Earned It

Lore & Background

The Weeknd was involved in the *Fifty Shades of Grey* project very early on. Tom Mackay, a manager at Republic Records, explained: "He worked on a number of songs for a number of scenes. Some were working and some weren't, but he just kept at it, and kept at it, and kept at it. In the end, he wrote 'Earned It' and it's the only song that's in the movie twice." Director Sam Taylor-Johnson said the Weeknd's voice is instantly seductive, which fit the film perfectly. The singer agreed, calling the film and his music "a match made in heaven." An alternative version of the single, with a new slightly long intro, was later included in the Weeknd's album *Beauty Behind the Madness* (2015). The music video, directed by Nabil Elderkin, was shot at the Palace Theatre in Los Angeles and released on Vevo and YouTube on January 20, 2015. It includes the BDSM theme as seen in the film, showing the Weeknd performing on stage as a group of topless women with black tape over their breasts perform a BDSM-themed burlesque routine behind him. Dakota Johnson makes a cameo appearance in the video.

In Their Own Story

The room smells like expensive perfume and stale smoke, bathed in a deep crimson glow from the velvet drapes. A single spotlight cuts through the haze, illuminating dust motes dancing above the piano keys. He stands near the edge of the stage, microphone in hand, feeling the weight of the silence before the first note falls. The air is thick with anticipation, a collective breath held by everyone present. As the melody begins to swell, it feels less like a performance and more like a confession whispered into the dark.

Reader's Guide

"Earned It" is a chamber pop and R&B song. It is written in the key of D minor with a slow tempo of 40 beats per minute (Largo) in 6/8 time. There is an alternation between the chords Gm7 and Dm7, and Tesfaye's vocals span two octaves from D3 to D5. Critics praised the song upon release. Mitchell Bozzetto of *Renowned for Sound* wrote, "Tesfaye definitely has one of the best modern day R&B voices and it certainly shows in this track, his pitch and tone are spot on which makes this a soothing listen." Tom Breihan of *Stereogum* wrote, "With its streaking, soundtracky strings, 'Earned It' almost sounds like it could come from one of the '80s erotic thrillers that clearly inspired *Fifty Shades*. It's not a great Weeknd song, but it's a pretty interesting career move." *Rolling Stone* ranked the song at number 39 on its "50 best songs of 2015" list, noting that "The *50 Shades of Grey* soundtrack proved Abel Tesfaye's ideal entree into the pop mainstream, though here he eschewed S&M to instead focus on the bottom line, lending his liquid falsetto to the role of affectionate sugar daddy."

Did You Know?

• "Earned It" is the only song that appears in the movie *Fifty Shades of Grey* twice.
• The song won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards.
• It was nominated for Best Original Song at the 88th Academy Awards.
• The music video was directed by Nabil Elderkin and features the film's lead actress, Dakota Johnson.
• On February 16, 2023, the song was certified diamond by the RIAA for 10 million units (including streams) in the United States.