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" Pretty Hurts" is a song by American singer Beyoncé for her eponymous fifth studio album (2013). It impacted mainstream radio in the United States on June 10, 2014, as the fourth single from the album. The song was written by Sia, Ammo and Beyoncé and its production was handled by Beyoncé and Ammo. It is a power pop and soul music ballad, instrumentally complete with a sparse background honed with the use of synthesizer, minor chords and a "booming" Drum kit beat. The track's lyrical content deals with subjects of third-wave feminism, self-empowerment and body image. Additionally, the song's lyrics deal with the consequences of society's high standards of beauty, and in "Pretty Hurts" are depicted as one of the subjected results.
"Pretty Hurts" won in the category for Best Video with a Social Message at the 2014 MTV Europe Music Awards and was named the best track of 2014 by the Associated Press. Following the release of Beyoncé, the track charted in the lower regions internationally. It failed to enter the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at number 63 on the UK Singles Chart. However, the song became Beyoncé's 21st number one on the US Hot Dance Club Songs chart, and was placed at number four on its 2014 year-end chart.
The accompanying music video for "Pretty Hurts" was directed by Melina Matsoukas, and features the singer competing in a beauty pageant. The clip was made available at as part of the album's release on December 13, 2013. It also won a category for Best Cinematography along with Best Video with a Message at the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards. Rolling Stone included the clip in their year-end list of the 10 best music videos of 2014. Beyoncé performed "Pretty Hurts" during her co-headlining On the Run Tour (2014).
During an interview with iTunes Radio in December 2013, Beyoncé said, "The second I heard the song, I'm like, 'I have to sing this song, I don't care how hard I have to fight for this song, this is my song'!" The singer also decided to record "Pretty Hurts" because she wanted to shift her focus to the beauty industry, which she felt was "the most humiliating, judgmental place you can be as a woman". She saw the track's theme as representation of "finding that thing in the world that makes you truly happy," and felt that the song was in line with the album's theme of "finding beauty in imperfections". Speaking to iTunes Radio, Beyoncé explained: "I feel like sometimes the world is a big contest, we're all being judged. I wanted to capture how humiliating and insecure that makes you feel."
Sia later mentioned online, in reply to a fan lamenting that her song "Elastic Heart" would have been a good single for Beyoncé, that she gave the singer "Pretty Hurts", her "other best song". The final version of the song was written by Sia, Beyoncé and Ammo, and its production was handled by the latter two, with Beyoncé also handling the vocal production. Sia sang background vocals. Rob Suchecki Audio engineer and recorded the song's instrumental and intro synthesizer with Derek Dixie. Beyoncé's vocals were recorded by Stuart White who also handled the mixing of the song. "Pretty Hurts" was recorded in three studios: Kings Landing in Bridgehampton, and Jungle City Studios and Oven Studios in New York City. In the United Kingdom, the song was added to the playlist of BBC Radio 1 on June 2, 2014, and later impacted mainstream radio in the country on June 23. In the United States, "Pretty Hurts" impacted rhythmic radio on June 10, 2014, as the fourth single from Beyoncé.
The lyrics of "Pretty Hurts" are related to third-wave feminism and self-empowerment. It confronts society's standards and stereotypes with regard to female beauty. The song opens with a recorded snippet of a beauty pageant judge questioning Beyoncé on her life aspirations, to which she replies, "My aspiration in life would be... to be happy". The sample is used to frame the song in the context of the singer's childhood. According to Michael Cragg from The Guardian, the snippets were used to question the singer's "drive and desire that's got her to where she is today, and whether the struggle was entirely worth it". The song then transcends into a depiction of Beyoncé as a beauty pageant contest awaiting judgment in the lyrics, "Mama said, 'You're a pretty girl, what's in your head, it doesn't matter. Brush your hair, fix your teeth. What you wear is all that matters". The second verse of "Pretty Hurts"—"Blonder hair, flat chest/ TV says bigger is better/ South Beach, sugar free/ Vogue says thinner is better"—serve as an analysis of female body image and society's obsession with physical perfection.
According to Tris McCall of The Star-Ledger, the song implicates that "American women are flung from their cradles into competition with each other, and are coached to disguise their flaws and distrust any gesture toward solidarity." Additionally, the track's lyrics deal with the consequences of society's high standards of beauty, and in "Pretty Hurts" are depicted as one of the subjected results. The track also sees Beyoncé denouncing "plastic smiles," and during the last verses she demands to "strip away the masquearede". Critics observed that "Pretty Hurts" promoted its listener's ambition for fame and personal growth. The song's lyrics garnered comparisons to TLC's "Unpretty" (1999), and Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful" (2002). Marc Hogan of Spin opined that "Pretty Hurts" resembled a speech accompanied by music and felt that it served as a political statement addressed to the beauty industry. Hogan's view was echoed by McCall of The Star-Ledger who wrote that had the song been performed by Phil Ochs in 1995, it "would have instantly recognized it as a Protest song". McCall went on to opine that "Pretty Hurts" served a response to the criticism Beyoncé received for her performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" during American president Barack Obama's second inauguration in 2013.
Tris McCall of The Star-Ledger commended the track's production and complimented Beyoncé for sounding "on the verge of tears" with her "vulnerable" vocal delivery. Newsday writer Glenn Gamboa felt the song was "dynamic musically and bold lyrically". "Pretty Hurts" was lauded as the "best thing on the album" and an "undeniably noble attempt to boost female morale" by Andy Gill of The Independent. Gill's view was shared by Consequence of Sound's Chris Bosman who felt the song's "dramatic and painful exploration of female beauty" made it a highlight on Beyoncé. Billboard journalists Andrew Hampp and Erika Ramirez commented, "Unlike singers, Beyoncé doesn’t just re-sing a Sia demo – she fully makes this self-empowerment anthem fully her own, with a powerhouse 'Halo'-esque vocal, and a bridge that could take you from Houston to Brooklyn in five seconds flat". The lyric, "It's my soul that needs surgery," was dubbed an "admittedly catchy slogan" by Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani. Writing for Slate, Dee Lockett called the track's introduction the "album's most empowering line". Jem Aswad of Spin called "Pretty Hurts" the pièce de résistance of Beyoncé and described it as "a shimmering, melancholy-yet-radio-friendly landscape that perfectly suits the song's heavy subject matter".
Entertainment Weekly reviewer Nick Catucci called the track a "mild album opener". The placement of "Pretty Hurts" was criticized by AbsolutePunk writer Ryan Dennehy, who went on to call the song "too safe at this point in her Beyoncé's career". Dennehy's view was echoed by Emily Mackay of NME who went on to deem the track "inauspicious" and felt its lyrical content was reminiscent of "a City banker lecturing you on the need for spiritual rather than material wealth". Philip Cosores of Paste commented, "'Pretty Hurts' opens the album with didactic rhetoric without the grace of subtlety, with its repeated conclusion that the 'soul needs surgery,' hardly a poetic payoff that listeners deserve". Under the Radar writer Ryan E.C. Hamm dismissed "Pretty Hurts" as a "flaw" on Beyoncé.
"Pretty Hurts" topped the Associated Press' top songs of 2014 list, in which they complimented the track's "heavy, deeply felt, emotional—but most important, beautiful" qualities, and felt that Beyoncé's "rising vocals" brought Sia's words to life. In the 2013 Pazz and Jop Music Critics Poll, the song was ranked at number 424. The song won in the category for Best Song with a Social Message at the 2014 MTV Europe Music Awards. At the 2014 Soul Train Music Awards, "Pretty Hurts" was nominated for The Ashford and Simpson Songwriter's Award.
In Australia, "Pretty Hurts" bowed at number 68 on the ARIA Charts for the week ending May 31, 2014. The following week, it climbed 21 positions to its peak of number 47, before falling off the chart the week after. In the United Kingdom, the song debuted at number 123 on the UK Singles Chart and number 12 on the UK R&B Chart on December 28, 2013. The following week, it climbed to number 93 on the singles chart. It went on to peak at number 63 on May 17, 2014, and became a top ten hit on the UK R&B Chart where it peaked at number eight on July 5, 2014. "Pretty Hurts" initially entered the Irish Singles Chart at number 82 on the chart issued for December 26, 2013, before dropping out the following week. On May 8, 2014, the song re-entered the chart at a new peak position of 56. Elsewhere, "Pretty Hurts" attained peaks of number 68 in Switzerland, number 83 in Germany, and number 87 in the Netherlands.
Beyoncé stated that she wanted to film the video to showcase the correlation of physical beauty and happiness in life, which serves as one of the song's themes. Speaking to MTV News, the singer mentioned: "It represents all of the things women go through to keep up with the pressure that society puts on us. I wanted to tap into the world of competition. Some of the things young women go through is just really heartbreaking for me." Matsoukas wanted "Pretty Hurts" to follow a premise reminiscent to that of a documentary, with most of its filming occurring organically and unplanned. In an interview with MTV News, Matsoukas commented on the music video's theme:
"Well I think we definitely wanted to speak to as many women as we could and all the pain and struggle that we go through as women to maintain this impossible standard of beauty. We wanted to give it a darker edge and take it there and not give you the Disney version of that struggle. And Beyoncé was more than willing to go that far with it. And I applaud her for that."
The music video for "Pretty Hurts" was released on December 13, 2013, to , as part of the release of Beyoncé. On April 24, 2014, it was made available for viewing on the website of Time, to coincide with Beyoncé's cover feature on their Time 100 issue. To further promote the release, Beyoncé launched a website campaign—"What Is Pretty"—which asked fans to post photos and videos on Instagram, explaining their definition of beauty. The music video was released on Beyoncé's Vevo account on the same day as her Time feature and "What Is Pretty" launch. A making of segment of the music video was premiered on MTV and Vevo, also on April 24.
Matsoukas initially planned the music video to visualize Beyoncé winning the contest, where she would realize that it was meaningless to her. However, Beyoncé suggested that an albino, fashion model Diandra Forrest, should serve as the contest's winner instead. Speaking to MTV News, Matsoukas elaborated: "We thought it was really important and interesting to break those ideas of what the classic beauty standards would be and to do this with this beautiful albino woman, I thought was really great. And to show 'Yeah she's not perfect, she doesn't always win and you put your best foot forward and you may still lose.'" The video's ending was originally intended to depict archival footage of American actresses Halle Berry and Vanessa A. Williams, to promote beauty for African-American women. However, Beyoncé sent a note to Matsoukas suggesting that footage from her childhood should be interpolated at the end of the song in order to connect it to the second music video from the album, "Ghost".
The scene where Beyoncé is pictured wrecking a shelf of trophies "represents knocking down... beauty standards and falling into a victim of that". The scene was inspired by Matsoukas obtaining an image of Beyoncé, during her youth, pictured afront a shelf of her personal trophies. Matsoukas opined that "trophies don't bring you happiness, and don't move you forward in life". Jake Reed of The Daily Collegian interpreted the scene as a realization that the pressure of sustaining beauty is unworthy of the time and dedication spent on it. Beyoncé was styled by B. Akerlund for the music video. Her wardrobe included a 1920s rabbit ear headpiece as a means of innocence for her character in the clip. Her look was honed with a "We Are Handsome"-print bodysuit and a Dolce & Gabbana gold brace corset, as well as a tiara and sash during other scenes.
As the second verse finishes, the host calls Beyoncé on the stage and praises her for her performance at the competition, asking the crowd to applaud to the "beautiful and poised" in the contest. He then asks, "Miss 3rd Ward, your first question. What is your aspiration in life?", to which Beyoncé replies: "Oh, my aspiration in life? That's a great question. I wasn't expecting that question". During her reply, her voice is echoed repeating the question, and she is then pictured drowning in water and looking unhappy backstage. After the pause, Beyoncé answers, "My aspiration in life would be to be happy". The chorus then restarts with Beyoncé wrecking a shelf containing her personal trophies. She is also shown backstage, smearing her make-up, and vomiting in the bathroom. Another contestant is pictured eating cotton.
During the bridge of the song, the contestant is then visible at a hospital where a plastic surgeon injects botox into her face. In the scene, Beyoncé is pictured in a white straitjacket. She is then shown in another segment, being Sunless tanning in a bikini. At the end of the music video, Beyoncé loses the contest to a woman with albinism after which she happily congratulates her. The last scene depicts the singer looking happy and smiling with little make-up on her face. The final 30 seconds of the clip are intercepted into footage of Beyoncé, as a child, winning an award for Female Pop Vocalist on a television show. She appears onstage saying: "I would like to thank the judges for picking me, my parents who I love. I love you Houston".
The cohesion of the track's lyrics with the video was commended by critics, with Evan Rytlewski of The A.V. Club noting that it allowed Beyoncé to "open herself up in ways she's resisted before". Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune who lauded the song as a "soaring critique of the beauty industry", added that it was "enhanced by its troubling video". Marc Hogan of Spin magazine commented that the visual expanded on the message of the song, and deemed it a "powerful piece of work". Tris McCall of The Star-Ledger wrote in his review of the song that its "brutal" music video took the critique of perfection and physical beauty further than what the track did. Brandon Sodeber of the magazine Vice called the visual the best on Beyoncé and opined that it was "an incredibly affecting mini-melodrama that underlines to Beyoncé's painful awareness that being black and female means you're never enough of something or other for mainstream America". However, Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph felt that the video sent mixed messages. Brent DiCrescenzo from Time Out complimented Keitel's appearance in the clip, but criticized the visual's message because he felt that it came from "one of the most beautiful women in the world".
Questions raised by critics mainly concerned the irony and hypocrisy of the lyrics of the song and its video. Philip Cosores of Paste felt that with the music video, Beyoncé disrespected the message she sent through the song and felt that it was notable enough to stand on its own. Similarly, Shannon Kelley for TakePart said that the song "offers an honest commentary on an important reality", but highlighted the irony of its music video and felt that it manifested that "Beyoncé not immune to the disease". Randal Roberts of the Los Angeles Times quipped, "She makes a convincing case, were it not for the string of nearly soft-core fashion shoots that follow on... As a first song on an album, 'Pretty Hurts' works. But as thematic opener to such a relentless visual seduction, the hypocrisy is hard to ignore." Although Daisy Buchanan of The Daily Telegraph praised the message of the song and its video, she wrote in her review that the clip was "pure hypocrisy" because she opined that Beyoncé had promoted "heavily sexualised and unattainable standards" with her body throughout her career.
On January 14, 2014, American singer Sam Tsui released an acoustic cover version of "Pretty Hurts" on the iTunes Store. An early instrumental of "Pretty Hurts" was used for Gucci's Chime for Change campaign in 2013, before the song's official release. At the time, it served as an audio accompaniment for the campaign's films. On June 3, Dutch disc jockey R3hab released an uptempo electro house remix of the song during a concert for Gucci's Chime for Change, in honor of the one-year anniversary of its launching. Idolator's Mike Wass praised the remix's "killer drop" and called it "on-point from beginning to end".
Credits adapted from Beyoncé's website.
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