Light Up The World

"Light Up The World" is the first single to be taken from singer-songwriter Ashley! third album, Silver Lining, and twelth overall, to be released on August 12th, 2013. Written by Crystal Barker and produced by Dr.Luke. Upon premiere it received generally positive reviews from both music critics and fans of the single, notting it's catchy beat and infection lyrics, with many dubbing the song as the "anthem of the summer" and "unashamedly pop".

Lyrically, the song focuses on a relationship you feel safe in, without having to pretend and using your happiness to pass a message onto other to 'light up the world'.

Upon release, Light Up The World charted at #1 on the Official Uraps Chart, the Airplay chart and the Digital Single chart, as well as taking the runners up position on the pre-release chart the week prior to the songs release, charting behind Tommy Gunn. The single become the second fastest selling single of the year at the time, taking the slot from Paulo Araujo's More To Life set two weeks prior, selling 146,624 copies in its first week alone.

Background and Composition
Despite initial confirmation that Ashley had been in the studio working on a re-issue of her previous album, Exclamation Declaration, it was later revealed that Ashley had been working on tracks from an new album era. Dr.Luke confirmed he had worked on a track, written by Crystal Barker, which they had hoped would serve as the lead single from the album campaign. Days later, it was revealed that Light Up The World would be released on August 12th as the first single, after 'instantly falling in love with it both lyrically and how it had been produced'. Ashley described the single as 'unashamed pop and adding that it could be the 'summer anthem of the year'. The single premiered on July 10th on Capital FM's Breakfast Show.

Light Up The World is a 'bubblegum dance pop' track with carefree lyrics, opposed to anything deep and philosophical for the first single, Ashley decided it would be best to start the album off positively, a song which everyone can connect to 'whether you like to admit it or not'.

Chart Performance
Released on August 12th, the song charted at #1, selling 146,624 in its first week alone and became the second highest selling single of the year at time of release. Overall, it was Ashley's third number one single, and in its first week alone, sold more than her first three singles chart runs. The week before release, it charted at number two on the Pre-Release chart, followed by a number one on both the digital chart and Airplay (which also saw Clouds (Silver Lining) rise into the top ten). Following the album release on August 19th, the song dropped once place to #2 but remained with abnormally large sales, and by this point already had outsold eight of her previous singles in terms of sales.

Background
Several stills of Ashley taken from the album shoot were revealed and it was confirmed that the singles video has been shot alongside the album artwork shoot. Ashley stated her desire to make the video simple, summer and fun, stating that music had become to 'story based' and she wanted to make something she'd be happy to use as an introduction to her. It was shot in LA in June 2013 and premiered two days before the singles release on her VEVO channel.

Synopsis
The sound of crashing waves and a general murmur is heard as Ashley walks across a beach through the water. She stares into the sunset as the ‘Light Up The World’ begins playing as the camera pans to the view. The scene cuts to Ashley sitting in a room, tapping a pen and appears to be waiting. As a car pulls up, a group of girls get out and signal for Ashley to join them. She leaves the room and greets them. The group drives off in an open top car, taking photos and standing up so their hair is blowing in the breeze. Ashley pulls faces at the camera behind them as she sings the chorus of the song. The car stereo is shown to be playing the song with the album sitting on the side. The scene then intercuts to the verses, with Ashley wearing a new outfit in a new scene consisting of neon jewelry and spray painted walls, showing album related artwork (such as Hershey kisses and sweethearts). The girls pull up at and Ashley begins performing the song on the hood of the car, with the girls joining in with her actions, they beep the horn to signal they are moving on. Queue more car shots. Arriving at a beach, they all run from the car down, leaving Ashley behind where she continues to perform the rest of the song to the camera. The video ends and all the girls run down to the ocean front and cheering as they stare off into the sunset, smiling, laughing and having a good time. The video concludes with a voiceover from Ashley. “When you’re surrounded by the right people, the people who know you best, the people you love, it’s never difficult to light up the world”.

Tracklisting



 * PHYSICAL FORMAT'
 * 1) 1) Light Up The World
 * 2) 2) Bitchflakes
 * 3) 3) Light Up The World (Acoustic)
 * 4) 4) Light Up The World (Manhattan Clique Remix)
 * 5) 5) Light Up The World (Utah Saints Club Mix)
 * 6) 6) Silver Lining (Album Sample Medley) *


 * VINYL
 * 1) A1) Light Up The World (Radio Edit)
 * 2) A2) Bitchflakes
 * 3) B1) Light Up The World (Manhattan Clique Remix)
 * 4) B2) Light Up The World (Utah Saints Club Mix)


 * DIGITAL EP
 * 1) 1) Light Up The World
 * 2) 2) Light Up The World (Instrumental)
 * 3) 3) Light Up The World (Official Video)


 * Album sample includes small segments of the following tracks; Hershey Kisses, Love in Your Eyes, Let the Boys In and Target.

Reception
From the off, the video was described as 'dedicated to Instagram' with its yellow, orange and pink themes and filters and others labelling it 'white instagram girl'. It gained mixed to positive reviews, some praising the lack of storyline to highlight the fun and carefreeness the song promotes, whilst others saw this as a fault suggesting Ashley had 'run out of ideas'. Within the first 24 hours, the video garnered nearly seven million views on her VEVO channel, surpassing her second most viewed videos 24 hour window, Marionette, by almost double the amount.

Charts
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Chart Run

 * Week 1: #1 - 146,624
 * Week 2: #2 - 271,924 (+125,300)