Better Off Without You (Christina Aguilera song)

"Better Off Without You" is a song recorded by American singer Christina Aguilera. It was officially released on June 10, 2017, as the second single off Aguilera's eighth studio album, "1 Eye Open" (2017). The follow-up to "Over My Naked Body", it was written by Aguilera and Max Martin, with the production being handled by Martin and Paul Oakenfold. The song is a total departure from the previous single. Sonically, it is a dance-pop, EDM, electropop song with trance elements. The lyrics of the song revolve around Christina leaving a person who is bad for her, ending their toxic relationship in the process.

"Better Off Without You" is a song recorded by American singer Christina Aguilera. It was officially released on June 10, 2017, as the second single off Aguilera's eighth studio album, "1 Eye Open" (2017). The follow-up to "Over My Naked Body", it was written by Aguilera and Max Martin, with the production being handled by Martin and Paul Oakenfold. The song is a total departure from the previous single. Sonically, it is a dance-pop, EDM, electropop song with trance elements. The lyrics of the song revolve around Christina leaving a person who is bad for her, ending their toxic relationship in the process.

The song's release was preceded by a social media campaign, with Aguilera tweeting the song's title on March 5 and announcing its official release on April 14. A snippet premiered on Lana Del Rey's BBC Radio 1 takeover on April 17 and a remixes EP was released on August 12, featuring guest vocals by Mariah Carey and Maluma. The song garnered mixed to negative response from music critics, but it was deemed better than its predecessor. Comercially, the song underperformed, peaking at 14 and selling only 300,000 copies worldwide. Aguilera performed "Better Off Without You" on various television and radio shows, notably Dancing with The Stars, Australian Idol and Saturday Night Live.

A music video was slated for release sooner after the release of the video, but it was delayed to August 12. Directed by Hannah Lux Davis, the video is a short movie featuring "Tango Alone" track, "Starving Wolves", and promotional single, "Burn Your Heart". A continuation of the "Tango Alone" short film, the movie depicts Aguilera as an obsessed woman who is trying to get revenge on her former boyfriend by kidnapping him and leading a riot against his presidency. The song was included on Aguilera's 2020 singles compilation, "Not So Bad, So Far".

Background & composition
In January 2017, Aguilera marked the beginning of her comeback to the music scene by releasing the single "Over My Naked Body". Although the song was not very well received, it managed to do perform moderately on the charts and was later dubbed the lead single off her eigth studio album, "1 Eye Open". In February, following an injury suffered by Aguilera, the promotion for the song was cut short. The singer announced later on Twitter that she is going to be taking a break in order to recover from her accident and teased the release of the next single off her then-forthcoming album. Later, on March 5, the singer tweeted the song's title, teasing its release and announced it officially on April 14.

During an Elvis Duran interview, Aguilera revealed that the song was her label's choice of lead single, however the singer deemed the choice "too safe", though she expressed that she is "very proud of this song" later. Written by Aguilera and Sweedish producer, Max Martin, the song has producer credits by English record producer, Paul Oakenfold. The producer came on the track later in the creation process, after the singer felt like "something was lacking". He has been credited to introduce the EDM sound of the song and changing it from a more timid sound to an anthemic production, with a trance-like atmosphere.

Lyrically, the song speaks about a breakup from a toxic person. At first, Aguilera speaks about how she is "feeling" herself, sign that she's moved on, and explains all the ways she's been hurt. The next parts of the song detail how all that mistreatment led to her feeling like she is "better off" without that person and how she will be getting over them.

Critical Reception
"Better Off Without You" was received poorly by critics, however, it was a noted improvement from "Over My Naked Body". Its biggest criticism was drawn for the "overused topic" the song speaks about. A critic noted "The song isn't a sin on music, but it's a bit of a blemish on the record." Other critics have also noted that the sound is dated and "cliché", one of them marking it their least favourite on the album. It was, however, praised for managing to "not be pandering" and, despite all the criticism, it was considered "not a skip on repeat listening".

Commercial Reception
Commercially, "Better Off Without You" performed poorly. It debuted on the CAL Charts at 40, with 50,000 copies, a slow decline from the debut of "Over My Naked Body". Eventually, the song slowly rose on the charts, managing to reach the top 20 following the music video release and the top 15 following "1 Eye Open"'s release. On radio, it performed just as poorly, as it peaked only at 11, having the worst radio performance out of any "1 Eye Open" singles.

Background
The music video for "Better Off Without You" was directed by Hannah Lux Davis, their third collaboration that year. Aguilera called Davis a "wonderful director" and described the video as "very simple and very sexy". The video is included as the last part of "The Reflections" video series, a continuation to the "Tango Alone" film. A short film, the entire video included videos for the tracks "...Starving Wolves" and "Burn Your Heart", both featured on Aguilera's "1 Eye Open" album. The singer described the movies "Gone Girl" and "Kill Bill" as the main inspiration, and mentioned how the inclusion of the other songs in the video came during the early stages of the creative process.

Release and synopsis
On August 8th, Aguilera announced through a Twitter letter that she will be releasing the music video for "Better Off Without You" on August 11th. She has previously teased it on a 106.7 Kiss FM interview and premiered it on her CALTube page. Running for nearly fifteen minutes, the video features three songs from "1 Eye Open": "...Starving Wolves", "Burn Your Heart" and "Better Off Without You", the former having been previously featured in a very short sequence of the "Tango Alone" short film. The music video features a parental advisory label, meaning that the viewer should expect any profanity or inappropriate references, with the intention of alerting parents of material potentially unsuitable for children.

The video opens with Christina in a background, holding a monologue. After this short introduction, the video continues where "Tango Alone" left off, as Aguilera and the character Ex-Lover are seen on a cliff, discussing his kidnapping. When he does not seem impressed, she hits him in the head with the butt of the gun she is holding. A few days later, a man offers Aguilera a case full of money in exchange for Ex-Lover. She refuses and shoots the two people, then drives through the town, causing terror and fear, while "...Starving Wolves" plays. Eventually, she parks her car in a dark alley where the club she works at is located. 2 days later, Aguilera takes the stage to perform "Burn Your Heart". Scenes of her singing are being interpolated with scenes of her finding your Ex-Lover has escaped, which sends her into a frenzy as she ruins her dressing room. In January 2017, while sitting in a motel room, at the edge of a bed, Christina sees Ex-Lover shaking hands with the President of the United States while she holds another monologue. The TV is turned off and the room is set ablaze. "Better Off Without You" starts, showing Aguilera headlining a free concert during a "Not My President" protest. Scenes of her performing are interpolated with scenes of her walking around in a house, breaking everything around and spilling gasoline everywhere. She sets the house on fire and, at the end of the concert, police sirens can be heard, indicating the story is not over.

Live Performances
Aguilera performed "Better Off Without You" a few times during the 1 Eye Open album cycle. The first one was on The View on the day of its release and on Dancing With The Stars. Later on, it was performed on Rising Star, The Today Show, Sunrise and on The Project. The more notable performances were on Saturday Night Live, Ellen and X Factor UK, where the song was part of a medley with the third "1 Eye Open" single, "Stardust".

The song was also performed during Aguilera's festival performances. The first one being during her Glastonbury Festival set, where she performed a rock remix with elements of Guns N Roses song "November Rain" and "Fighter". It was performed once again during her Freedom Festival, once again as a rock mix.

Remixes
On the same day as the music video, a remixes extended play was released. It featured 5 remixes, 2 which featured guests vocalists. The first remix featured Mariah Carey, alongside a brand new verse from the songstress and some new background vocals. The second remix was a Spanish version of the song, featuring the then-newcomer Maluma on the song. Dubbed "Spanish Remix", the version featured Christina and Maluma singing the song in the Spanish language. About the remixes, she named them "exciting" and "a tribute to her roots". The last 3 tracks were EDM remixes produced by Moroccan Dutch DJ R3HAB, American music producer Tracy Young and London-based DJ music producer and drag queen, Jodie Harsh.

Recording

 * Recorded at MXM Studios (Los Angeles)

Management

 * All rights administered by Sony Music Group/Holy Tongues Recordings

Personnel

 * Christina Aguilera - lead vocals, background vocals, songwriter
 * Max Martin - songwriter, producer
 * Paul Oakenfold - producer
 * Ann Mincieli - mixing, engineering