We Belong Together

"We Belong Together" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Mariah Carey from her tenth album, The Emancipation of Mimi (2005). The song was released on March 15, 2005, through Island Records, as the second single from the album. "We Belong Together" was written by Carey, Jermaine Dupri, Manuel Seal, and Johntá Austin and produced by the former three. Since the song interpolates lyrics from Bobby Womack's "If You Think You're Lonely Now" (1981) and the Deele's "Two Occasions" (1987), those songwriters are credited. "We Belong Together" is built on a simple piano arrangement with an understated backbeat. The lyrics chronicle a woman's desperation for her former lover to return. Following a relatively unsuccessful period for Carey between 2001 and 2004, critics dubbed the song her musical comeback, as many had considered her career over. "We Belong Together" earned her several music industry awards and nominations throughout 2005 and 2006. The song broke chart records in the United States and became Carey's sixteenth topper on the US Billboard Hot 100. After staying at number one for fourteen nonconsecutive weeks, it joined four other songs in a tie as the second longest running number-one song in US chart history, behind Carey's own 1995 collaboration with Boyz II Men titled "One Sweet Day". Billboard listed it as the "song of the decade" and the fifteenth most popular song of all time. Additionally, it broke several airplay records, gathering both the largest one-day and one-week audiences in history. "We Belong Together" also topped the charts in Australia and Croatia; and reached the top five in more than ten countries, including Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom. The song's music video was filmed as a two-part story with "It's Like That", which featured Carey at her bachelorette party. The video for "We Belong Together" is a continuation, focusing on Carey's wedding to a powerful older man and ending with the singer eloping with her younger ex-lover (played by actor Wentworth Miller of the TV show Prison Break). Carey performed the song on several award shows and television appearances around the world, namely MTV Movie Awards, MTV Video Music Awards, Macy's 4th of July Fireworks, The Oprah Winfrey Show and the 48th Grammy Awards. At the 48th Annual Grammy Awards, the song won Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song, and also received a nomination for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. In Europe the song was performed at the Live 8 charity concert, the Fashion Rocks in Monaco, and the German Bambi Awards. Carey performed the song while on The Adventures of Mimi Tour and the song has been on every tour set list since then.