Overview
"The Hills" is a song by Canadian singer the Weeknd. It was released on May 27, 2015, as the second single from his second studio album, Beauty Behind the Madness (2015). "The Hills" was a massive critical and commercial success, appearing on several year-end lists, and peaking at number one in several nations' charts, including his native Canada, and the United States where the song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, replacing his own "Can't Feel My Face". It also made the top 10 in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand. A music video for the song was released on May 27, 2015, directed by Grant Singer.
On June 28, 2019, "The Hills" was certified diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for selling more than ten million copies in the United States, making it the Weeknd's first diamond-certified record.
Composition
The song is written in the key of C minor in common time with a tempo of 113 beats per minute. The vocals in the song span from C3 to E5.
Producer Illangelo stated "I'm very optimistic and positive with anything I put my energy towards, so for me, Abel's success now is what I imagined it always should have been. 'The Hills' was an opportunity for us to go back to the classical, original the Weeknd moments of our first mixtapes that I co–produced and mixed in their entirety, and then bringing that into a new context, with a pop arrangement and chords in a faster tempo. It's the perfect marriage of that". While promoting After Hours, the Weeknd claimed to have recorded 67 versions of the song: "I premiered [a demo] at a South by Southwest [party in 2015] as part of the rollout of "Beauty Behind the Madness." I played it over the speakers, I was like "Let’s play it, just for fun, to get fans excited." That version was called "Mood Music" — [longtime friend and creative director] La Mar [Taylor] recorded it on his phone, it was a snippet, just half the song. It was posted on Soundcloud and it got the most views SoundCloud had ever seen or something — a sh—y phone recording. So then the whole world has that version — but the version I’m still working on in the studio doesn’t sound like that version, even though it’s the same song.
From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).