"Swalla" is a song by American singer Jason Derulo featuring rappers Nicki Minaj and Ty Dolla $ign, released on February 24, 2017, by Warner Bros. Records. The song was written by Derulo, Minaj, Dolla $ign, Ricky Reed, LunchMoney Lewis, Robert Diggs, Jacob Kasher Hindlin and Russell Jones. The song was originally intended to be the first single from Jason Derulo's fifth studio album, then titled 777, but was later left off the track listing and instead issued as a standalone single.
"I never believe in forcing a collaboration. You know, I’m a fan of both of theirs and I thought that they fit the track perfectly. It’s one of those ones that’ll get you up and doing your thing. I feel like it’s gonna stick out on the radio. There’s nothing that sounds like it."
Parts of the chorus are created as an interpolation of ODB's song "Shimmy Shimmy Ya". On May 12, 2017, the trio released "Swalla ", a slow-paced acoustic remix of the original song. In an interview with The Fader Derulo said about the remix: "It was so nice we had to do it twice! The original version is the ultimate club track, so the idea was to give people the flip side of the song. The subject matter and melody is so sexy, but you might miss the ‘sexy’ in all the fun of ‘Swalla.’ So, After Dark is on the opposite side of the spectrum and is SURE to set the mood."
Critical reception
Justin Ivey from XXL wrote that Minaj "comes through to close out the track with bars that steal the show". Joshua Espinoza of Complex wrote that "Jason and Ty handle their verses nicely, but Nicki is definitely the star", also saying that the song "definitely has potential". Rap-Up also praised Minaj's verse saying that she "anchors the track with a third and final verse that many will likely assume is another thinly-veiled jab at Remy Ma". Hilary Hughes from MTV News wrote that this is a "steamy number that has all three chiming in over a wobbly beat that would feel right at home on the floor of a beach club in the Caribbean".
Music video
On February 24, 2017, the official lyric video for "Swalla", directed by Alex Lockett, was uploaded to Derulo's YouTube channel. The music video premiered on March 17, 2017. As of July 2020, the music video had received over 1.5 billion views on YouTube.
This song is featured on "BLACKPINK IN YOUR AREA" World Tour as Blackpink member Lisa's solo dance number in Asia, North America & Europe setlist. On January 11, 2019, a fan took a video from the tour in Thailand and the video became popular with over 7 million views. It is announced that this song will appear in Produce X 101 as one of the dance evaluation songs along with Believer by Imagine Dragons & Finesse by Bruno Mars & Cardi B
