lacigam gnihtemos od oT
thgin laiceps ruoy s'thginot tuB
[Verse 1]
Some days, things just take
Way too much of my energy
I look up and the whole room's spinning
You take my cares away
I can so over-complicate, people tell me to medicate
[Pre-Chorus]
Feel my blood runnin', swear the sky's fallin'
I know that all this shit's fabricated, mmm
Time goes by and I can't control my mind
Don't know what else to try, but you tell me every time
[Chorus]
Just keep breathin' and breathin' and breathin' and breathin'
And oh, I gotta keep, keep on breathin'
Just keep breathin' and breathin' and breathin' and breathin'
And oh, I gotta keep, keep on breathin', mmm-mmm
[Verse 2]
Sometimes, it's hard to find
Find my way up into the clouds
Tune it out, they can be so loud
You remind me of a time
When things weren't so complicated
All I need is to see your face
Feel my blood runnin', swear the sky's fallin'
I know that all this shit's fabricated, mmm
Time goes by and I can't control my mind
Don't know what else to try, but you tell me every time
[Chorus]
Just keep breathin' and breathin' and breathin' and breathin'
And oh, I gotta keep, I keep on breathin'
Just keep breathin' and breathin' and breathin' and breathin'
And oh, I gotta keep, I keep on breathin', mmm, yeah
[Bridge]
My, my air, my, my air
My, my air, my air
My, my air, my, my air
My, my air, yeah
[Chorus]
Just keep breathin' and breathin' and breathin' and breathin'
And oh, I gotta keep, I keep on breathin'
Just keep breathin' and breathin' and breathin' and breathin'
And oh, I gotta keep, I keep on breathin', mmm, yeah
[Outro]
Feel my blood runnin', swear the sky's fallin', oh, woah
I keep on breathin', oh yeah
Time goes by and I can't control my mind
I keep on breathin', mmm, yeah
About
On “breathin”, Ariana opens up about her anxiety.
She revealed to Vogue that she’d “always had anxiety,” but that the events of the Manchester bombing gave her post-traumatic stress disorder.
I think a lot of people have anxiety, especially right now. My anxiety has anxiety… [but] I’ve never really spoken about it because I thought everyone had it, but when I got home from tour it was the most severe I think it’s ever been.
First teased during her “No Tears Left To Cry” music video, the song was alluded to again during the “No Tears Left To Cry (BTS – Part 2)” video, before being officially released on August 17. The song reached #1 on the US iTunes singles chart on August 19, 2018, as Sweetener’s third single.
A music video released on November 7, 2018 which contains words such as “Needy” and “Imagine”. These words would become song titles of Sweetener’s follow-up album, thank u, next.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
‘breathin’ is about breathing… like, when you’re anxious. It’s about anxiety and feeling like you can’t… you know, when you can’t get a full breath? It’s like the worst feeling in the whole world. It’s a song about that feeling.
I was having lots of [anxiety attacks around the time I recorded this song]. We were in the studio, we were writing and I was like, “Ugh, I can’t breathe.” And they were like, “We’re going to write this song.” And I was like, “Okay, I still can’t breathe, but we’ll write it.”
We all thought that was a special song when we did it. I think everyone reacted and thought that was, as far as the big pop moment, it felt like something truly special. Again, this is Ariana saying, “Hey, I want to do something like this.” She was having a day and without going into too much of speaking for her, the lyrics speak for itself. When you’re having one of those days where things are too much. She opened up as a writer and wrote this honest lyric about how she was feeling in that moment and it became what it was. It’s so fun, because when you release albums, you have your favorite songs. You don’t know if that one’s going to connect. You could see from the data, it’s gone insane. That was a really special time and a special song for the moment we wrote it. We spent a couple of days on it but in the room when everything was done, everyone came in the room like, what is this? This is amazing! It’s fun to watch it get that kind of reaction.
During the week ending December 15, 2018, “breathin” peaked at #12 on the Hot 100.
- 2.blazed
- 4.R.E.M.
- 6.sweetener
- 7.successful
- 8.everytime
- 9.breathin
- 11.borderline
- 12.better off
- 13.goodnight n go
- 14.pete davidson
- 15.get well soon