1999 (Charli XCX and Troye Sivan song)

"1999"
Single by Charli XCX and Troye Sivan
from the album Charli
Released 5 October 2018
Studio
Genre
Length 3:09
Label
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s) Oscar Holter
Charli XCX singles chronology
"Girls Night Out"
(2018) 		"1999"
(2018) 		"Blame It on Your Love"
(2019)
Troye Sivan singles chronology
"Animal"
(2018) 		"1999"
(2018) 		"Revelation"
(2018)
Music video
"1999" on YouTube

"1999" is a song by English singer Charli XCX and Australian singer Troye Sivan, released as the lead single from the former's third studio album Charli on 5 October 2018. The single cover was inspired by the 1999 film The Matrix. It follows several singles released earlier in 2018 by Charli XCX and Sivan's 2018 album Bloom. The track reached number 13 on the UK Singles Chart dated 22 November 2018, becoming Charli XCX's tenth top 40 single and first top 15 single since 2015, as well as Sivan's fourth top 40 single and his first top 20 single.

A sequel to the track, "2099", was released as a promotional single in September 2019.

"1999" is playable in Just Dance Unlimited on Just Dance 2020.

Background and composition

Background

The song contains nostalgic lyrical references to the titular year along with a snare-heavy beat, "fuzzy sawtooth bass and sparking Eurodance keys". Sasha Geffen of Pitchfork stated that the track is "more concerned with the act of remembering than with the specifics of the year it calls up itself" and "fits alongside the rest of Charli XCX's sleek, forward-looking pop songs". The song also references Britney Spears' 1998 debut single, "...Baby One More Time".

Musical composition

The song is written in the key of D major, with an allegro tempo of 124 BPM in 4
4 common time. Sivan's and Charli XCX's voices span between the notes B3 and F#5.

Artwork

The cover art references the 1999 film The Matrix, with Sivan dressed as Neo, wearing dark sunglasses, a black overcoat, and dyed black hair against a bright green background. Charli XCX, who is dressed as Trinity, flanks him. Billboard also noted its similarity to Aaliyah in the music video for her 2000 song "Try Again".

Promotion

Charli XCX and Sivan tweeted lyrics from "1999" addressed to each other on Twitter before sharing the cover art and title of the song.

Music video

Charli dressed as all the Spice Girls in the "Say You'll Be There" music video

The music video was released on 11 October 2018, and features Sivan and Charli XCX in various homages to 1990s pop culture, including the iMac G3 and Steve Jobs, Spice Girls, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, New Radicals, Eminem, the Nokia 3310, Rose McGowan and Marilyn Manson, the films Titanic, The Matrix, American Beauty, and The Blair Witch Project, the Dancing baby, the video game The Sims, and the music videos for the songs "Say You'll Be There", "Waterfalls", "Thinking of You (I Drive Myself Crazy)", and "I Want It That Way". For many of the homages in the music video the deepfake technology was used.

Track listing

Digital download

  1. "1999" – 3:09

Digital download — Stripped version

  1. "1999" (Stripped) – 3:21

Digital download — The Knocks Remix

  1. "1999" (The Knocks Remix) – 3:41

Digital download – Remixes

  1. "1999" (Alphalove remix) – 3:55
  2. "1999" (Easyfun remix) – 3:12
  3. "1999" (Michael Calfan remix) – 3:03
  4. "1999" (R3hab remix) – 3:18
  5. "1999" (Carta remix) – 2:52
  6. "1999" (Super Cruel remix) – 2:51
  7. "1999" (Young Franco remix) – 3:33
  8. "1999" (Dipha Barus remix) – 2:28
  9. "1999" (The Knocks remix) – 3:40

Charts

Certifications

Region Certification Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA) 2× Platinum 140,000‡
Denmark (IFPI Danmark) Gold 45,000‡
United Kingdom (BPI) Platinum 600,000‡

‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Release history

Region Date Format Version Label Ref.
Various 5 October 2018
Original Asylum
9 November 2018 Alphalove remix
16 November 2018 Easyfun remix
23 November 2018 Michael Calfan remix
United States 4 December 2018 Contemporary hit radio Original Atlantic
Various 18 January 2019
  • Digital download
  • streaming
 Remixes Asylum

Vengaboys version

In September 2021, Vengaboys released a cover version of the song, which was retitled "1999 (I Wanna Go Back)" and came with a deepfake-style video which saw the cover stars from various 1990s albums lip-syncing to the song and the band put into the Friends title sequence with the sofa and fountain. One of the "deepfakes" is superimposed on the single cover of Vengaboys' own "We're Going To Ibiza".