"Countdown" is a song recorded by American singer Beyoncé Knowles for her fourth studio album, 4 (2011). The song was written by Knowles, Terius Nash, Shea Taylor, Ester Dean, Cainon Lamb, Julie Frost, Michael Bivins, Nathan Morris and Wanya Morris, and produced by Beyoncé, Taylor and Lamb. The song's conception was brought about by Knowles desiring to mix musical styles of the 1990s with the 1970s. It was sent to radio on October 4, 2011, as the fifth single from 4.

Featuring a sample of "Uhh Ahh" by Boyz II Men, "Countdown" incorporates aspects of hip hop, funk, reggae and world music. Lyrically, the female protagonist delivers a message of monogamy to her lover, celebrating self-worthiness as well as appreciating him. Several music critics were surprised by its maturity and compared it to Beyoncé's earlier solo work and with Destiny's Child. The song finished second in 2011's Pazz & Jop critics' poll and was included on the list of the year's best songs by various critics and publications including Spin, Rolling Stone and The Guardian. "Countdown" peaked at number 71 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. It also peaked at number 12 on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, and number one on the US Hot Dance Club Songs chart. It has been certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). "Countdown" peaked at number 35 on the UK Singles Chart and number nine on the UK R&B Chart.

Adria Petty directed the accompanying music video, which was recorded while Knowles was pregnant in August 2011. The music video sees Beyoncé incorporate a mix of classic and modern dances, with references to pieces like that of Audrey Hepburn's appearance in Funny Face. Although well received by critics, the video faced controversy for the use of choreography from Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's 1983 ballet Rosas danst Rosas. Beyoncé performed "Countdown" on her 4 Intimate Nights with Beyoncé and Revel Presents: Beyoncé Live residency shows, as a video interlude on The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour and on the set list of The Formation World Tour.

Background and release "Countdown" was written by Beyoncé, Terius Nash, Shea Taylor, Ester Dean, Cainon Lamb, Julie Frost, Michael Bivins, Nathan Morris and Wanya Morris. Production was handled by Beyoncé, Taylor and Lamb. Bivins, Morris and Morris are credited as "Countdown" samples Boyz II Men's 1991 single, "Uhh Ahh". A private listening party for Knowles' fourth studio album was held on May 12, 2011, at the Sony offices in New York City, where one of the five songs previewed was "Countdown". While playing the song, Knowles commented: "[Jay-Z] liked it. I do not think he was dissecting it, just thinking of what he could do to it as a rapper."

On June 7, 2011, both "Party" and "Countdown" leaked online, followed by the whole album, three weeks prior to its official release date on June 28, 2011. This was followed by cease-and-desist notices from Beyoncé's legal team, who forced multiple media sites to remove download links to the songs. Beginning on June 16 to June 27, 2011, the songs from 4 were available to listen to in full each day on Knowles' official website, paired with its accompanying photo spread from the album packaging and a quote. On June 24, 2011, "Countdown" was the ninth song to be chosen. The quote found Beyoncé elaborating on the song's inspiration: "I really liked mixing the 90s with the 70s. I put those two together and it was so much fun putting bridges back into songs, all the things in music that I love that I feel I just want to hear again." (Note that you have to click on the cover art of "Countdown" to see the quote.) She also referred to "Countdown" as "really experimental". Concerning the development "Countdown" and the reason for using the sample, Beyoncé stated:

I wanted to do something refreshing and different, so I mixed genres and drew inspiration from touring, traveling, watching rock bands, and attending festivals… I was like a mad scientist, putting lots of different songs together. Boyz II Men were the first ones to put Destiny's Child on tour. They showed us how to treat an opening act and I will never forget that. That was 15 years ago! Wow, 15 years! I'm old.

On September 22, 2011, Columbia Records posted the cover art of "Countdown" on the official website of KZII-FM, most commonly known as "102.5 Kiss FM". It was the same photograph spread for "Countdown" in the album notes for 4 and it was taken by German photographer Ellen von Unwerth. "Countdown" impacted both rhythmic and contemporary hit radio on October 4, 2011, in the United States as the fourth single from 4.

Development

In an interview with Leslie Moore on Tumblr, Cainon Lamb recalled how he started working on the Boyz II Men's sample and how his work reached Knowles. He said that he began working on "Countdown" during the night preceding the 2010 BET Awards. He was in the studio, listening to Boyz II Men's song, "Uhh Ahh". He commented: "[It] starts with a countdown of '10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1'. So I thought, 'Wow, that could be something. Just the countdown itself.'" Once the countdown was in the computer, he slightly increased the pace at which it was played, added some snare drum taps to it, and started a beat. After that, he sent the song to his publisher, EMI Music. The latter was impressed with the instrumental and went on saying: "I had a meeting this morning with Beyoncé and I played a couple other songs I had and she wasn't really feeling them. When I played the beat that you sent me, you should have seen how she went crazy! She started dancing and bouncing up and down and just doing all kind of stuff. She loved that beat!" On the request of his publisher, Lamb made "a female version of the countdown part". Terius Nash wrote the verses and two days later, Knowles went in the studio and recorded it.

In an interview with Jocelyn Vena of MTV News, the members of Boyz II Men said that they were surprised that Beyoncé decided to use their song on "Countdown" even though they have known her for long. Wanya Morris considered it a "clever" move and quipped that Boyz II Men finally got their duet with Beyoncé.

Composition

Music and comparisons "Countdown", which samples "Uhh Ahh" performed by American group Boyz II Men, was considered to be "everywhere on the genre map" by Consequence of Sound's Chris Coplan. It is an upbeat R&B song, displaying elements of funk, hip hop, Latin pop, world music, reggae as well as dancehall influences. "Countdown" is set in common time with a moderate tempo of 84 beats per minute. The song is scored in the key of D minor, and has the sequence Dm–Gm–F–C. Beyoncé's voice in the song ranges from D3 to F5. "Countdown" makes heavy use of staccato horns, and rides a "disjointed military rhythm", containing an "agitated" Afrobeat heavy brass riff which, according to Alexis Petridis of The Guardian, bears resemblance to that of "Run the World (Girls)" (2011). Jody Rosen of Rolling Stone attributed the bristling brass arrangement to the fact that Beyoncé's collaborated with the band from Fela! for a couple of days to gain inspiration from the play's subject, Nigerian multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, Fela Kuti. Additional instrumentation on the song includes a keyboard, synthesizers, a plucky guitar, 180 BPM steel drums, and trumpets. Built on a stepping beat, "Countdown" features video-game bleeps reminiscent of Knowles' previous alter ego, Sasha Fierce, as stated by Jocelyn Vena of MTV News. Priya Elan of NME noted that it also consists of "some nicely disorientating" chord changes.

Ryan Dombal of Pitchfork viewed "Countdown" as a sequel to Beyoncé's own 2003 single, "Crazy in Love". Matthew Horton of BBC compared the musical style of "Countdown" to that of M.I.A.'s work. John Mitchell of MTV Newsroom wrote that "'[Countdown]' has a flair that reminds us of ... the best tracks from B'Day." Similarly, Matthew Perpetua of Rolling Stone wrote that "Countdown" is a "playful [and] inventive jam", in tradition of "Get Me Bodied" (2007), adding the former "revisits the "sassy spirit" of the latter. Jocelyn Vena added that while "Countdown" is different from other songs on 4, it has a "Check on It" vibe. Joey Guerra of the Houston Chronicle commented that the song shares the same "frenetic club swagger" as previous Destiny's Child singles such as "Bug a Boo" (1999) and "Jumpin', Jumpin'" (2000).

Song structure and lyrical interpretation Throughout the song, Beyoncé sings with "a sassy attitude", setting a "futuristic tone", as stated by Jocelyn Vena. According to Dombal, "Countdown" finds Knowles as the female protagonist delivering her "message of ten years of loyalty" to her love interest. Jody Rosen of Rolling Stone, who described "Countdown" as a "monogamous romance", added that it is a love song that is "no less sexy for being unblinkingly true to life", and Jocelyn Vena of MTV News wrote that the song is "all about the rapture of true love". Kicking off with Knowles vocal runs followed by a reggae-ish beat, horns and drums, Knowles starts to chant the introductory lines, which also serves as the pre-chorus lines, "Oh, killing me softly and I'm still falling / Still the one I need, I will always be with you / Oh, you got me all gone, don't ever let me go / Say it real loud if you fly / If you leave me you're out of your mind", followed by the chorus lines, which is a literal count backwards where Knowles counts down the ways in which she loves her man, "My baby is a ten / We dressing to the nine / He pick me up at eight / Make me feel so lucky seven / He kiss me in his six / We be making love in five / Still the one I do this four / I’m trying to make a three / From that two / He still the one."

According to Maura Johnston of The Village Voice, the verses of "Countdown" contain lyrics about "twinned boasts of self-worth and proclamations of fidelity into a tight knot of romantic ideals". In the first verse of the song, Knowles' chants lines dedicated to the one she loves, "There's ups and downs in this love / Got a lot to learn in this love / Through the good and the bad, still got love". The verse continues with Knowles offering her partner copious praise, in a half-rap cadence, "Still love the way he talks / Still love the way I sing / Still love the way he rock them black diamonds in that chain." As stated by Adam Markovitz of Entertainment Weekly, the first verse of "Countdown" also contains "joy-inducing non-lyrics" such as "Me and my boo, and my boo, boo-ridin’. Additionally, Knowles sings to her love interest that he should feel lucky "to have her grind up on him." In the second verse, Knowles continues to boast of all the ways her man is lucky to have her, happily declaring her devotion to him, and celebrates their "mature relationship", as stated by Spence D. of IGN. Towards the end of the verse, Knowles references the Houston Rockets in the lyrics.

Critical reception

Reviews "Countdown" was widely acclaimed by music critics. Adam Markovitz of Entertainment Weekly wrote that "[...] unsurprisingly, Beyoncé is at her best when she sounds like no one but herself." She also commended Knowles for "tak[ing] her trusty freakum dress out of mothballs" for "Countdown". Taking into account the track placement of the song on 4, of the Chicago Sun-Times complimented "Countdown" for picking things up and making 4 start moving near the end, describing the song as "careening into an ethnic club". John Mitchell of MTV News called "Countdown" the best track from 4, writing that it is impossible to resist, while Jocelyn Vena of the same publication named "Countdown" the most surprising song on the album. Conrad Tao of Sputnikmusic found that "Countdown" was one of the irresistible uptempo cuts on 4 and added that it makes "particularly successful use of its namesake" as well as its dancehall influences.