Scars to Your Beautiful


"Scars to Your Beautiful" is a song recorded by Canadian singer and songwriter Alessia Cara. Def Jam Recordings and Universal Music Group serviced it to contemporary hit radio on July 26, 2016, as the third single from her debut studio album Know-It-All. The song was written by Alessia Caracciolo, Warren Felder, Andrew Wansel, Coleridge Tillman and Justin Franks, and produced by Pop & Oak and the latter two.
It peaked at number eight and thus became Alessia Cara's second top-ten single on US Billboard Hot 100.

Background

In an interview with Idolator's Mike Wass, Cara stated about the song,

Critical reception

The Guardians Kitty Empire said that "There's substance on Scars to Your Beautiful, where Cara tackles the beauty myth à la Beyoncé. The verses pack some good stuff – 'What's a little bit of hunger? I can go a little bit longer.'" and later went on to say "the thumping motivational chorus merely suggests we are all stars." Katy Iandoli of Idolator stated "Scars to Your Beautiful is a modern-day version of TLC's 'Unpretty', in its acknowledgment of the beauty in both visible and invisible imperfections."
Billboard ranked "Scars to Your Beautiful" at number 77 on their Billboards 100 Best Pop Songs of 2016: Critics' Picks" list, commenting “Body-positivity anthems typically don't get this dark, but on "Scars To Your Beautiful," Alessia Cara isn't afraid to talk cutting, tears and eating disorders, before getting to the uplifting chorus, where she delivers some of the most empowering, horizon-expanding lyrics of this year: ‘You don't have to change a thing / The world could change its heart.’”

Music video

The music video was published on July 11, 2016, with a cameo appearance by singer JoJo.

Background

On the concept of the music video, Cara said in an interview with Cosmopolitan: "I wanted to do this kind of video for a very long time. Since we had this song — and since we knew it was going to be a single — I had this vision of many different cinematic shots of different kinds of people. I wanted all kinds of people — young, old, whatever their situation, whether it's visible scars, non-visible scars — just a bunch of different women, and there are some men in there as well because it can reach out to guys too. But I wanted real shots of real people telling their stories, and showing the story through little vignettes."

Usage in media

The song is featured in the television shows The Bold Type and .
The song was used in the international trailer of A Wrinkle in Time, as well as the background music for the introduction video of Dirt Rally 2.0.
In 2018, the song was featured in television commercials for ULTA Beauty.

Track listing

  1. "Scars to Your Beautiful" – 3:50
  2. "Scars to Your Beautiful" – 3:19
  1. "Scars to Your Beautiful" – 4:22
  2. "Scars to Your Beautiful" – 3:19
  3. "Scars to Your Beautiful" – 4:28
  4. "Scars to Your Beautiful" – 3:51
  5. "Scars to Your Beautiful" – 3:32

    Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history