"When Love Takes Over" is a song by French DJ and record producer David Guetta featuring vocals by American singer Kelly Rowland, from Guetta's fourth studio album, One Love (2009). It was released as the lead single from the album on 21 April 2009 by Virgin Records (EMI France). The song was conceived when Rowland watched Guetta playing the instrumental version during one of his DJ sets in summer 2008; she fell in love with the track and convinced Guetta to allow her to take it so that she could write and record vocals for it. It was also co-written by Nervo.
According to Rowland, the song inspired her to pursue a more dance-oriented sound for her album Here I Am (2011), while Guetta credited "When Love Takes Over" for providing the framework for his future musical explorations and inspiring him to experiment with more urban sounds. Guetta and Frédéric Riesterer produced the song with piano riffs and a melodic backing track. Veronica Ferraro mixed the song, focusing primarily on giving Rowland's vocals a magical and inspiring tone. Critics would later state that Rowland's vocals on "When Love Takes Over" helped to further establish the singer as a soloist. The song's lyrics carry a message of the euphoria one feels when in love with a significant other, while the production bears some similarities to Coldplay's 2002 hit single "Clocks".
"When Love Takes Over" received critical acclaim. Most noted the addition of Rowland's powerful and emotionally charged vocals which made the single the most memorable song from One Love. The song was praised for its lush production and euphoric sentiments. It achieved worldwide success by topping the charts in ten countries, including in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Italy and Switzerland. At the time of release, it became Guetta's highest-charting single on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and Rowland's second number one single in the United Kingdom. "When Love Takes Over" ranked at number one on Billboards Best of 2009 Dance Club Songs chart. In 2013, Billboard named "When Love Takes Over" its number one dance-pop collaboration of all time, in addition to noting the lasting cultural impact that the collaboration would have on dance music and its indication of the emerging electronic dance music trend in America at its time of release.
In the song's accompanying music video, Rowland and Guetta reminisce about how the song came together. It follows the duo as they prepare for a party before coming together for the final result. "When Love Takes Over" was promoted mainly at award shows, including the MTV Latin Music Video Awards, NRJ Music Awards and the World Music Awards. Guetta and Rowland reunited in late 2009 to perform "When Love Takes Over" for the annual Miss Universe competition. The single earned several Platinum and Gold certifications, selling over 5.5 million copies worldwide. Sottraendo dal totale complessivo delle copie vendute con i singoli le vendite delle altre hits, si ottengono le copie vendute individualmente da When Love Takes Over Additionally, it earned Guetta two Grammy Award nominations for "Best Dance Recording" and "Best Non-Classical, Remixed Recording", the latter of which Guetta won for his "Electro Extended Mix" of "When Love Takes Over".
Background
Rowland has acknowledged on several occasions that although she loved dance music, it was not really the type of music she would record, mainly preferring an R&B sound. While in Europe, in 2008, she met Guetta at one of his DJ sets in Southern France and commented that "Listening to him was just crazy." Guetta was playing the instrumental version of "When Love Takes Over". Recalling that it brought tears to her eyes, Rowland remarked, "I felt so much emotion from the track; something happened the first time I heard it, and it was just beautiful. And I remember thinking 'Why is this touching me like this?' You know, it was like there was a kinda soul-tie to it!" Upon meeting Guetta, she asked him for the song so she could write its lyrics. "So I met David and asked him for the track... He gave it to me, and I brought it back here to London, UK and wrote the actual song". At a later writing session, in a London hotel room, Rowland and songwriting duo Nervo wrote the lyrics and melody over Guetta's backing track. Rowland later rejoined Guetta, with Julie Terry Lefèvre-Han, in the recording studio to finish the song.
Subsequently, in a 2010 interview, Nervo revealed that Rowland's record label, Columbia Records, was not keen on the song, despite their and Rowland's enthusiasm. For this reason, "When Love Takes Over" was shelved until Guetta rediscovered the song while compiling material for his fourth studio album, One Love. The finished song with Rowland's vocals and Guetta's production was premiered in March 2009 at the Ultra Music Festival in Miami. A month later, on 21 April 2009, the single was released in Europe and the United States.
Recording and production The recording and mixing of "When Love Takes Over" took place in summer and autumn of 2008. After Rowland heard the instrumental of "When Love Takes Over"—a piano loop-based melody with throbbing percussion—she asked Guetta if she could take the demo and several other tracks to work on. She wrote the lyrics and recorded the vocals in London within a day. She was aided by Australian songwriters and producers Miriam and Olivia Nervo (Nervo). However, the song was not a top choice by Rowland's team, and remained unfinished until Guetta rediscovered it while compiling his One Love album. After being selected for the album, "When Love Takes Over" was given to Frédéric Riesterer who, aside from producing the song with Guetta, was tasked with the final audio mixing of the song. However, Riesterer decided to give the track to French mixing engineer Veronica Ferraro, who would later go on to say that "Reisterer was supposed to mix it, but he wanted me to do it and see how it turned out. The first time I heard the track I immediately knew it would be a huge hit." The track was mixed in September 2008 at Ferraro's Super Sonic Scale studio, near Paris, the day after her birthday.
Before working on the song's individual elements, Ferraro decided that she would focus primarily on Rowland's vocals. Ferraro told Sound on Sound that she added a bass drum sample, as she felt that the kick was missing something; "Rather than equalise it, I added a little bit of my sample to make the BD track sound bigger". She altered the two piano elements of the song, using the Flex Studio Tool to widen the sound of the piano element without the delay. Additionally, Ferraro used a number of French plug-in software to amplify many of the track's instruments, including the violin, strings and guitar samples. She then moved on to Rowland's vocals, which "were extensively processed", including equalization and de-essing. Then upon completion of her work on the song, Ferraro sent "When Love Takes Over" to her husband, Bruno Gruel, and his Elektra Mastering Suite. He realigned all of the elements of the song, particularly the bass drums and low synths.
Composition
"When Love Takes Over" is a synth-pop and "uplifting floor-filler" produced by Guetta and his associate Frédéric Riesterer. Jason Lipshutz from Billboard magazine described it as a "pop number built around a lush piano loop and throbbing percussion" with trance elements. The song was written in the key of F mixolydian with a time signature of common time and a tempo of 130 beats per minute.According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Sony/ATV Music Publishing The final recording and mixing took place at Gum Prod Studios in Paris. Some elements of the song were compared to the riff and piano opener in the song "Clocks" by Coldplay.
After gaining Guetta's approval to write vocals for the song, Rowland took the instrumental version to London, where she wrote the bulk of the lyrics with Nervo (twins Miriam and Olivia Nervo) before sending the song back to Guetta, who added his own contributions with Frédéric Riesterer. Rowland uses a vocal range of F3 to D5. Guetta said that "Kelly['s vocals] had this Whitney Houston vibe and nailed it." Critics agreed, noting that often her vocals were "powerful" and "grand". Others called them "a diva masterclass" and "emotionally charged". Fraser McAlpine from BBC Online compared Rowland's vocals to those by Madonna in "Ray of Light", for their "hands-in-the-air pop song" qualities.
Critical reception
The song received widespread acclaim from music critics for both Guetta's catchy production and Rowland's strong vocals. It was called the strongest and most commercial single choice from Guetta's album, One Love. Critics noted that the song's opening piano riff was similar to that from Coldplay's hit single "Clocks" (2002). David Jefferes of Allmusic gave the song a thumbs up saying, calling "When Love Takes Over" one of the strongest songs from One Love and praising the "[addition of] the powerful voice of Kelly Rowland for one grand, uplifting floor-filler." Simon Vozick-Levinson of Entertainment Weekly agreed calling the song the "most memorable from the album" and recalling "Clocks" by Coldplay to make "a showstopper starring Kelly Rowland." Michael Hibbard of MusicOMH was impressed with both the production and vocal work on "When Love Takes Over". He pointed out the rarity in the amount of promotion given to the song, referring to "When Love Takes Over" being given "its own poster on the Tube." He also described the song as a "euphoric masterpiece" backed by "at least eight remixes " and the accompany vocals from "Destiny's Child songbird Kelly Rowland on hand for a diva masterclass." Also agreeing with these comments was Fraser McAlpine from BBC Online who awarded the song four out of five stars. "The genius ingredients include a thinly reworked go at the piano riff to 'Clocks' by Coldplay and handclaps ... And the fairy dust is...well...it's your standard dance-pop production, actually." However he noted that the production was "tastefully done to make sure that the good bits are not spoilt". Other elements of the song such as the "bed of synthistrings, a skippy beat, a breakdown, some riffing glassy electronics and a dramatic, cinematic bottom end drone" were praised. McAlpine also praised Rowland's appearance on the track, commenting who she sounded "entirely unlike herself, so that even SHE is all buffed up and shiny." He described the marriage of Rowland's vocals and Guetta's production by stating that "[Rowland's] got a spiralling, sky-scraping melody to sing too."
Erin Martin of PopMatters said that "When Love Takes Over" had euphoric properties. Martin said the song was "a classic, triumphant dance number, and Rowland's powerhouse vocals ensure that this song has anthemic potential for years to come. This song just feels good to listen to". She also noted that the song was central to the concept and "love-spreading message [that] Guetta delivers on the album as a whole." David Balls of Digital Spy agreed with the song's anthem credentials. "[It] is further evidence that Rowland may no longer be resigned to living in Beyoncé [Knowles'] shadow. Fusing classic dance beats with a heady, emotionally charged vocal, it's a world away from the mid-tempo R&B numbers with which she started her solo career. In fact, this packs a punch from the very first listen, meaning it could well become one of the summer anthems of 2009." However, Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times was less impressed than the other critics, simply noting the song as "a cheesy synthpop makeover of Coldplay's 'Clocks'." Wood did however state that it was among Guetta's best work and was an example of when the DJ is "most commercial".