Beyonce "Best Thing I Never Had" Song

"Best Thing I Never Had" is a song by American recording artist Beyoncé Knowles taken from her fourth studio album, 4 (2011). It was released on June 1, 2011, through Columbia Records as the second single from the album. "Best Thing I Never Had" was written by Patrick "J. Que" Smith and co-written and produced by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, Symbolyc One, Caleb McCambell, Atonio Dixon, Knowles and Shea Taylor. An R&B-pop ballad, "Best Thing I Never Had" has lyrics about revenge and karma. Not wanting to end up broken-hearted, the female protagonist relates that she feels happy to have parted from her love interest who did not recognize the potential of leading a happy life beside her. Critical response towards "Best Thing I Never Had" was generally positive with several music critics noting that its theme as well as its musical style bear resemblance to Knowles' own 2006 single, "Irreplaceable". Knowles' vocals and the lyrical content of the song were also complimented. It is presently impacting on charts worldwide.

"Best Thing I Never Had" was written by Knowles with Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds and Patrick "J. Que" Smith, and was produced by Symbolyc One. A private listening party for Knowles' fourth studio album was held on May 12, 2011. Knowles offered a select group of fans a preview of five songs from her fourth studio album as well as the official video for the lead single "Run the World (Girls)". On that occasion, "Best Thing I Never Had" was one among the five songs previewed. On May 1, 2011, a song titled "End of Time" leaked as a demo while the full demo of the song, featuring Knowles professing her everlasting love to her love interest, leaked online on May 20, 2011, watermarked with the tag "internal use only". Several websites, including MTV News started reporting that it might serve as a potential follow up to the lead single, "Run the World". However, these speculations were soon overshadowed by the release of an exclusive US promotional single, "1+1" on May 25, 2011. In early June 2011, Columbia Records reported that "1+1" would however not be sent for airplay, with "Best Thing I Never Had" favored as the second single from 4, following "Run the World".

Beyonce "Best Thing I Never Had" Song

On May 27, 2011, Pittsburgh radio station 96.1 Kiss FM reportedly received an email from Knowles' management, informing them about the follow-up to the lead single, "Run the World (Girls)" from 4, will be "Best Thing I Never Had" and that it would premiere on radio on Wednesday June 1, 2011. As reported, the single debuted on US radio stations on the announced date at morning at 8 (EST). It was digitally released in the United States on June 1, 2011. The single's cover artwork was photographed by German artist Ellen von Unwerth, and shows Knowles posing in a bathroom in front of a mirror. She is holding a tube of red lipstick, which was used to write "King B" on the mirror. Knowles is wearing a "tight-fitting dress"."Best Thing I Never Had" is a midtempo pop and R&B ballad with influences of gospel music. According to the sheet music published by EMI Music Publishing, "Best Thing I Never Had" is set in common time with a moderate tempo of 100 beats per minute, and is written in the key of G♭ major. The introduction follows the chord progression of G♭–C♭–E♭m–D♭, while the verses follow E♭m–G♭sus4–G♭–E♭m–D♭6–G♭sus4–G♭. Its theme and musical style has been compared to Knowles' previous releases like "Irreplaceable" (2006) and "If I Were a Boy" (2008).

The song's instrumentation consists mostly of a piano melody intro and outro, with some layered female vocals providing background support to Knowles' singing. As stated by Kyle Anderson of Entertainment Weekly, "Best Thing I Never Had" seems to have partly borrowed form Celine Dion's "That’s The Way It Is" (1999), and from Bruce Hornsby's "The Way It Is" (1986). Caryn Ganz of Yahoo! Music commented that the song bears resemblance to Vanessa Carlton's "A Thousand Miles" (2000) paired with Ryan Tedder's signature thump beat. James Dinh of MTV News added that "Best Thing I Never Had" sounds like a song people will hear during a Broadway musical. He attributed this to the fact that Knowles 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.

Kyle Anderson of Entertainment Weekly noted the moderate chart performance of Knowles' previous single, "Run the World (Girls)", before adding: "'Best Thing I Never Had' feels like the kind of crossover hit that will help 4 join the rest of Beyoncé's discography in multiplatinum land." Still making reference to the former single, Anderson added that "Best Thing I Never Had" finds Knowles mining the same kind of "girl-power imagery as she did on 'Run the World (Girls)', but there is something more direct and honest about the lyrics on the new single (perhaps it's the instant greatness of the line, 'When I think of the time I almost loved you / You showed your ass and I saw the real you')." Noting its similarities to Knowles previous singles, "Irreplaceable" and "If I Were a Boy", Gerrick D. Kennedy of The Los Angeles Times quipped that Knowles certainly knows "how to dump a man in style." Both James Dinh of MTV News and Robbie Daw of Idolator felt that the song has a "radio-friendly appeal and catchy chorus." Leah Collins of Canadian Dose Magazine wrote: "'Irreplaceable', 'Independent Women', 'If I Were a Boy', we could go on [...] Beyoncé had long since proven she could write a song for all the ladies. Songs that could deliver a shot of self-esteem. Beyoncé's newest single, 'Best Thing I Never Had' takes us back to those not-so-far-off days."

"Best Thing I Never Had" debuted at number 84 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart issue dated June 18, 2011. "Best Thing I Never Had" entered at number 53 on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, where it was the highest debut of that week. The following week, the single rose to number 75 on the Hot 100 chart. It has since reached number 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. For the week ending June 18, 2011, "Best Thing I Never Had" debuted at the top spot of the South Korea Gaon International Chart with digital sales of 85,742 copies. The following week, it maintained it number one position selling twice as much, transitioning into 174,773 digital copies. Before the song's official release in the United Kingdom, it debuted at number three on the UK Singles Chart and number two on the UK R&B Chart on July 4, 2011, selling 51,365 copies that week. Music Week's Alan Jones attributed the high sales to a performance of the song by Knowles at the 2011 Glastonbury Festival on June 26, 2011. "Best Thing I Never Had" is Knowles sixteenth Top 10 hit in the United Kingdom.

The music video begins with Knowles preparing herself for her wedding ceremony. She is in her boudoir and she is decked in a lacy corset and a lingerie combo, complete with garters. As the song begins, Knowles looks towards the camera directing the words at the viewer, while affirming the subject of the song that she was the best he ever had. From there, the video moves to Knowles playing with a tiara, a veil and lots of tulle on a bed, to various stages of getting dressed. In-between there is a quick cut to old video footage of a young Knowles and her former high school boyfriend, at their senior-prom night in 1998. As Knowles and her boyfriend dances, he becomes interested in another girl, leaving Knowles alone on the dance floor. The video then returns back to the present scene, showing Knowles in her final preparations before she walks down the aisle on her wedding day. Interlaced shot show her singing at sunset atop a grassy hill, in a white gown, followed by the walk down the aisle and the exchange of vows. A final shot shows her former lover at the prom deep in thought, with his prom king crown sitting askew on his head. In contrast, Knowles and her newly-wed husband is seen celebrating at a happy and well-attended reception. The groom removes the bride's garter with his teeth and then they start dancing with their younger family members. The final shot features Knowles looking into the camera, with a look of total satisfaction and happiness. She then walks off confidently, to re-join her wedding party and new husband, and then the screen fades to black.

Beyonce "Run The World (Girls)" Song

"Run the World (Girls)" is a song by American recording artist Beyoncé Knowles. The "female-empowerment" song was written by Terius "The-Dream" Nash, Knowles, Nick "Afrojack" van de Wall, Wesley "Diplo" Pentz, David "Switch" Taylor, and Adidja Palmer and production was handled by Switch, The-Dream, Knowles and Shea Taylor. Originally speculated to be titled "Girls (Who Run the World)", an unedited demo of the song leaked on the internet on April 18, 2011. "Run the World (Girls)" was later officially released on April 21, 2011 as the lead single from her fourth studio album 4 (2011). The song heavily samples "Pon de Floor" by Major Lazer, following the same alternative hip hop-dancehall genres, mixed with the pop and R&B sounds of Knowles. The song's title and lyrics contain an unapologetically aggressive message towards female empowerment.

"Run the World (Girls)" initially divided critics, most of whom complimented the song's sample and Knowles' aggressiveness while others criticized the song's musical direction. Several critics compared the track to other female empowering singles released by Knowles in the past such as "Independent Women" (2000), "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" (2008), and "Diva" (2009), stating that "Run the World (Girls)" takes a more direct and assertive approach towards female empowerment. The accompanying music video for the single was directed by Francis Lawrence and was filmed in California over the span of three days. A sneak peek of the video was revealed on Knowles' official website on April 20, 2011, describing the video as a "B Revolution". In an interview with MTV News, Lawrence described the music video as "one of the biggest Beyoncé music videos ever done", and compared it to the video for Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" (2009). In an interview with The Capital FM Network in early March 2011, Shea Taylor confirmed that 4's "first single is huge and will premiere at the end of April". "Run the World" was written by The-Dream, Knowles, Afrojack, Diplo, Switch, and Vybz Kartel. Switch and The-Dream produced the record, and Knowles and Taylor co-produced it. "Run the World" was recorded by DJ Swivel and Pat Thrall at MSR Studios, New York City, and was mixed by Serban Ghenea at MixStar Studios, Virginia Beach. The song was originally rumored to be titled "Girls (Who Run the World)". On April 14, 2011, two snippets of the song leaked online while an unfinished demo of "Run the World (Girls)" leaked online on April 18, 2011.

Beyonce "Run The World (Girls)" Song

Due to the single leaking over the internet, the release of "Run the World (Girls)" was released early. It premiered on US radio on April 21, 2011 at 8 a.m. EST, and was made available for download on iTunes Stores worldwide the same day. According to some reports, the single leaked on iTunes for free a few hours ahead of its official release. It was briefly available to download for free via podcast service Concrete Loop. "Run the World (Girls)" impacted mainstream, urban contemporary and urban adult contemporary radio on April 26, 2011. According to MTV News, "Run the World (Girls)" was very well-received by Knowles' fans on Twitter. The cover art for "Run the World (Girls)" was previewed on April 20, 2011, the day before the song was released. On the cover, Knowles strikes a bold pose while standing in the sand. With her fist in the air covered in fore-arm protectors, Knowles wears a hip cut draping yellow Emilio Pucci dress and black stiletto boots. The Los Angeles Times indicated that the photos point to a "post-apocalyptic war zone, donning an elaborate gold headdress and holding a red flag emblazoned with a black 'B'." The photo was taken on April 14, 2011. Tray Hova of Vibe complimented the cover art of the single, stating that Knowles looks "resplendent as hell" on the cover and additionally stated that "Nobody's complaining about Bey season here."

Similarly, Eleanor Young writing for Marie Claire described the cover art as "sizzling". Ray Rogers of Billboard stated that Knowles "clearly transmits her trademark message of female empowerment" when she raises her clenched fist on the cover. On the other hand, Becky Bain of Idolator gave the single cover a negative review, describing it as "pretty disappointing". She stated that with a "ballistic, over-the-top club banger" song like "Run the World (Girls)", she expected something more than just a body shot of Knowles, and criticized the cover for being confusing regarding the location of the photo shoot; she wrote, "Where the heck is she? Under a freeway? At the beach?". However, Bain complimented Knowles on her choice of stilettos as "serious business". "Run the World" garnered mixed reviews from some critics who, while commending Knowles for taking risks, agreed that the song was too divergent from her previous work. In his review of the song, Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani wrote "[Knowles] misses the mark big time here" and called the song "plain daft".

He however praised the song's bridge, "which features B's warm, gooey harmonies and the lyric 'My persuasion can build a nation.'" Despite lauding "Run the World" for its demandingly aggressive message as well as its club-status beat, Brad Wete of Entertainment Weekly noted the continuation of past themes, writing that it would be "appreciated" to see Knowles "switching lanes a bit content-wise [...] She is fully capable of making a classic album as genius and relatable as Lauryn Hill's The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill." Adam Rosenberg of the Rolling Stone awarded the song three and a half stars out of five, writing that "[f]rom 'Independent Women' to 'Single Ladies', girl power has long been Beyoncé's Topic A, and 'Run the World (Girls)' is a blistering return to the theme.

She forsakes fashionable sounds — no Eurodisco synths! — to belt over Diplo and Switch's ferocious dancehall beat. The message is party-hearty feminism. But with [Lady] Gaga, Britney [Spears], Katy [Perry], Rihanna and Taylor [Swift] all vying to be the queen of pop, you can bet Beyoncé is not looking to share the throne." Maura Johnston of The Village Voice disapproved of the lack of structure in "Run the World", calling it "a bit overstuffed, but fairly enjoyable". "Run the World" received a nomination for Choice R&B/Hip-Hop Track at the 2011 Teen Choice Awards. Knowles performed "Run the World (Girls)" live at the Billboard Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on May 22, 2011 for the first time on network television. The performance showed Knowles interacting with futuristic video projections on the stage backdrop. The set opened with the roaring head of a tiger, after which Knowles appeared wearing what a "metallic spider's web dress". A set of flapping wings was then projected before Knowles started dancing in front of an array of random, abstract images. A sea of birds descended from the top of the frame. Virtual clones of Knowles simultaneously performed every dance step she was doing.

She then caught a set of virtual drumsticks and played snares which materialized onto the projection. Finally, 100 back-up dancers emerged to dance collectively to "Run the World". Knowles initially received widespread praise for her performance from fans, critics and celebrities. However, some controversies surfaced the following day, concerning the production which looked similar in certain ways to the one put on by Italian pop star Lorella Cuccarini in February 2010 at the 60th Sanremo Music Festival held in Italy. Kenzo Digital, who spent a month creating Beyoncé's interactive video, told Yahoo! News that Lorealla concert footage is only part of the inspiration for Knowles' show: "[The Cuccarini artists] are awesome and do incredible work as well, but there are a lot of different inspirations for where our piece came from [...] It's just a bare white screen. It's a technique in video art since the 80s in terms of frontal projection and interactive things. That's really nothing new. It's not even a new technology. It's just an incredibly simple, awesome storytelling device, and with a performer like Beyoncé it becomes incredibly powerful."

Nozomi Sasaki

Nozomi Sasaki (佐々木 希, Sasaki Nozomi?, born February 8, 1988), previously known simply as Nozomi during her fashion modeling career, is a Japanese glamour model and former professional fashion model from Akita. After working as a fashion model for nearly 7 years, she has become famous as a gravure idol and main ringside commentator / spokesperson for the mixed martial arts competition Dream Fighting Championships and the kickboxing competition K-1 World Max since 2009. Since late 2008 she has released five photobooks and two DVDs, and has also made countless appearances on television, magazines, and ads unrelated to fashion / cosmetic, including ones for Coca-Cola's green tea products, Suntory's 3 soft drink products, So-net, Willcom, Fujifilm, Kao, Rohto Pharmaceutical Co. and Seiko's Tisse brand line created for and dedicated to her. She has also endorsed an accessory brand, Cotton Cloud, since June 2010 when it was created for her and its first flag shop opened in Harajuku. She was given the nickname "No Mercy" for her countless reported atrocities toward other show-business girls she worked with, in her teenage years, especially toward actresses, glamour models, and fashion models from foreign countries, whom she considered to be "fat".

Born in Akita, she finished elementary school and attended a middle school there for a short period. Sasaki began modeling at the age of around 14. She modeled mainly in the collection circuit, and for fashion / cosmetic advertisements. In the latter years of her modeling career, she was a featured model and contributor to the now defunct Pinky magazine. She first appeared on the cover of Pinky in July 2007, along with another cover girl, Emi Suzuki. One theory suggests that Suzuki was the person who brought Sasaki to the commercial modeling field after she discovered Sasaki when Sasaki was planning to retire from modeling, and it has been noted that Sasaki already appeared at the time to be significantly chubbier than she used to be. After further intentionally gaining weight, she began appearing on the youth-targeted weekly manga magazine Young Jump and several of other magazines as a glamour model (gravure idol) in late 2008. She released her first photobook, Nozomi, in August of that year. She made her first landing on the top cover of Young Jump in January 2009. This caused surprises in many fields. Model Coco Kinoshita who was close to Sasaki officially commented about this, "that dreadful one who tortured everyone now has extra weight on her chest and whole body, smiling for innocent boys with burning sticks!".

She released her first full DVD, Dolly, and two photobooks, Sasaki Nozomi in Tenshi no Koi and Non, in 2009. In early 2010 she was specially featured by 2.4 million selling manga series Usogui on Young Jump, and released her fourth photobook Prism. Despite her breast size which has been known as one of the smallest in the gravure scene, she became a successful model by the end of 2010 in the field where breast size is regarded as a vital factor. At that time she also began appearing on the Non-no magazine, a biweekly girl-next-door-orientated fashion magazine that does not usually feature people like her. Though after becoming more of a gravure idol than a professional model, Sasaki was heavily featured in a spring fashion collection presented by the magazine and BS-TBS, and soon after that, she landed on the top cover of the magazine. These appearances have been described as like an "invasion", as she has significantly changed the magazine's tone. Some critics have suggested that the magazine has been destroyed by Nozomi Sasaki. She has regularly appeared on over 10 television programs and over 20 television commercials since 2009. Her first huge hit on the TV scene was a TV commercial for Lotte's new chewing gum product Fit's, where she performed a "silly dance" called the Fit's dance.

Fit's became a smash hit, selling over 40 million in its first 5 months in the Japanese gum market where 4 million-per-year is considered large success. In March 2009, she was chosen as the image character for a special advertising campaign by the Japan Magazine Publishers Association, a governmental publishing trade association run by the Ministry of Education. During the campaign between July 21, 2009 - August 20, 2009, her portrait appeared in 300 different magazines and as 30,000 posters for bookstores and public libraries all over Japan, 100,000 posters hung in trains in the Tokyo metropolitan area and the Kansai area, and 2,009 prepaid cards. Having made a cameo appearance in the romantic comedy Handsome Suit as well as minor roles in two television serials, Sasaki scored a major breakthrough in her budding acting career with the lead role in the 2009 sentimental romance film Tenshi no Koi, where she played a teenage girl in a fragile relationship with an older man played by Shosuke Tanihara. The film became an instant hit and was also distributed in some nearby countries such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore. In 2010, she acted in the television drama Dohyo Girl where she played a model who became the coach of a high school sumo team.

This was the first time in her acting career that she took the lead role in a television drama series. She also made her singing debut in July 2010 with the catch phrase "Heta de Gomenne!" ("Forgive my tone-deafness!") when she released a single, Kamu to Funyan feat. Astro, which debuted at number one on the Oricon singles chart. At the end of 2010 she released her second single titled Jin Jin Jingle Bell, a cover version of Chisato Moritaka's 1995 hit. She was expected to participate in the NHK Kohaku show, an annual New Year's Eve musical TV show, but when she was asked about it by the press during the commemoration event for Jin Jin Jingle Bell, she stated that she did not wish to appear on it. She stated that she could not sing and was shy, implying she would never perform her songs live in public. As a result, she did not attend the show. The topic of her fashion modeling years has occasionally become a matter of public interest, although she has never spoken about it. In April 2010 a photographer mentioned Sasaki in an interview, saying he witnessed Sasaki's first meeting with Yukina Kinoshita, a commercial model who has been known as a notorious brawler, a former member of a bosozoku gang team in real life, and has become Sasaki's co-worker. The photographer apparently, in 2008, witnessed their pre-brawling scene where Kinoshita picked a fight with Sasaki, pouncing on Sasaki, but Kinoshita got away from it after Sasaki caught Kinoshita's arm, staring at her, and Kinoshita got "seriously freaked out".

Kinoshita later commented on this shortly before her retirement, confirming it and describing Sasaki as something on a different level from a mere brawler. In August 2010, she landed on the cover of the anan magazine, with a black dress and a body shape slightly reminiscent of her past as a fashion model. At that time she signed a new endorsement contract with FinePix of Fujifilm and attended its ceremonial press conference, with another black dress designed by her former fan Razor Ramon HG and a body shape fairly reminiscent of her past as a fashion model. Some of the fashion press made mention of these appearances. The September number of the Ray magazine headlined "«Nozomi» has returned?", and associated the black dresses with some of her past nicknames related to the black color such as "Black Surgeon / Black Maiden". Sankei Shimbun, a decent newspaper not a tabloid, also featured this appearance, referring to her as "Nozomi". In November 2010, Akita Prefecture chosen her as one of the two official PR-Ambassadors, along with Natsuki Kato, with the purpose of creating a better image of the prefecture. The mayor Norihisa Satake officially commented on the selection that he was hoping that she would eradicate Akita's image being snowy and dark, with her image being fine and cheerful. She has been known for her reticence and spiritless, apathetic attitude seeming lack of emotion on television, but one unusual incident was observed on January 5, 2011 when she was on the live television show Reco Hits, a midnight music show she has regularly appeared on as a host. At one point during Kana Uemura's song about family, "Toire no Kamisama", was introduced, she broke down in tears. This was considered the first time for Sasaki to cry on media.

Nozomi Sasaki cute curly hairstyle

Nozomi Sasaki beautiful smile