Pretty Please
A chill-sounding plea for stress relief, driven by a funky bass and layered production.
"Pretty Please" is a song by English singer Dua Lipa from her second studio album, Future Nostalgia, released on 27 March 2020. It was written by Lipa alongside Julia Michaels, Caroline Ailin and the sole producer Ian Kirkpatrick. The song is a disco-pop, electro-R&B and funk track with a stripped-back production driven by a funky bass. Despite its chill sound, the lyrics find Lipa pleading for stress relief from her lover after promising to be chill at the start of a relationship, then realizing that goes against her nature.
Quick Facts
- Artist
- Dua Lipa
- Album
- Future Nostalgia
- Studio
- TaP (London); Zenseven (Los Angeles)
- Genre
- Disco-pop
- electro-R&B
- funk
- Label
- Warner
- Writer
- Dua Lipa
- Julia Michaels
- Caroline Ailin
- Ian Kirkpatrick
- Producer
- Ian Kirkpatrick
Lore & Background
The song was created during studio sessions where the writing team—Lipa, Julia Michaels, Caroline Ailin, and Ian Kirkpatrick—decided to see what they would get from writing another song together. They started with the bassline and the title "Pretty Please," building a story from there. Michaels suggested slowing the song before the chorus, and Kirkpatrick matched the tempo to Lipa's singing. He sang the layered backing vocal "pretty," while Michaels sang harmonies. For percussion, Kirkpatrick was inspired by drummer Nate Smith's hi-hat placement, creating a "push and pull" feel. He used an LFO tool on the drums to soften transients and even turned crowd noise into an up-hat in the second verse, which he called "the coolest idea he's ever had." A clock ticking serves as a percussion element throughout. Kirkpatrick recorded his p-bass with accidental reverb on some notes, then edited it for tight silence between notes, and added a sub bass for the hook. The middle eight includes a re-pitched snippet from Lipa's 2017 single "New Rules" where she sings "I gotta tell them to myself."
Reader's Guide
To appreciate "Pretty Please," focus on its production details. Kirkpatrick layered drums with a little kick and added a transient to the snare, and included big whoops as space fillers with faded ends. He used an OTT compressor to get musical elements across at low volume. The song is in C♯ major at 107 BPM, in 4/4 time, and runs 3:14. It features buoyant cowbell bursts, disco strings, disco and funk guitars, intergalactic choirs, and percussion like kitchen utensils. Bright synthesizer flashes shift the sound from 1970s disco to late 1990s/early 2000s dance-pop. The instrumental elements weave in and out throughout the song. Commercially, it reached numbers 48, 79, and 101 in Lithuania, Slovakia, and Portugal, and charted at number 70 on the UK Official Audio Streaming Chart. It earned a gold certification in Canada from Music Canada. Remixes by Masters at Work and Midland appeared on the remix album Club Future Nostalgia (28 August 2020). Lipa promoted the song with live performances at the FIFA 21 world premiere (1 October 2020), Studio 2054 livestream (27 November 2020), NPR Tiny Desk Concert (4 December 2020), the Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Award Party (25 April 2021), and the 2021 Brit Awards. A video of her performing at Lovestream Festival in 2022 went viral that same year.
More in Songs & Singles
Elsewhere in Dua Lipa
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced