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“American Boy”
Worldwide single cover.
Single by Estelle featuring Kanye West from the album Shine
B-side	"Life to Me"
Released	March 24, 2008 (2008-03-24) (See release history)
Format	CD single, digital download
Genre	Dance-pop, post-disco1, house
Length	3:57 (Radio edit) 4:44 (Album version)
Label	Atlantic
Writer(s)	Kanye West, Will.i.am, Caleb Speir, Josh Lopez, Keith Harris
Producer	Will.i.am
Certification	Platinum (U.S.)
Estelle U.K. singles chronology
"Wait a Minute (Just a Touch)" (2007) "American Boy" (2008) "No Substitute Love" (2008)
Estelle U.S. singles chronology
— "American Boy" (2008) "Come Over (rmx)" (2008) Kanye West singles chronology "Finer Things" (2008) "American Boy" (2008) "Put On" (2008) Alternate cover Alternate single cover.

"American Boy" is the Grammy-nominated second single from the album Shine by English hip hop singer Estelle and features American rapper Kanye West. The song is her first international single.

Contents 1 Song information 2 Chart performance 3 In visual media 4 Music video 5 Track listings and formats 6 Release history 7 Charts 8 References 9 External links

Song information

Written by Mark Kilianski, and produced by will.i.am, the song uses samples from "Impatient" from his 2007 album Songs About Girls, as well as "& Down" by Boys Noize. "American Boy" was released as the second single from Shine. It was released in the UK, as a download, on 21 March 2008 and physically on 24 March 2008.

The song has been covered and parodied internationally. Sam Sparro performed an acoustic version of the song on the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge which was then released as a B-Side to his single 21st Century Life. It was remixed by Busta Rhymes,² and spoofed by Nova 100 as "Australian Boy" ³, "Armenian Boy" by Australian radio hosts Hamish & Andy and "Somerset Boy" by Chris Moyles on BBC Radio 1. House artist Peven Everett released a song and video insulting the featured guest on "American Boy," Kanye West, called "Fake American Boy."⁴ And also "Canadian Boy", by radio host Mad Dog, with help of Canadian artist Suzie McNeil on Mix 99.9 in Toronto.

On 19 August 2008, Shine was removed from iTunes U.S. store, due to Estelle's record label order. In its place was offered a cover version on a compilation album titled Pop Picks. The original recording however, remains available on the iTunes UK store. The U.S. version on iTunes is explicit, however it is not listed as such.

After quickly dropping in Billboard rankings, on 9 September 2008, Shine reappeared for purchase in the iTunes U.S. store. As a result of accumulated demand during the period of unavailability, "American Boy" quickly re-entered the top 100 songs chart, which prompted the song to jump four spots on the Billboard Hot 100 from #57 to #53.⁵

"American Boy" reached a spot in the top 6 of iTunes "Top Songs" by 13 September 2008. Those sales levels in iTunes added the 10,000 ⁶ copies of Shine sold in the now-reversed album-only experiment. During that time, the Shine Album still generated 5,000 ⁷ sales per week through offline sales, the UK iTunes, and non iTunes digital music channels such as Amazon which agreed to continue album sales while abiding by the publisher's wish to block sales of the single. The young Belgian DJ VNNR made a remix of Estelle's American Boy. The song is nominated for Song of the Year at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards to be held in February 8, 2009.This song was #7 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of 2008.⁸

Chart performance

"American Boy" is Estelle's biggest hit charting in 18 different official charts in the world. The single debuted at number 72 in UK Singles Chart. The following week, the song jumped 71 spots from number 72 to number 1 in the UK Singles Chart and stayed four weeks at the summit of the chart. The single has also charted on the Irish Singles Chart the same week where it entered at number eight on downloads and peaked at number two.

In the U.S, the song debuted at #98, her first appearance in Billboard Hot 100. The single rose to #9 on the chart and #8 on Hot Digital Songs.⁹ As previously mentioned above, the single and its parent album were then removed from the U.S iTunes store, prompting the single to plummet from #11 to #37 on the following week's Hot 100.¹⁰ The album and song were then added back to the iTunes store on 9 September 2008. The song quickly returned to the top ten on iTunes, and the week after this, "American Boy" reached a new peak on the Hot 100 of #9, becoming Estelle's first U.S. top ten hit. Also, it debuted at #96¹¹ and peaked at #9¹² on the Canadian Hot 100.

The single debuted at number 7¹³ in Australia and so far peaked number 3.¹⁴ "American Boy" is Estelle's highest charting single since "1980", which peaked number 36. In New Zealand the single first appeared on 1 April 2008 on New Zealand Chart debuting at number 25.¹⁵ After a couple of weeks, it cracked the top 5 of the chart peaking number 5.¹⁶ It was also her first appearance in New Zealand RIANZ Chart.

In addition, the song reached top 10 in more than 14 countries including Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland and Canada.

On 27 July 2008, the song moved up five places from #28 to #23 in the UK, but dropped 7 places the following week to #30.

There was also a remix of the song called "Canadian Boy" by Canadian rapper Famous & Andreena Mill.

In visual media

• The song is heard on the Tv-Show Ghost Whisperer episode Save Our Souls 4x04

Music video

The music video for "American Boy" features guest appearances by John Legend, Kardinal Offishall, Taz Arnold of Sa-Ra, Naledge and Double-O of Kidz in the Hall, Danger Mouse, Consequence, Hi-Tek, Ryan Leslie, T.I., Brandon Hines, and Terrence J of 106 & Park, LL Cool J, among others. ¹⁷ It was directed by Syndrome. The music video was nominated for Best UK Video at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards. BET placed it at #45 on the Notarized: Top 100 Videos of 2008 countdown, while spin-off channel BET J placed it at #10 on the year-end Last Call 2008! Top 50 Countdown.

Track listings and formats

UK CD 1

1. "American Boy" (clean radio edit)

UK CD 2

1. "American Boy" (explicit album version)
2. "Life to Me"
3. "American Boy" (video)

Remixes EP

1. "American Boy" (TS7 Remix)
2. "American Boy" (TS7 Remix Radio Edit)
3. "American Boy" (Soulseekerz Club Remix)
4. "American Boy" (Soulseekerz Dub Remix)
5. "American Boy" (Soulseekerz Radio Remix)

Release history

Region	Date
United Kingdom	24 March 2008
United States	15 April 2008
Europe	25 April 2008
Australia	26 April 2008

Charts

Chart (2008)	Peak position
Argentina Singles Chart	8
Australian Singles Chart18	3
Austrian Singles Chart19	7
Belgian Singles Chart20	1
Canadian Hot 100	9
Danish Singles Chart	3
French Singles Chart	3
German Singles Chart	5
Greek Singles Chart21	12
Irish Singles Chart22	2
Israeli Singles Chart	1
Italian Singles Chart23	3
Netherlands Singles Chart24	6
Mexico Top 10025	73
Norwegian Singles Chart26	10
New Zealand Singles Chart27	5
Swedish Singles Chart	14
Swiss Singles Chart28	5
Turkey Top 20 Chart29	2
UK Singles Chart30	1
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	9
U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs	55
U.S. Billboard Pop 100	6

Preceded by "Mercy" by Duffy	UK number one single 23 March 2008 - 19 April 2008	Succeeded by "4 Minutes" by Madonna featuring Justin Timberlake
Preceded by "Mercy" by Duffy	Eurochart Hot 100 number one single 19 July - 25 July 2008	Succeeded by "All Summer Long" by Kid Rock

References

External links

• Official Music Video
• Estelle MySpace Page

v • d • e Estelle Studio albums The 18th Day · Shine Singles "1980" · "Free" · "Go Gone" · "Wait a Minute (Just a Touch)" · "American Boy" · "No Substitute Love" · "Pretty Please (Love Me)" · "Come Over" Other articles Discography

v • d • e Kanye West Albums The College Dropout · Late Registration · Graduation · 808s & Heartbreak Singles "Through the Wire" · "All Falls Down" · "Jesus Walks" · "The New Workout Plan" · "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" · "Gold Digger" · "Heard 'Em Say" · "Touch the Sky" · "Drive Slow" · "Classic (Better Than I've Ever Been)" · "Can't Tell Me Nothing" · "Stronger" · "Good Life" · "Flashing Lights" · "Homecoming" · "Love Lockdown" · "Heartless" Featured singles "Slow Jamz" · "This Way" · "Down & Out" · "Talk About Our Love" · "The Food" · "Selfish" · "I Changed My Mind" · "The Corner" · "Go!" · "Number One" · "Extravaganza" · "Grammy Family" · "Number One" · "Wouldn't Get Far" · "I Still Love H.E.R."  · "Pro Nails" · "Finer Things" · "American Boy" · "Put On" · "Everybody" · "Everyone Nose (All the Girls Standing in the Line for the Bathroom) (Remix)" · "Stay Up! (Viagra)" · "Swagga Like Us" · "Go Hard" Other songs "Champion" · "Good Morning" · "See You in My Nightmares" DVDs The College Dropout Video Anthology  · Late Orchestration Headling Tours Touch the Sky Tour  · Glow in the Dark Tour Related articles Discography · Production discography · Awards · G.O.O.D. Music · Child Rebel Soldier · Past Tell Clothing

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• This page was last modified on 8 January 2009, at 14:24.

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