"Déjà Vu" is a song by American singer Beyoncé featuring American rapper Jay-Z. It was produced by Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins, 808-Ray, Jon Jon Traxx, and Beyoncé for her second solo album, B'Day (2006). "Déjà Vu" is an R&B song, which incorporates elements of 1970s funk and soul music. Its music is largely based on live instrumentation, including bass guitar, hi-hat and horns, except the Roland TR-808 drum machine, which is a non-live instrument. The song's title and lyrics refer to a woman being constantly reminded of a past lover.

"Déjà Vu" was released as the album's lead single to US radio stations on June 24, 2006. The song received generally mixed critical reviews. Many critics noted the similarities of "Déjà Vu" with Beyoncé's own 2003 song "Crazy in Love". Critics commended the assertiveness and the sensuality with which Beyoncé sings the lyrics and compared her vocal delivery to that of Tina Turner in the late 1980s. "Déjà Vu" and its Freemasons club remix version received three nominations at the 2007 Grammy Awards. It was recognized as the Best Song of 2006 at the Music of Black Origin (MOBO) Awards.

Commercially, "Déjà Vu" peaked at number four on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. It topped the Hot Dance Club Play chart, the Hot Dance Singles Sales chart, and the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The song was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). "Déjà Vu" peaked at number one on the UK Singles Chart and reached the top ten in over fifteen countries. The song's accompanying music video was directed by Sophie Muller. About 5,000 fans petitioned online for a re-shoot of the video, complaining about, amongst other factors, the lack of theme, the wardrobe choice, and the allegedly sexual interactions between Beyoncé and Jay-Z.

Background and production

In 2005, American record producer Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins and producer Jon Jon Traxx "came up with the concept of doing an old-school track, a throwback with real bass and horns", to which the song's title is partly attributed. Traxx with Jerkins, first recorded the bass sections, onto which the percussion, horns and vocals were layered. Production took place in Jerkins' New Jersey–based studio, and Sony Music Studios in New York City.

Jerkins recorded a demo version of the song with vocals by American songwriter Makeba Riddick, who is credited as co-writer. Riddick’s demo version has the same lyrics as the final song. They presented the demo to Beyoncé, who later approved of it and added melodies and handled the production alongside Jerkins and 808-Ray. According to Jerkins, Beyoncé wanted B’Day to "feel urgent" and "out of the norm". There were no 808s on the demo of “Déjà Vu,” and she asked to add one. As a producer, live bass frequencies and 808s don’t marry well; they’re tough to align. But that’s what she wanted, so I had to go get it. I worked on the sound design to find the right 808 to match the bass, and somehow it worked. The James Brown-type intro was also her idea, which was super clever. It sets a tone in the record that we’ll never forget. "Déjà Vu" also has lyrical contributions from songwriters Delisha Thomas and Keli Nicole Price, and Beyoncé's husband (then-boyfriend) Jay-Z. He became involved at a late stage, when Beyoncé saw him trying to sing along to a recorded version of the track, and asked him to contribute. Jay-Z recorded rap verses for the song and hence appears as a featured guest.

Concerning the production of "Déjà Vu", Beyoncé told MTV News:

When I recorded 'Deja Vu' ... I knew that even before I started working on my album, I wanted to add live instruments to all of my songs. It's such a balance [of music on the song] [...] It's still young, still new and fresh, but it has the old soul groove. The energy is incredible. It's the summer anthem, I pray. I feel it. Rodney Jerkins is incredible, Jay of course is on it, he blessed the song, I'm happy with it.

Music and lyrics "Déjà Vu" is a contemporary R&B song, performed in a moderate hip hop groove. It is also influenced by late-1970s funk music, and it contains elements of soul music as well as dance-pop music. According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by EMI Music Publishing, the song is composed in the key of G minor with a time signature in common time, and a moderate groove of 106 beats per minute. Beyoncé's vocals range from the note of D4 to F5. The music is largely based on live instrumentation, including a bass guitar, conga, hi-hat, and horns. A non-live instrument, the Roland TR-808 drum machine, provides the song's heavy and energetic disco beat. Spence D. of IGN Music commented that Beyoncé's vocals on the song are "silky smooth" and that her vocal range leans toward the high end, hence contrasting to the song's low-end construction. Mike Joseph of PopMatters noted that "Déjà Vu" is reminiscent of Michael Jackson's "Off the Wall" (1980).

The title refers to the déjà vu phenomenon. The lyrics to "Déjà Vu" follow the verse–pre-chorus–chorus pattern, and feature two rap verses. It is hook-laden, similar in this respect to "Crazy in Love". The lyrics detail a woman being constantly reminded of a past lover, shown in the lines, "Is it because I'm missing you that I'm having déjà vu?" As the song opens, Beyoncé introduces the bass, hi-hat and Roland TR-808 by name. The sounds of the instruments blend as they are being mentioned one after the other; the horns are only audible in the pre-chorus and hook sections, and a short section in the second rap. The bass guitar, which is the first instrument to enter, slides into the main two-bar ostinato. Following the repeated bass slides, the hi-hat and the Roland TR-808 begin playing.

After that Beyoncé mentions Jay-Z, the bass glides up for a vibrato-rich fill, giving way to the first rap. Backgrounded with a repeating groove, Beyoncé starts the first verse. The pre-chorus follows, for which the bass changes to a more melodic tone "to play something more singing", in the words of Jon Jon Webb, the bass player on the track. The melody returns to the main groove during the repeated hook. This pattern repeats and leads to the second rap verse. The third pre-chorus "comes from Jerkins' idea to have the part changes on top, with Webb's main groove on the bottom". It is followed by the main pre-chorus, then the hook is repeated four times. After that, the singing stops and the instruments fill in the space of the pre-chorus. The hi-hat and Roland TR-808 also stop; the song ends with the plucked bass and blasts of horns from the very first line of the chorus.

Release "Déjà Vu" was leaked to the internet on June 13, 2006. On June 24, 2006, it was released to radio stations in the United States, four weeks after Beyoncé informed Columbia, her record label, that B'Day was completed. Over one month later, it was released to physical formats; the track was released as a CD single on July 31, 2006, in the United States. An enhanced CD was released on September 12, containing five tracks and an additional "Déjà Vu" multimedia track. In the United Kingdom, the digital download became available on August 15, 2006."iTunes Store – Beyoncé – Déjà Vu – single". iTunes Store (UK). Apple Inc. Retrieved January 22, 2011. A CD maxi and a 12-inch single were released on August 21, 2006. Beyoncé's manager approached English production team Freemasons to remix "Déjà Vu" after hearing a remix they made for a song by singer Heather Headley. A club-oriented version was produced and appeared on a "Green Light" Freemasons EP, released on July 31, 2007. A maxi single, featuring the album version of the track and Freemasons club mix, was released on August 5, 2006, in European countries."iTunes Store – Beyoncé – Déjà Vu – EP" . iTunes Store (Belgium). Apple Inc. Retrieved January 22, 2011. The UK hits compilation album Now That's What I Call Music! 65, released in 2006, features an alternative version of the single, omitting Jay-Z's parts and running to 3 minutes and 25 seconds.

Critical reception "Déjà Vu" debuted to mixed and positive reviews among critics. Mike Joseph of the international webzine PopMatters' believed that it was "fantastic to hear Beyoncé singing her lungs out over a full-bodied groove featuring live instruments". Spence D. of IGN Music, a multimedia news and reviews website, complimented Jerkins' bass-laden groove, writing that it brought the track to perfection. Describing "Déjà Vu" as a magnificent song, Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian complimented Beyoncé and Jay-Z collaboration calling it "feverish as pre-watershed pop gets". She added that even though when Jay-Z is not physically present, he manages to bring out something formidable in Beyoncé that evokes "the young, feral Tina Turner". Bernard Zuel The Sydney Morning Herald praised the assertiveness with which Beyoncé delivers her lines and considered buying "Déjà Vu" as worthwhile.

Several other music critics have compared "Déjà Vu" to Beyoncé's 2003 single, "Crazy in Love", the lead single of her debut album. According to Gail Mitchell of Billboard magazine, the song is viewed by many as a sequel to "Crazy in Love". Jason King of the Vibe magazine deemed the song as "cloned from the DNA of the raucous 'Crazy in Love'" while Thomas Inskeep of Stylus Magazine referred to it as "'Crazy in Love' lite". Some reviewers, however, were negative to the parallels drawn between the two songs. Andy Kellman of AllMusic, an online music database, wrote that "['Déjà Vu'] "had the audacity to not be as monstrous as 'Crazy in Love'", referring to the commercial success the latter experienced in 2003. The internet-based publication Pitchfork's writer Ryan Dombal claimed that "this time [Beyoncé] out-bolds the beat".

Sasha Frere-Jones of The New Yorker deemed the lyrics as a "perplexing view of memory", while Chris Richards of The Washington Post characterized Beyoncé as a "love-dazed girlfriend" in the song. Jody Rosen of the Entertainment Weekly referred to "Déjà Vu" as an "oddly flat" choice as a lead single. Jaime Gill of Yahoo! Music regarded "Déjà Vu" as a good choice for a single but concluded that it does lack "the kind of killer chorus" to suggest that Beyoncé would take one further step "to outright global domination". On the other hand, Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote that Jay-Z shows up "as calmly boastful as ever" in the song but he only makes Beyoncé's "sound more insecure". Kelefa Sanneh of the same publication noted that "the refrain doesn't give Beyoncé a chance really to show off" and further described the song as a "fair-to-middling single from a singer who is the opposite of desperate".

Accolades "Déjà Vu" was nominated for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration and Best R&B Song while the Freemasons club remix version was nominated for Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical at the 2007 Grammy Awards. It was also nominated for Best Collaboration alongside Beyoncé's other song "Upgrade U" featuring Jay-Z, at the Black Entertainment Television (BET) Awards. "Déjà Vu" won Best Song at the 2006 MOBO Awards in the UK. The following year, it also received two nominations for the Best R&B/Urban Dance Track and Best Pop Dance Track at the 22nd Annual International Dance Music Awards in 2007. The writers of Rap-Up magazine put the song at number ten on their list of the ten best singles of 2006. In 2013, John Boone and Jennifer Cady of E! Online placed the song at number six on their list of ten best Beyoncé's songs. In a 2013 list of Jay-Z's 20 Biggest Billboard Hits, "Déjà Vu" was ranked at number 19. In 2022, Rolling Stone named the track Beyoncé's best song.

Commercial performance