"Worldwide" is a song by Big Time Rush. Written by Edwin "Lil' Eddie" Serrano, Chris Rojas, and Emily Phillips, and produced by Rojas, "Worldwide" is a power ballad about a long-distance relationship. It was initially released as the fifth track on the band's first studio album, BTR, and was later released as the album's third single on June 17, 2011.
Composition[]
"Worldwide" was first written by Puerto Rican pop, R&B soul singer-songwriter Edwin "Lil' Eddie" Serrano, for Australian singer Cody Simpson, whom Serrano was working with at the time. However, producer Chris Rojas mentioned he had an opportunity with Nickelodeon and Columbia Records for Big Time Rush, and they offered it to the band to record.[4]
Big Time Rush recorded the vocals for "Worldwide" with producer Chris Rojas at Westlake Recording Studios on May 25, 2010.[1] The song was one of eight that the band recorded in a week.[5]
Lyrically, "Worldwide" is written from the perspective of a lover who is traveling the world and misses their partner. Though they are well-known and famous, the narrator assures their partner that they will only ever think of them.
The vocal key of the song is notably high throughout the entirety of the song. According to James Maslow, the song is extremely difficult to perform live, and they typically sing in a different key than in the studio version.[6]
Release and reception[]
"Worldwide" is one of Big Time Rush's most well-known and popular songs. Ever since its live debut on the Big Time Rush in Concert tour, the band made a tradition of choosing a female audience member to bring up on stage during the song. These particular fans have become known as "Worldwide girls", a term the band has also acknowledged.
In 2020, amid the global quarantine brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the four members of Big Time Rush each recorded themselves singing "Worldwide" individually and then combined the footage to create an acoustic, re-imagined version of the song, which they uploaded to their social media on June 17, 2020.[7] Aside from a brief teaser video in April 2020, this was the first activity by the band since their indefinite hiatus began in 2014.
The 2020 acoustic version was released for digital download and streaming on May 27, 2022.
Music video[]
An accompanying music video was directed by Stewart Schill, who worked as an editor and occasional director on the Big Time Rush show.[6] The video ties into the show, as it is set during the episode "Big Time Break-Up", which was also directed by Schill. In the episode, Kendall Knight's girlfriend, Jo Taylor, accepts a movie role out-of-state and has to move away from the Palm Woods. Kendall, James, Carlos, and Logan accompany her to the airport to say goodbye, and while Jo walks through the airport toward her gate, the band performs "Worldwide", unseen to her. Their all-white outfits pay homage to the Backstreet Boys.[6]
The video was filmed on January 20, 2011, in the Ontario Airport in California, which is one of few airports in the United States that allows professional filming inside.[6][8] When the airport was closed, Nickelodeon and Columbia rented out the facilities and brought the video team in. All the people in the background were hired extras, which Carlos PenaVega estimated totaled a couple hundred.[6]
The band nicknamed Schill "Skyshot" because of his insistence on using camera shots from far above the ground, which was achieved using a large crane that held up the cameras. It took a team of four or five people at once to operate the crane for the desired shots. Logan Henderson recalled that because of the speed at which the crane moved, they had to speed up the song at certain points so that they could lip-sync and dance faster, which would then be normalized in editing.[6]
Credits and personnel[]
Credits transcribed from the liner notes of BTR.[3]
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Track listing[]
- Germany CD single
- "Worldwide" — 3:44
- "Til I Forget About You" (Cash Cash Remix) — 4:01
- Germany digital download
- "Worldwide" — 3:44
- "Til I Forget About You" (Halatrax Remix) — 3:51
- "Til I Forget About You" (Cash Cash Remix) — 4:01
- "Stuck" — 3:05
Release history[]
Country / region | Date | Format | Label | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Germany | August 5, 2011 | Digital download | Nickelodeon, Columbia | [1] | |
CD | [2] |
Lyrics[]
Lyrics adapted from the liner notes of BTR.[3]
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Gallery[]
Big Time Rush Wiki has images related to Worldwide. |
Trivia[]
- Big Time Rush performed "Worldwide" in Spanish during their concert in Mexico City, Mexico on October 1, 2011. They also recorded a studio version in Spanish in June 2011, though it was never released.[9] The first seventeen seconds of this recording were leaked online in 2012.
References
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