"Juice" is a song recorded by American singer and rapper Lizzo. It was released on January 4, 2019, by Atlantic Records as the lead single from her third and debut major-label studio album, Cuz I Love You. The single was written by Lizzo, Theron Thomas, Sam Sumser, Sean Small and Ricky Reed; the latter also handled the song's production. Musically, it is a retro-inspired funk and funk-pop song that is based on a throwback groove. Lyrically, the song discusses self-love, and has been described as a self-esteem anthem.
The song received widespread acclaim from critics, some of whom referred to the song as Lizzo's best. Commercially, the single entered component R&B charts in the United States, while also reaching the top twenty in Scotland. The track is certified Double Platinum in the US and Gold or Platinum in five additional countries. A music video was released alongside the single, which contains several 1980s pop culture references. To promote the single, Lizzo performed the song on several shows, including The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Today Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
The song is one of the tracks on the American version of Now That's What I Call Music! 71, released on August 2, 2019. In September 2019, the song spawned an internet meme after Polygon writer Jeff Ramos cut a trailer for House House's Untitled Goose Game using the song as its anthem. It was covered by Beth Ditto on the country music drama series Monarch.
Contents
Composition
"Juice" is a "bouncy", retro-inspired funk, funk-pop, and hip hop song with a heavy rap. Lizzo's delivery of the song has been described as "witty" and "full of fire". The single contains "midnight production" and a burnished throwback groove. It also has reverb-heavy guitar and "smug" spoken word. It contains "delightfully outrageous" lines such as "I be drippin' so much sauce / Got a bih lookin' like Ragu." The song lyrically talks about self-love, and has been described as a "self-esteem boosting anthem".
It is composed in the key of D minor. It has a chord progression of Dm7 - Fsus7 - F7 - Bbmaj7+9 - C7, with Lizzo's vocals ranging from C4 to D5.
Critical reception
"Juice" received widespread acclaim from music critics upon release. Lollie King of Bustle wrote that the song "is sure to give you that much-needed confidence boost when you're feeling low." Christian Hoard, writing for Rolling Stone, praised the song as the singer's "finest" single to date, and called it "a near-perfect retro-funk nugget that would have felt just right on a mirror-balled dance floor in 1982." Joshua Bote, writing for NPR, stated that the song "continues [Lizzo's] winning streak of sing-songy, funk-heavy rap". Michael Roffman of Consequence of Sound wrote that the song "doubles as a jam and one of those dusty workout tapes you've got lying around your house." Pitchfork listed the song as the 53rd best of 2019. Billboard magazine ranked "Juice" 46th on their Best Songs of 2019 list, calling it "irresistibly immediate and durably relistenable".
Live performances
Lizzo performed the song on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Today, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Music video
The music video for "Juice" was released the same day as the single. The video, directed by Quinn Wilson, features the singer in an '80s-style workout program, late-night talk show, and selling products on an infomercial. It also contains references to Soul Glo commercials and a reference to ASMR YouTuber Spirit Payton. Taylor Bryant of Nylon magazine described the video as "just as fun as the song". The 2020 video game Just Dance 2021 has it as one of the dance songs.
A second music video, directed by Pete Williams, premiered on the WOWPresents YouTube channel on April 17, 2019. It features Lizzo with RuPaul's Drag Race alumni A'keria C. Davenport, Silky Nutmeg Ganache, Soju, Mayhem Miller, Asia O'Hara, Mariah Paris Balenciaga, Detox Icunt, Morgan McMichaels and Sonique. It was also used in the official trailer for Tim Story's 2021 film Tom & Jerry: The Movie as well as in a music video emphasising Tom's struggle to catch Jerry in the film.
In popular culture
A screenshot of Lizzo's YouTube channel promoting the song became an Internet meme. The screenshot shows her YouTube profile picture, banner, and thumbnail for the song's music video are all the same image of Lizzo from the cover art. Users found this repetition of the image on her channel to be humorous, and compared it to other scenarios.
Plagiarism allegation
On October 18, 2019, singer CeCe Peniston accused Lizzo of plagiarizing the song's "Yeah-yeah" ad-lib from her 1990s single "Finally". Lizzo's lawyer rejected the claim, describing it as "opportunistic" and "specious".
Track listing
Digital download
"Juice" – 3:15
Digital download — Breakbot Mix
"Juice" (Breakbot Mix) – 2:52
Personnel
Adapted from Tidal.