"Sucker"
Single by Jonas Brothers
from the album Happiness Begins
Released	March 1, 2019 (2019-03-01)
Recorded	January 2019
Studio	Patriot Studios (United States) St Regis (Toronto)
Genre	Pop rock[1][2] dance-rock[2] tropical[3]
Length	3:01
Label	Republic
Songwriter(s)	Ryan Tedder Louis Bell Mustafa Ahmed Adam Feeney Homer Steinweiss Nicholas Jonas Joseph Jonas Kevin Jonas II
Composer(s)	Ryan Tedder
Producer(s)	Ryan Tedder[a]
Jonas Brothers singles chronology
"First Time" (2013) "Sucker" (2019) "Cool" (2019)
Music video
"Sucker" on YouTube

"Sucker" is a song by American pop rock band Jonas Brothers. The song was released on March 1, 2019, through Republic Records. It is the group's first single released together in six years, since their reunion a day before the song was released.^[5][6] Ryan Tedder wrote and produced the song alongside the group co-writing with Louis Bell, Mustafa Ahmed and Homer Steinweiss. The song was also co-produced by Frank Dukes. The Jonas Brothers appeared on The Late Late Show with James Corden each night from March 4 to 7 to promote the track.^[6] It became the brothers' biggest hit single to date, reaching number one in several countries, including Australia, Canada, Latvia, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Slovakia and the United States.^[7]

The official music video for "Sucker" featured their wives: Priyanka Chopra Jonas (Nick's wife), Sophie Turner (Joe's then-fiancée and now ex-wife) and Danielle Jonas (Kevin's wife). The song was nominated for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards^[8] and in four categories at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards, including Video of the Year, winning for Best Pop Video.^[9][10]

Background and composition

The group had blacked out their social media prior to announcing the release on February 28.^[11] Us Weekly had also revealed the title of the song before the announcement.^[11] On The Late Late Show with James Corden, Nick Jonas stated that "We've kept this a secret now for almost seven, eight months."^[12] In terms of musical notation, the song is composed in ⁴
₄ time and the key of C♯ minor with moderately fast tempo of 138 beats per minute. The band's vocals span a range of B₃ to C♯₅.^[13]

Commercial performance

In the United States, "Sucker" debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and the US Hot Digital Songs chart, with 88,000 copies sold in its first week. It was the thirty-fourth song to debut atop the Billboard Hot 100. "Sucker" became the Jonas Brothers' first number-one song and the first number one by a boy band on the chart since 2003's "Bump, Bump, Bump" by B2K featuring P. Diddy. It became the band's first entry on the chart since 2013's "Pom Poms" and their first top 10 since 2008's "Tonight". The Jonas Brothers also became the second group in a lead role in history to have a song debuted at number one after Aerosmith's Armageddon theme song "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" and the first group in this century to achieve this.^[14] It fell to number six the following week, but as airplay continued to rise the song was able to return to the top five in May and reached as high as number three on May 27, while also reaching the top of the Radio Songs chart. The song ultimately spent 22 weeks in the top ten of the chart before falling 9–12 on August 17, 2019. In the April 20, 2019 issue of Billboard's Dance/Mix Show Airplay Chart, "Sucker" became the Jonas' first number one, surging to the top spot within four weeks.^[15][16]

This was also their first song in the United Kingdom to chart the Top 10 and consequently, the Top 5, debuting at number 6 and later peaking at number 4 on the fourth week.^[17]

As of May 8, 2019, the song had over 630 million global streams.^[18]

Music video

The music video was directed by Anthony Mandler^[19] and premiered showcasing the brothers with each of their significant others: Kevin's wife Danielle (née Deleasa), Nick's wife Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and Joe's then–fiancée Sophie Turner.^[20] It was filmed in Hertfordshire at Hatfield House, the home of the Marquess of Salisbury, where Queen Elizabeth I grew up and featured corgis, which are the favorite breed of Queen Elizabeth II.^[21]

Their outfits were designed by Prabal Gurung, from his debut menswear line.^[22]

The video cites The Blue Angel with Sophie Turner smoking in blue négligée and top hat as Lola Lola (Marlene Dietrich) while Joe Jonas embarrasses himself in a bondage position as Professor Immanuel Rath (Emil Jannings).

Awards and nominations

Live performances

On March 7, 2019, the Jonas Brothers performed the song for the first time on The Late Late Show with James Corden.^[26] On May 2, 2019, they performed the song at the Billboard Music Awards^[27] along with Nick's debut hit Jealous and Joe's hit song Cake by the Ocean with his band DNCE. On May 11, 2019, they performed the song again on Saturday Night Live as the musical guests.^[28] They also performed the song on the first episode of All That's revival on June 15, 2019.^[29] The Jonas Brothers performed "Sucker" along "X" (without Karol G) and "What A Man Gotta Do" as Exclusive 'home' sessions recorded especially for BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend.^[30]

Plagiarism allegations

American rock band, Portugal. The Man accused the Jonas Brothers' song as copying their 2017 single, "Feel It Still".^[31][32] Portugal. The Man tweeted: "To be fair, the chorus of Feel It Still sounds very similar to Please Mister Postman by the Marvelettes... Which we respectfully cleared and thanked them for every chance we got. As one does. @jonasbrothers"^[33] The band later clarified saying that they were "not mad at all", and that they "actually dig a lot of their music and Nick's solo records".^[34]

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from Tidal.^[35]

Charts