simple song of mine and made it such a mighty thing, it almost became her song. Some writers say, 'Ooh, I hate the way they've done that to my song or that version wasn't what I had in mind.' I just think it's wonderful that people can take a song and do it so many different ways."

David Foster produced this song. When the decision was made to record it for the movie, Foster went to a record store and bought the Linda Ronstadt version so Whitney could learn the song. When he called Dolly Parton to let her know they were using her song, Dolly told him something very important: the Ronstadt version leaves out the last verse ("I wish you joy and happiness..."), which changes the tone of the song. Parton gave him the lyrics and Whitney recorded the full version. Foster had to tell the film's director, Mick Jackson, that he needed an extra 40 seconds of screen time, as it had been placed in the film minus the last verse.

Foster, who has produced Michael Jackson, Celine Dion and Michael Bublé, called it "The love song of the century."

The song returned to the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart following Houston's death. Its comeback was fueled by an enormous resurgence in digital sales in the week after her passing of 195,000, an increase of 6723%, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The song was performed by Amber Riley on the 'Heart' episode of Glee. The tape of the show was delivered to the Fox network the day before the untimely death of Whitney and broadcast four days after her passing. Riley's character Mercedes sings the ballad as part of a plot line revolving around her indecision over two romantic interests.

When this reached #3 in the Hot 100 in 2011, it became the fifth song to become a top 10 hit in two different chart runs. So, what were the other four? They were:

"The Twist" by Chubby Checker - #1 in 1960 and #1 in 1962.

"Monster Mash" by Bobby "Boris" Pickett and The Cryptkickers - #1 in 1962 and #10 in 1973.

"Stand By Me" by Ben E. King - #4 in 1961 and #9 in 1986.

"Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen - #9 in 1976 #2 in 1992.

After Houston died on February 11, 2012, "I Will Always Love You" was used in many tributes to the singer, as it was her best-known song. The night after Houston's death, Jennifer Hudson sang a moving rendition in honor of Houston at the Grammy Awards ceremony.

Sia Song Facts

BREATHE ME by SIA

In the video The making of Colour the Small One, Sia says: "'Breathe Me' is about feeling worried, generally anxious. Being overwhelmed by your own inner dialogue and having some sort of conniption fit and potentially doing yourself some harm, then asking for help."

This was used on the last episode of the TV show Six Feet Under during the montage where it reveals what happened in the characters' lives and their deaths.

Sia told ilikemusic.com about recording this track: "It always felt like a good song that one. Sam and Felix had put the drums and bass down, they played it all live together one night after they'd been to dinner, and I was really sick with flu and I walked in the next day and the track was there without me singing on it and it was just so sleek. I don't really listen to my own music. I don't think most people listen to their own music after they've recorded it. Some of my musician friends get really anal and listen to it all the time, analyzing it. But once I've done it, I listen to it once and put it to bed, but with that one I was like, 'yeah! Again! Again!'"

THE GREATEST by SIA (featuring KENDRICK LAMAR )

A single from the deluxe edition of This Is Acting, this is a powerful anthem about refusing to give up. The theme of perseverance and resilience is one that Sia has visited several times previously, including on her This Is Acting track "Unstoppable" and the David Guetta single "Bang My Head."

Sia wrote the song with Greg Kurstin. The American producer's other collaborations with the Australian singer-songwriter include her first US #1 hit "Cheap Thrills."

The song features a Kendrick Lamar guest verse in which the Compton rapper testifies to the wisdom he has gained through his struggles and peoples' criticism of him.

The Stacy Moscatelli-directed music video features Sia's dancing avatar Maddie Ziegler. It omits the Lamar verse and - true to form - the shy songstress herself.

For the single's promotion, Sia shared a picture of herself and Ziegler with rainbow makeup on their faces indicating a pro-LGBT message. The nightclub setting at the end of the video with bullet holes in the back wall, appears to confirm it is a message of encouragement to the gay community in the wake of the Orlando nightclub shooting, which claimed 49 lives. There are 49 dancers in the clip, including Ziegler, who wears a black wig in place of white.

CHEAP THRILLS by SIA (featuring SEAN PAUL )

This sunny jam finds Sia singing of getting ready to go clubbing:

It's Saturday and it won't be long
Gotta paint my nails, put my high heels on
It's Saturday and I won't be long
Til I hit the dance floor

Like most of the other This is Acting tracks, this was written for another artist but rejected. In this instance, Sia penned the carefree tune with Greg Kurstin ("What Doesn't Kill You (Stronger)", "Hello") for Rihanna.

"Her manager said "We want 'Diamonds.'" [Sia wrote "Diamonds" for Rihanna] We need soul. We want some music that has feeling," she recalled to Rolling Stone. "I went to Greg and that's what we came up with. I realized just as soon as I was cutting it that it sounded a little bit too Brit-pop for her. It's more Icona Pop. We did actually send it to her, but they passed on it, and then I just couldn't stop listening to it in the car."

"There's something really uplifting about it that put me in a good mood, and I would just pretend it wasn't me singing [laughs]," Sia continued. "It felt very summer and fun, and I was like, "I'll put that on there."

A remix of the track was released featuring reggae artist Sean Paul. His verse gives the song a whole new dancehall makeover. It was released as This is Acting's second single.

A black-and-white lyric video was released, parodying vintage variety shows with dancing contests. We see a new type of dance break out featuring energetic faceless dancers wearing signature Sia wigs. The visual was directed by Lior Molcho, who also worked on the clip for the This Is Acting lead single "Alive."

Directed by Sia with Daniel Askill, the song's music video is the Australian singer-songwriter's fourth collaboration with Maddie Ziegler. The young dancer previously appeared in Sia's visuals for "Chandelier," "Elastic Heart" and "Big Girls Cry."

The song was Sia's first Hot 100 chart-topper as an artist. She'd previously reached #1 as the writer of Rihanna's "Diamonds."

Sia was 40 years and seven months old when this song topped the chart. It was the first time a woman over 40 had reached the peak position since the 42-year-old Madonna achieved the feat with "Music" back in 2000.

The song was Sean Paul's fourth Hot 100 #1. He previously led with "Get Busy" in 2003, as a featured artist on Beyonce's "Baby Boy" the same year, and "Temperature" in 2006.

Asked by Billboard magazine what his reaction was when Sia first came to him about guesting on this song, Sean Paul replied: "I just thought: 'What a big sound, nice hook and melody she had put down.' I'm a huge fan of her voice. She spans generations. My mum is a big fan of her voice and her songs and writing."

Which song of 2016 had the most people reaching for their phone to find out what on earth it was? According to data released by the music identification app Shazam, "Cheap Thrills" was the year's most Shazamed song.

THE GIRL YOU LOST TO COCAINE by SIA

In this moral fable the narrator finally walks away from her needy friend, as she was tired of the friend using her as a crutch.

Sia told Stereo Subversion that although Some People Have Real Problems was an easy album to write for, "The Girl You Lost" took longer to pen than the other tracks. She explained: "It's like a bath. It's a big bath. I can sit down with my friends and play three chords or whatever or we'll hunt around and find the right three chords. Then they'll tell me what the song's about. Usually a sentence or a feeling will come or I can even just say to the person I'm with to tell me what it's about and give me a theme. Then eight minutes later, there it is. 'Academia' took eight minutes. 'Little Black Sandals' was five minutes. Then there are other songs that might take longer. 'The Girl You Lost to Cocaine' took a bit longer, but I don't remember why. I think I listened to it too much. It's different every time, but usually if it's a good one, it's like a bath."

A remix by Dutch DJ Sander van Doorn reached the Top 20 of the Netherlands charts. Van Doorn told UK dance DJ Dave Pearce how he came to work with Sia: "I got a promo from her with the Stonebridge remix and liked the track so much that I signed it to my label Doorn records for the BeNeLux. I also decided to do my own remix and that's how it came about!"

Sia told glasswerk.co.uk about the album title: "It's a note to self that when we're all complaining about our rich people's problems like a bitter latte or sh--ty traffic, there are people with no rice or maybe a lung missing who aren't complaining, if you get me."

CHANDELIER by SIA

This swooping serenade about a party girl's life was the first solo single by Sia in four years, following the release of her 2010 studio album We Are Born. (She did contribute "Elastic Heart" to The Hunger Games: Catching Fire soundtrack in 2013 with Diplo and The Weeknd). Between the two releases, the Australian singer-songwriter "retired" and began co-writing hit songs for the likes of Rihanna ("Diamonds"), David Guetta ("Titanium") and Flo Rida "Wild Ones"). Speaking with Billboard magazine, Sia discussed her decision to remain out of the spotlight. "I don't care about commercial success," she said. "I get to do what I love and communicate whatever I want."

The song stemmed from an impromptu jam session between Sia and pop producer Jesse Shatkin. "I usually think, 'Oh this would work for Rihanna, or this would be a good one for B or Katy,'" Sia said to Ryan Seacrest. "But this time I was like, 'Uh oh I think I just wrote a full-blown pop song for myself by accident!'"

Shatkin and Sia came up with the song whilst working with hit producer Greg Kurstin (Pink, Kesha, Kelly Clarkson). "At some point, Greg had to run out, and me and Sia were in his live room with his piano and drum set and just kind of jammed for a second," Shatkin recalled to MuuMuse. "Greg has a marimba, so I was playing marimba - some weird notes - and Sia was playing the piano."

"She records everything on her phone, so we just kind of figured out a chord progression together," Shatkin continued. "She sent it to me on a voice note, and I turned it into a track. She already had the melody instinctively while she was writing the chords. We were real excited that she wanted to do this for her record, and then Greg added his production. I was really proud of it."

Kurstin explained his contribution to Rock Genius: "'Chandelier' was written by Sia and Jesse Shatkin," he said. "Sia brought it in for me to work on and tie into the other songs on the record. I added some acoustic piano, Mellotron and live drums over the track. I left most of Jesse's production; which was awesome."

The song's music video features a dance performance from a Sia-wigged Maddie Ziegler. The 11-year-old star of Lifetime's Dance Moms was personally asked to be in the clip by the singer. Sia co-directed the visual with Daniel Askill, who previously helmed the visual for her hit single "Breathe Me."

Speaking with Dazed, Sia explained the blonde bob worn by her in the 1000 Forms of Fear artwork and by Maddie Ziegler in the music video is a layer of protection from the outside world. "I already have a much larger concept for this album and for how I'm going to present it and that was: I don't want to be famous," she said. "If Amy Winehouse was a beehive then I guess I'm a blonde bob. I thought 'well if that's my brand, how can I avoid having to use my face to sell something', so my intention was to create a blonde bob brand."

The song is a rejoinder to all those pop tunes that celebrate the non-stop party. It is rooted in the now-sober Sia's past struggles with alcoholism. "That's why 'Chandelier' was interesting to me. I wrote the song because there's so many party-girl anthems in pop," she told NPR. "And I thought it'd be interesting to do a different take on that."

Sia and Greg Kurstin wrote this very quickly. "'Chandelier' took like four minutes to write the chords, then like 12-15 minutes to write the lyrics," she told NPR. "Probably 10 or 15 minutes to cut the vocals."

1000 Forms Of Fear topped the US albums chart. Sia's previous best was 2008's Some People Have Real Problems, which peaked at #26. In addition to reaching #1 on the Billboard list, the LP reached the summit on the iTunes albums chart in 47 countries.

The song was a wordwide hit, topping the singles charts in France, Israel and Poland.

This song featured in a 2014 Saturday Night Live skit where Jim Carrey and Kate McKinnon each show up to a Halloween office gathering dressed as "the child dancer from Sia's 'Chandelier' music video." The sketch resolves with the pair dancing to the song throughout the entire studio.

Billboard magazine chose this as their Best Song of 2014. They said: "The towering YOLO anthem 'Chandelier' took months to reach the Top 10 of the Hot 100 chart, but pop purveyors embraced its sentiment and Sia's performance almost immediately, turning the camera-shy Australian into an American star."

Sia concealed her face during performances of this song. When she was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, she sang it with her face obscured by her wig while a mine acted out the song next to her. On The Graham Norton Show, she faced a wall while the dancer Denna Thomsen performed. Sia's faceless appearances were her reaction to the soul-sucking nature of fame and predatory, vapid celebrity journalism.

This was nominated for Grammy Awards for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Music Video and Best Pop Solo Performance, but didn't win any as Sam Smith's "Stay With Me" took the first two and Pharrell Williams' "Happy" the later two.

Sia did perform the song, however, singing it while facing a wall in a set that resembled the music video, while Kristen Wiig and Maddie Ziegler did the interpretive dance.

The video was choreographed by Ryan Heffington, who also did Sia's "Elastic Heart" clip. Speaking with Bullett magazine, he explained: "The song is about addiction, yet the video concept is more abstract than just this. What I find important is that this piece of art has so many interpretations. I don't think I could (or in fact want to) create such definition of the plot, it lives much more vibrant if I do not."

He added: "Early on I requested the architectural detailing of the character's living space and what furniture would inhabit it. Like any of our dwellings we spend an absorbent amount of time in, all material components becomes part of the physical dialogue between us and these objects - walls, furniture, hallways. Although muddled in color and sparse in content, it was a choice to have the environment be rich in means of activity for the character. How often do children find a pile of dirt and a hose the most enthralling playmates? Yes, she may be isolated from other humans or environments, but seemingly rich in imagination with the ability to utilize fantasy to entertain herself via exploring new physical conversations with what simply existed before her eyes."

Pharrell Williams/N.E.R.D Song Facts

COME GET IT BAE by PHARRELL WILLIAMS

This song finds Miley Cyrus supplying some backing vocals to Pharrell's melange of sexual metaphors. He explained to The Sun: "I wanted her on that song as I love her tone. It just felt good and that's it and I wanted to make music with people who feel."

This isn't the first time the duo have worked together, Williams also produced "4x4" and "#GETITRIGHT" for Miley's Bangerz album, (plus a couple more on the Deluxe version).

"Bae" is short for "Before Anything Else," or alternatively another way to say babe or baby.

The song soundtracks Red Bull's 2014 commercial "World of Red Bull." The advert features clips of music artist AWOLNATION and Skrillex, as well as surfers Sally Fitzgibbons and Jamie O'Brien, b-boy Wing and freestyle motocross rider Thomas Pages.

The music video finds Pharrell taking on the role of casting agent as he sits in a studio apartment with a Super 8 camera observing girls dancing. Miley makes a brief appearance in the clip where she busts out some moves without any actual twerking.

HAPPY by PHARRELL WILLIAMS

Most hit songs around this time were written by teams of writers, but this one was entirely composed by Pharrell Williams, who was formerly the N.E.R.D. lead vocalist and Neptunes producer. He wrote and recorded the song for the soundtrack of the 3D computer-animated action comedy film Despicable Me 2. Williams also penned tunes for the first Despicable Me flick, including its lead single, "Despicable Me."
Finding a way to follow a trend and be unique at the same time seems like an impossible task, but that is exactly what Williams was facing with "Happy." It could have easily drowned in the stream of other songs - like "Treasure," "Blurred Lines" and "Get Lucky" - that blended R&B, Funk and Soul if not for some clever techniques to help it ride the wave to the top of the charts.

For one, it had to be an earworm, and to do that, repetition is key. Aside from repeating the uplifting title 56 times, over 62% of the song is dedicated to its memorable chorus (about 20% more chorus time than most hits of the era). To make room for that monstrous chorus, there is no pre-chorus, solo, instrumental break or outro.

The song's visual is the world's first ever 24-hour Music video. The clip was directed by the creative duo We Are From L.A. and was filmed entirely on Steady Cam, requiring the crew to walk nearly eight miles per day over the course of 11 days. The visual plays on an all-day loop and follows more than 400 different characters enjoying daily bliss. As well as everyday people dancing through the streets of Los Angeles, we see a host of familiar faces having fun, including Despicable Me 2 stars Steve Carell and Miranda Cosgrove and Williams himself, who appears 24 times. Also showcasing their versions of happy are Tyler, The Creator and Earl Sweatshirt from Odd Future. Kelly Osbourne, Sérgio Mendes, Ana Ortiz, Issa Rae, Bevy Smith, Magic Johnson, Jimmy Kimmel Steve Martin, Janelle Monáe and Jamie Foxx. And naturally the Minions pop up in the day long promo.

If you have a whole day to kill, you can check out the full version of the video on 24hoursofhappy.com. There is also a more time-friendly version that clocks in at 4 minutes and 7 seconds.

The song plays during a pivotal moment in Despicable Me 2's storyline, and Williams wanted to re-create that feeling with the music video. "Gru, the lead character who's no longer a villain, has fallen in love and feels so much joy he literally dances through the streets," he explained. "That kind of happiness is so infectious; you can't help but smile."

Pharrell found a way to keep this song uplifting and interesting without overwhelming the listener. The momentum, tension and intensity levels (known in the biz as the MTI) are kept in a heightened state to match the feel-good mood of the song, but, of course, there has to be some variation to keep it fresh. This includes the careful implementation of background vocals, claps, conga, bass, electric piano and full drum elements to lift the song to its "happiest" state with a slight pull back on instrumentation on other parts of the song to give the chorus its full intensity.

Pharrell said during a listening party for his G I R L album that for this he attempted to temper his usual fare of "sweat and booty shaking" with a song that would reinforce joy and happiness "relentlessly."
This was the third UK #1 single in 2013 for Pharrell Williams. The Neptunes producer previously topped the charts on Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" and Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines," with writing credits on both. All three songs sold over a million copes and Williams became only the second artist after the Beatles to appear on three UK million-sellers inside 12 months.

The song featured in a Beats by Dre ad featuring people in different elated states. They included Pharrell himself dancing around the street and rapper Pusha T walking through a record store.
Pharrell told NPR that he created "seven to nine different actual full songs of trying to get that scene right" before coming up with "Happy." He explained: "With 'Happy' I went through everything that I thought was possible in my mind based off of what I understood about Gru and what I thought the people needed in terms of what the studio was looking for, and none of it was working."

"It was only until I was tapped out that I had to ask myself the fundamental question: they're asking for a song that's happy," he continued." They're asking for something where Gru is in a good mood, and that's when I realized that everything I needed was right there. I began to ask myself, 'What does feeling like a good mood feel like?' That's where 'Happy' came from, and that's how that happened. And it would have never happened if the studio wouldn't have kept telling me, 'No, it's not good enough. No, it's not good enough.'"

Williams makes sure the song never gets boring by using the "show, don't tell" rule in verse one and verse two. Instead of just telling us how happy he is, he shows he's carefree: "I'm a hot air balloon that could go to space, with the air like I don't care" and how bad news can't bring him down:

Here come bad news talking this and that, yeah,
Well, give me all you got, and don't hold it back, yeah,
Well, I should probably warn you I'll be just fine, yeah,
No offense to you, don't waste your time

This was the fourth #1 on the Hot 100 for Williams, but his first as a lead artist. He'd previously topped the charts as a featured act on Snoop Dogg's "Drop It Like It's Hot," Ludacris' "Money Maker" and Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines." Williams also produced and co-wrote two other Hot 100 chart-toppers on which he didn't have an artist billing: Nelly's "Hot In Herre" and Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl."

The song was nominated for an Oscar but lost out to the Frozen number "Let It Go."

"Trust me: when they read the results, my face was ... frozen," Pharrell joked to GQ. "But then I thought about it, and I just decided just to... let it go."

Happy's crossover appeal was demonstrated by it becoming the first song to top six distinct-format Billboard airplay charts. They were: Adult Contemporary, Adult Pop Songs, Adult R&B Songs, Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop, Pop Songs and Rhythmic Songs. Boyz II Men's "I'll Make Love To You, Green Day's "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams," "Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know," Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" (on which Williams featured) all previously led five different airplay charts.

Williams originally gave this song to Cee Lo Green but the "Forget You" singer declined to record the tune. Speaking with Howard Stern, Pharrell explained: "The powers that be at the time did not see it fit for him. There was a much bigger agenda for him, he had an album to put out. He wanted to do it but some folks on his team just felt the priority should have been on his album at the time."

This was around the tenth song Pharrell presented to Despicable Me 2's producer Chris Meledandri. "I was at zero," he revealed to W Magazine. "After nine different songs, recorded fully, they were like, 'No, no, no, no.' So I went back and wrote 'Happy.' I didn't have the melody, just the chorus. For 20 minutes after I finished, I was jumping around the room. I told Chris to listen to the song in his car, that if he didn't like 'Happy,' I didn't know what to give him."

The song title tied in nicely with the movie's licensing partner McDonald's, which included as a marketing ploy collectable Minion toys (Despicable Me's little yellow henchmen) in its Happy Meals for children.
The song went to #1 on the singles charts in the Netherlands. Its success was partially as a result of radio station 3FM airplay, as well as it featuring in a Transavia commercial.

"Weird Al" Yankovic parodied this song as "Tacky" on his 2014 album, Mandatory Fun.
This picked up Grammy Awards for Best Pop Solo Performance and Best Music Video at the 2015 ceremony. Pharrell performed the song at the event, doing a radically different arrangement while dressed as an elevator operator. He was joined in the performance by Hans Zimmer on guitar and Lang Lang on piano.
Pharrell Williams performed "Happy" on the Walking Big & Tall episode of The Simpsons sporting his signature hat. It found Pharrell being hired by Bart and Lisa Simpson to craft a new anthem for Springfield.

DESPICABLE ME by PHARRELL WILLIAMS

This is the title song from the soundtrack of Illumination Entertainment's computer-animated 3-D feature film Despicable Me. The tune was written and recorded by American recording artist Pharrell Williams, who is one half of the record production duo, The Neptunes. He is also the lead vocalist and drummer of rock band N.E.R.D.

Williams told Artist Direct the story behind this song: "I was standing there with the C.E.O. of Illumination Entertainment Chris Meledandri, Kathy Nelson and my manager. Chris told me that he really needed something that summed up the picture and the character of Gru all at once. All of a sudden, I just started thinking about bad L.A. traffic [Laughs]."

SOONER OR LATER by N.E.R.D.

A number of reviewers have noted the similarities of this piano-led song to David Bowie's "Changes."

The music video for this song was directed by The Malloys ("Icky Thump," "Don't Phunk With My Heart"), and features a cameo by professional skateboarder Rob Dyrdek, who is the star of the MTV reality series Rob & Big. Pharrell Williams of N.E.R.D had previously produced the official anthem of Dyrdek's skating crew, "Hoppin' Over Fences."

Williams explained to MTV News about how the daily headlines about the worldwide economic problems inspired the visuals for the clip. He explained: "We were talking about how the stock market crashed and how the world economy is so terrible, so the [directors] came up with this concept right around this same time."

SPAZ by N.E.R.D.

Pharrell Williams explained to Rolling Stone this not very PC song title: "Our fans want to jump around and go spastic. Hence, one of our new song titles: 'Spaz.'" In England, the term is a derogatory reference to someone with cerebral palsy, in America it is more often used to describe someone with a great deal of uncontrolled energy.

This was used in the soundtrack in some adverts for the Microsoft Zune digital products.

N.E.R.D are Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, whose day job is the production duo The Neptunes, plus their sometimes vocal partner and drummer Shay Haley. N.E.R.D stands for their basic belief that "No-one Ever Really Dies." Among the numerous hit songs The Neptunes have production credits for are "Rock Your Body" for Justin Timberlake, "Hot In Herre" for Nelly and "I'm A Slave 4 U" for Britney Spears.

Conversion therapy is stupid!

In its most general sense, a fair use is any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and “transformative” purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work. Such uses can be done without permission from the copyright owner.

I found an article about an ex-gay man and well. I felt it was only appropriate to break down this article little by little and critique the hell out it. Why you may ask? Well why not!

Please remember that your sexual orientation cannot be changed. There is nothing wrong with being gay/lesbian or bisexual. You should embrace who you are as a person and surround yourself with people who also love you for who you are. Conversion therapy is wrong and no one should have to go through this.

Dean Bailey, 50, is not afraid to tell anyone he is living proof that ‘sexual orientation’ can in fact be changed. But he prefers to use the word ‘restored’ rather than ‘changed.’

[I would be ashamed to tell someone this. You’ve been brainwashed for all the wrong reasons. There is nothing wrong with being ‘gay’ and well to be honest I doubt you were. It sounds as if you are bisexual and came to terms with your attraction to both, but instead of embracing it. You’re basically suppressing it which is the worst thing you can do to yourself. You have only one life to live, why not live it being happy with yourself 100%?]

Bailey remembers how from an early age he felt different from other boys. He felt he did not fit in and thought of himself as awkward, out of place. He remembers never feeling treasured or affirmed by his dad who was an alcoholic and who consumed pornography. Bailey believes this began a pattern of turning to other males to find the affirmation he never received from his dad.

[I grew up also feeling different from the rest of the boys. I however didn’t go around needing validation from other ‘men’ because I didn’t get that from my father. I understand that at the time you wanted a father figure that you didn’t have at home, which is fine but it still doesn’t answer the question of how you were gay one moment straight the next. It wasn’t God’s Plan because God doesn’t exist and if he did this is a fucked up way to go about doing so.]

When a new outgoing boy began to attend school when Bailey was in grade three, he remembers trying hard to become the boy’s friend. It was during a sleepover at the boy’s house that Bailey was introduced to sexual play, including streaking and oral copulation. The experience not only robbed him of his childhood innocence, but awakened in him a sense of sexual curiosity.

[Obviously you were at your curious stage which ‘everyone’ goes through. It sounds to me that instead of embracing the decisions you’ve made, you are beating yourself up over them. We all make decisions that we regret in life but that doesn’t mean that you need to punish yourself for them. I gave up my virginity to someone who I didn’t even care for. Yes, at that age you don’t think things through, and all you can do is learn and grow from that.]

From here, Bailey became preoccupied with images of male nudity and with taking more daring sexual risks with different boys. As he grew older, the sexual acts Bailey performed with other boys became as a source of comfort to him, making him believe he was being loved and accepted. But while such acts would make him feel good for a while, he says they were never able to help him overcome the constant theme of emptiness and brokenness he felt inside. The sexual activities quickly became addictive.

[Performing sexual acts will not validate a love or need of acceptance that you are seeking. You can have sex with someone and not ‘love’ them. The only way you can get love and acceptance is from yourself. You cannot seek that from anyone. People will tell you that they love you to get what they want from you, but that’s not love it’s manipulation. Sex can get addicting I understand that but the way you’re using it here is as a cooping mechanism for your sorrows instead of facing them head on. This can happen to anyone in different scenarios, I’m not seeing how this proved you needed to be converted? I could see you having a drastic life change because anonymous sex is not safe at all.]

When a schoolgirl refused to go on a date with him that seemed to signal to the now-teenage Bailey that he was not a normal guy. Then, a few years later, a sexually awkward one-night stand with a woman seemed to confirm to him that he did not have what it took to be a man.

[Welcome to reality! You will come across people who won’t find you attractive and you’re attracted to them and vice versa. One awkward sexual encounter shouldn’t make you question your ‘manhood’. (Side note: You’re having way too much sex.) I understand you have a very uncomfortable moment when having sex with someone. It happens to us all; you are taking this way over the top now.]

Bailey was now a young man in the military. Although in the meantime he had gotten married, he continued to crave male intimacy and experience gripping same-sex attractions. An intimate but non-sexual encounter with a military male friend whom he greatly admired eventually led to explicit homosexual behaviors.

[You are struggling with your bisexuality and also dragged someone else along for the ride. It isn’t fair to you or that person that you are holding these feelings inside. You obviously have a strong attraction to men and that’s nothing to be ashamed of. Instead of hiding it like some type of illness (which it is not) you should embrace who you are as a person. If you can’t love yourself how in the hell can you love someone else?]

His previous homosexual experiences drove him to seek answers to his insecurities through further homosexual encounters. A downwards spiral ensued as Bailey attempted to satisfy his desires, but only saw them grow in intensity the more he indulged them. Looking back, Bailey now realizes how homosexual acts had become an addiction for him.

[Hold on just a minute! You may have had these feelings but that’s just downright unfair of you to classify every single gay person as sex crazed people. We all are not sex crazed just like not all heterosexuals are homophobic! You don’t have an illness, what you are dealing with is life and the decisions you make have a cause an effect. I’m not saying your orientation is a choice but you having sex with all these random people that’s a fucking choice! You can’t find comfort in sexual activities, especially if you are seeking validation from those people.]

Bailey credits God for acting powerfully in his life to save him from himself, change his life for the good, and ultimately bring about his deliverance from homosexual attractions. God led him on a journey of trust that ultimately led to the heart of Jesus Christ. Here Bailey experienced the love, acceptance, and affirmation he had always craved.

[You can fuck off with that shit! God was the one who put you in this situation in the first place! Being gay is not an illness and shouldn’t be treated as such. I personally don’t believe in god but if he did exist he is a major asshole. Your attraction to men is natural and the fact that you’re treating this as if it’s something wrong with you deeply disturbs me. I can’t muster the words to express how awful this testimony is.]

 To put it simply, says Bailey, he fell in love with the person of Jesus. He experienced Him through prayer and through reading the Bible. All Bailey wanted now was to become more like Jesus, more Christ-like. As he began acting more and more on this desire, Bailey noticed a transformation begin to take place in his sexual desires. The homosexual desires began to decrease. For the first time in his life, Bailey began to see himself differently, this time through the eyes of a Savior who — he now realized — loved him unconditionally.

[You can’t love Jesus because he doesn’t even exist! How does one become more Christ-like? Spite all your enemies and threaten them with eternal damnation for not believing in your god? Secondly, if Jesus did exist he was a jerk! I doubt anyone wants to be a jerk. What you are experiencing is brainwashing and indoctrination into a religion that doesn’t give a flying fuck about you unless you worship blindly with them.]