"Rockabye" is a song by British electronic group Clean Bandit, featuring English singer Anne-Marie as main vocalist together with Jamaican dancehall singer Sean Paul. It was released on 21 October 2016 and was their first single since Neil Amin-Smith's departure from the group and it serves as the second single from their second studio album, What Is Love?. The song is about hardships of single mothers and alludes to the nursery rhyme, Rock-a-bye Baby. "Rockabye" is included on the deluxe edition of Anne-Marie's debut studio album, Speak Your Mind. The song became the UKChristmas number one for 2016 on 23 December 2016. It is the first song in chart history to become Christmas number one after already being at the top of the charts for six weeks. In total, the song spent 9 weeks at the summit of the UK Singles Chart while also topping the charts in over 20 other countries.
Background and composition
"Rockabye" was written by Anne-Marie and Norwegian singer Ina Wroldsen. Wroldsen wrote the lyrics about her son, which, according to Grace Chatto, "is why it rings so true for and is so emotional and special." Wroldsen originally provided the vocal for the song but at last minute was swapped for Anne-Marie. The band fought their label to get Ina on the records but failed. Grace described the situation a terrible experience and she almost quit the band because she felt "I did feel like I couldn’t do it anymore because the idea that my business was hurting people … that was really painful. I went completely crazy for a while after that. I just had to carry on, but inside it was really hard.”. Clean Bandit announced the single on 21 October 2016, just two days after Neil Amin-Smith quit the band. Talking to Digital Spy, Chatto said, "We've wanted to work with Sean Paul for a long, long while and it's a dream that we've managed to finally do it. Anne-Marie tells the story and we love her voice. We first heard her singing with Rudimental and we've met her at a million festivals over the past couple of years – it's been so lovely to collaborate together." "Rockabye" is written in the key of A minor. It was composed in common time with a tempo of 102 beats per minute, and follows a chord progression of Am–F–G–Em. The vocals span from G3 to E5.
Music video
The video for the song was released on 21 October 2016, and has a running time of 4 minutes and 13 seconds. Parts of it were shot on location in Cap Sa Sal, Begur, Spain and the George Tavern, London. The video has over 2.3 billion views on YouTube as of June 2020, making it the 34th most viewed video on the site.
Commercial performance
On 28 October 2016, "Rockabye" entered the UK Singles Chart at number 7. The following week, it climbed to 3, before high performance in streaming got it to number one on its third week, dethroning "Shout Out to My Ex" by Little Mix, making it their second number one after "Rather Be". It subsequently spent nine consecutive weeks at number one, became Clean Bandit's first number one single in Australia, and additionally reached number one in Austria, Finland, Germany, the Republic of Ireland, New Zealand and Switzerland. On 23 December 2016, having already spent six weeks on top of the charts, "Rockabye" became the Christmas number one for 2016, making it the first song to do so that was not an X Factor winner's song, charity single, or stunt song since "Mad World" in 2003. However, it sold just 57,631 copies, becoming the lowest-selling Christmas number one of all time due to being helped by streaming. In the United States, "Rockabye" debuted at number 100 on the BillboardHot 100 during the week of 24 December 2016, becoming Clean Bandit's first entry in this chart since "Rather Be" in 2014. It has since reached the Top 10, reaching a current peak of number nine, the group's highest-charting song, exceeding the number 10 peak of "Rather Be". It is also Anne-Marie's first entry on the Billboard Hot 100. On Billboards Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart, the song reached number one in its 18 February 2017 issue, giving both Clean Bandit and Sean Paul their second number one on this chart, as well as Anne-Marie's first.
