"See You Again"
Single by Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth
from the album Furious 7: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Released	March 10, 2015 (2015-03-10)
Recorded	2014
Genre	Hip hop pop rap
Length	3:50[1]
Label	Atlantic
Songwriter(s)	Cameron Thomaz Charlie Puth Justin Franks Andrew Cedar Dann Hume Josh Hardy Phoebe Cockburn
Producer(s)	Charlie Puth DJ Frank E Andrew Cedar Kevin Weaver Mike Caren
Wiz Khalifa singles chronology
"You and Your Friends" (2014) "See You Again" (2015) "For Everybody" (2015)
Charlie Puth singles chronology
"Marvin Gaye" (2015) "See You Again" (2015) "One Call Away" (2015)
Fast & Furious soundtrack singles chronology
"How Bad Do You Want It (Oh Yeah)" (2015) "See You Again" (2015) "Go Off" (2017)
Music video
"See You Again" on YouTube

"See You Again" is a song by American rapper and singer Wiz Khalifa featuring fellow American singer-songwriter Charlie Puth. It was commissioned for the soundtrack of the 2015 film Furious 7 as a tribute to Fast & Furious actor Paul Walker, who died in a single-vehicle crash on November 30, 2013. The song was released on March 10, 2015, as the soundtrack's lead single in the United States. It was later included as a bonus track on the international release of Puth's debut album, Nine Track Mind.

"See You Again" became both artists' biggest single to date. It spent 12 non-consecutive weeks atop the US Billboard Hot 100, tying Eminem's "Lose Yourself" for the second longest-running rap number-one single in the country behind Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road", and topped the UK Singles Chart for two consecutive weeks.^[2] It also reached number one in several other countries including Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand and Switzerland. The song held the record for the most-streamed track in a single day on Spotify in the United States, until it was surpassed by One Direction's "Drag Me Down".^[3] It set the record for most streams in a single week worldwide, and in the United Kingdom also in a single week.

The music video was the most-viewed video on YouTube from July 10 to August 4, 2017. "See You Again" received three nominations at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards: Song of the Year, Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and Best Song Written for Visual Media. It was also shortlisted for the Song of the Year for the BBC Music Awards and was nominated for Best Original Song at the 73rd Golden Globe Awards.^[4] "See You Again" was the best selling-song of 2015 worldwide, with combined sales and track-equivalent streams of 20.9 million units according to IFPI.^[5] It is certified Diamond by the RIAA.^[6] The song is one of the most-streamed songs of all time on Spotify, with over 1.8 billion streams.^[7]

Writing and development

Chris Brown (left) and Eminem (right) were two of the artists originally enlisted to perform the song.

"See You Again" was written by DJ Frank E, Charlie Puth, Wiz Khalifa, and Andrew Cedar. It was produced by DJ Frank E, Charlie Puth, and Andrew Cedar,^[8] with mixing provided by Manny Marroquin. Frank E and Puth were approached by their publishing company, Artist Publishing Group, to develop a melody that could pay tribute to actor Paul Walker for the film Furious 7 (2015). His publishing company's president Ben Maddahi then set up a first-time studio session for Puth with DJ Frank E at a studio in Los Angeles.^[9]

Puth, talking about the first studio session for the song, said that when he went to the studio " were working on this song" and it already had the "See You Again" chords, but it was a "synthy" production for a "dance song", and he later suggested the idea of the song being a piano ballad instead.^[10] Puth became emotionally attached while writing the lyrics of the track, recalling Vail Cerullo, a friend of Puth's from his time at Berklee College of Music, who died in a motorcycle accident in 2012.^[11][12] Puth and DJ Frank E's output from the session was well received by Furious 7 filmmakers, Universal Pictures, and Atlantic. As a result, the track was further commissioned to include rapped verses based on the subject of family, combined with Puth's vocals and a piano melody. The song then went through an extensive note-giving and production process.^[13] Before choosing Wiz Khalifa's version, several other rappers were offered to record the rapped parts of the song, including Eminem, 50 Cent and Tyga.^[14][15][16] Puth was at first reluctant that the film's soundtrack label, Atlantic Records, would choose his vocal for the song. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Puth recalled, "It just seemed to occur from out of nowhere. And basically 10 minutes later Justin (Franks ) and I wrote it, we sent it off, and I thought we'd never hear about it again".^[13] Puth revealed on The Howard Stern Show that Atlantic originally wanted to get a more established singer to sing his part, having Chris Brown, Sam Smith, Jason Derulo and others recording their own versions of the song's chorus. Puth stated that also British singer Adele "wanted to cut it". According to Puth, "none of the vocals had the feeling ... What I was singing about specifically, you just couldn't hear it in their voice. I think Chris Brown got the closest to it, but they ended up, lucky me, going with my vocal".^[10][17]

The song was chosen to be played at the end of the film. After Brian O'Conner's retirement send-off, the song can be heard as Brian and Dominic Toretto drive on a mountain road, parting ways as they reach a fork.^[13]

Composition

"See You Again" is a hip-hop and pop-rap ballad.^[18][19][20] It is written in the key of B♭ major with a time signature of ⁴
₄ and has a tempo of 80 beats per minute (andante/andantino).^[21] The chorus of the song has 180 background vocal layers.^[22]

Commercial performance

North America

In the United States, "See You Again" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts dated March 19, 2015, at number 100 and number 29 respectively, with first-week sales of 25,000 copies.^[23][24] On the chart issued for April 18, 2015, the song climbed from number 84 to number ten on the Billboard Hot 100, selling 168,000 copies as the chart's "Digital Gainer" that week. Its climb into the top ten was the chart's biggest since Katy Perry's "Roar" (2013).^[25] In its fifth week, "See You Again" sold 464,000 copies and rose from number ten to number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The song marked Khalifa's second number one on the chart, following "Black and Yellow" (2011), and Puth's first.^[26] It topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 12 non-consecutive weeks. After its 12th week it was finally knocked off the top spot by Omi's hit, "Cheerleader". It is one of 33 songs to reach number one for at least 10 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100.^[27][28][29] The song also topped the Mainstream Top 40 and Rhythmic charts for four weeks and three weeks respectively.^[28][30][31] The song also topped Hot Rap Songs and Hot R&B Hip Hip Songs for 14 weeks each. As of July 7, 2016, "See You Again" has sold a total of 4,122,938 copies in the United States.^[32] The song fell out of the top ten on the chart dated August 29, 2015, spending a total of 19 weeks in the top ten.

The song holds the record for the most-streamed track in a single day on Spotify in the United States. It set the record for most streams in a single week worldwide during April 6 to April 12 (streamed 21.9 million times), and in the United Kingdom in a single week (streamed 3.72 million times from April 20 to April 26, 2015), which was broken by Justin Bieber's "What Do You Mean?" (streamed 3.87 million times from September 17 to September 23, 2015).^[33][34][35]

Europe and Oceania

"See You Again" debuted at number 20 on the UK Singles Chart issued for April 12, 2015, on streaming alone. It registered 1.8 million streams in the United Kingdom that week.^[36] Following its digital release, the song climbed to number one on the chart dated April 19, 2015. It sold 193,000 units that week, becoming the fastest-selling single in the United Kingdom of 2015. The song also broke the streaming record in the United Kingdom that week with a total of 3.68 million streams that week. It marked Khalifa's second number one on the chart—following his feature on Maroon 5's "Payphone" (2012)—and Puth's first.^[37] "See You Again" sold 142,000 units during its first week at number one, and broke its own streaming record with 3.72 million streams that week.^[35] Omi's "Cheerleader" replaced "See You Again" at number one the following week, selling approximately 1,000 units more than "See You Again" at number two.^[38]

In New Zealand, "See You Again" debuted at number 34 on the New Zealand Singles Chart dated March 30, 2015.^[39] It topped the chart in its third week, becoming Khalifa and Puth's first number one single in the country.^[40] In Australia, "See You Again" rose from number 59 to number one on the Australian Singles Chart issued for April 11, 2015, marking Khalifa and Puth's first number one hit on the chart. The song's climb to number one was the largest in Australian Singles Chart history.^[41]

Music video

The music video for "See You Again" was directed by Marc Klasfeld.^[42] It was uploaded to YouTube on April 6, 2015.

Background

The "See You Again" music video was the most-viewed video on YouTube from July 10 to August 4, 2017,^[43][44] and the most-liked video on the site from August 27, 2016, to July 25, 2017. As of April 9, 2024, it has received over 6.2 billion views and over 42.9 million likes, making it the site's sixth most-viewed and third most-liked video.^[45][46] It was the second video ever to record two billion^[47] and three billion views,^[48] the third video ever to reach four billion views^[49] and the fourth video ever to reach five billion views.^[50]

Synopsis

The video begins with a shot of a cliff top at sunset, followed by Khalifa walking down a highway road. Puth is then shown singing the chorus whilst sitting at, and playing, a piano located between two cars. Khalifa's rap verses and Puth singing the second chorus and bridge are interspersed with footage from Furious 7. After the bridge, the final movie scene shows Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and Brian O'Conner (Cody Walker, filling in for his brother, Paul) driving together, pulled over in their cars and smiling at each other one last time before driving away on separate roads into the sunset. After the camera pans up into the sky, the screen turns white, the words "For Paul" appear on screen and the video ends.

Reception

The video was the most viewed video on YouTube from July 10, 2017, when it surpassed "Gangnam Style" by Psy,^[51] to August 4 of that year, when it was surpassed by "Despacito" by Luis Fonsi featuring Daddy Yankee.^[44] The video was nominated for Best Hip-Hop Video and Best Collaboration at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards, but lost both.^[52] On August 27, 2016, the music video surpassed "Gangnam Style" as YouTube's most liked video of all time, after "Gangnam Style" held the record for almost 4 years. Also, on February 19, 2017, the music video succeeded "Gangnam Style" as the most rated YouTube video of all time with over 13.8 million total ratings. It has since been surpassed by "Despacito" as the most viewed, liked and rated video on YouTube.

Live performances

Khalifa and Puth performed "See You Again" live on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in March 2015 and on an episode of Saturday Night Live in May 2015.^[53] Diesel also performed the song live as a tribute to Paul Walker during the 2015 MTV Movie Awards.^[54] Khalifa and Puth reprised the song in a performance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in April 2015.^[55] Khalifa has performed the song, without Puth, as part of the Boys of Zummer Tour, in which Khalifa co-headlined with Fall Out Boy. Puth performed the song at the Capital Jingle Bell Ball in 2015. Khalifa also performed the song on season 8 of The Voice, with season 7 finalist Chris Jamison performing Puth's vocals. Wiz Khalifa also performed the song at the 2016 Mnet Asian Music Awards. The intentions were for the song to be performed as a collaboration between Wiz Khalifa and Taeyeon, the leader of K-pop girl group Girls' Generation, but the performance was later cancelled for unknown reasons.^[56] Khalifa and Puth also performed the song at the 2016 Kids' Choice Awards.^[57]

On January 31, 2020, Khalifa and Puth performed "See You Again" live during halftime of a Portland Trail Blazers-Los Angeles Lakers game at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, as a tribute to Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven other victims of the Calabasas helicopter crash.^[58] On January 15, 2024, Puth and The War and Treaty performed "See You Again" along with "I'll Be There for You" at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards, during the In Memoriam segment.^[59][60]

Awards and nominations

Track listing

Credits and personnel

• Andrew Cedar – songwriter, producer
• DJ Frank E (Justin Franks) – songwriter, producer
• Charlie Puth – songwriter, vocals, producer
• Brian Tyler – string arranger, conductor
• Wiz Khalifa (Cameron Thomaz) – songwriter, vocals
• Annie & Chloe – edited version, vocals, producers

Credits adapted from Soundtrack.Net^[64] and AllMusic^[65]

Charts