3 Words

***3 Words*** is the debut studio album by English singer Cheryl Cole released on 23 October 2009 by Fascination Records. Musically, it features a dance-pop and R&B sound to it. The album debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, selling 125,271 copies in its first week. The album also charted on the Irish, Australian and Swiss charts. In the UK the album was certified three times Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry and has since sold 1,000,000 copies in the country alone.

## Critical reception

_3 Words_ received generally favourable reviews from music critics, earning a rating of 62 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 6 reviews.

## Track listing

**Sample credits**
- "Heaven" contains samples from "Is You" by D.I.M., written by Andreas Meid.
- "Happy Hour" contains samples from "Nevermore" by Renaldo Domino, written by Richard Pegue.
- "Boy Like You" contains samples from "Little Lies" by Fleetwood Mac, written by Christine McVie and Eddy Quintela.

### _3 Words – The B-Sides EP_

A digital EP featuring the three B-sides to the three singles from the _3 Words_ album, titled _3 Words – The B-Sides EP_, was released online on 18 April 2010 from Fascination Records.

## Personnel

- Cheryl Cole – lead vocals, co-writer
- William "will.i.am" Adams – executive producer, featured vocals, background vocals, producer, arrange, mixing, Instrumentation, co-writer
- Taio Cruz – producer, featured vocals, instrumentation, co-writer
- Priscilla Renea – co-writer, background vocals
- Louis Biancaniello – instrumentation
- Carsten Schack, Kenneth Karlin (Soulshock & Karlin) – producers, arrangement, instrumentation, mixing
- Steve Kipner – producer, arrangement
- Nick Knight – photographer
- Reggie "Syience" Perry – producer, arrangement
- Fraser T Smith – producer, instrumentation
- Samual "Sam" Watters – producer
- Wayne Wilkins – producer, arrangement, mixing
- Tom Coyne – mastering
- Mikaelin 'Blue' Bluespruce – recording engineer

## Charts

The album debuted at number one in the UK with sales of 125,271. It then retained the number 1 position for another week. On 6 November 2009 the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) certified the album platinum. It has since gone 3× Platinum, with sales of over 1,000,000 copies.

### Weekly charts

|scope="col" style="width:21em;"|Chart (2009–2010)|scope="col"|Peak position|
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|15||||
|5||||

### Year-end charts

|Chart (2009)|Position|
| --- | --- |
|style="text-align:center;"|23|
|style="text-align:center;"|11|
|style="text-align:center;"|37|

## Release history

|Region|Release date|Format|Label|Catalogue|||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|23 October 2009|rowspan="2"|CD, digital download|Polydor|2721459|||
|rowspan="2"|26 October 2009|rowspan="2"|Fascination|2721459|||
|HMV bonus version|2724424||||||
|rowspan="3"|12 February 2010|rowspan="10"|CD, digital download|rowspan="11"|Universal Music|060252732483|
|rowspan="3"|0602527324838||||||
|rowspan="2"|15 February 2010||||||
|rowspan="2"|16 March 2010|rowspan="2"|602527324838||||
|19 March 2010|rowspan="2"|0602527214597|||||
|22 March 2010|||||||
|9 April 2010|0602527324838||||||
|17 May 2010|Digital download|0602527214597|||||

## Infobox (album)

- **name**: 3 Words
- **type**: studio
- **artist**: Cheryl (singer), Cheryl
- **border**: yes
- **recorded**: 2009
- **genre**: * Dance-pop
* Contemporary R&B, R&B
- **length**: 43:55
- **label**: *Fascination Records, Fascination
* Polydor Records, Polydor
- **producer**: *will.i.am (also executive producer#Music, exec.)
* Taio Cruz
* Soulshock & Karlin
* Steve Kipner
* Fraser T Smith
* Syience
* Sam Watters
* Wayne Wilkins
- **next title**: Messy Little Raindrops
- **next year**: 2010