page_title: XO (song)
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: XO (song) / Music video / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: The Coney Island Cyclone Roller Coaster
context_page_description: "XO" is a song recorded by American singer Beyoncé from her self-titled fifth studio album in 2013. Columbia Records released the song as the lead contemporary hit radio single from the album in the US and Italy on December 16, 2013. Ryan Tedder co-wrote and co-produced "XO" with Terius "The-Dream" Nash and Beyoncé, with additional production handled by Chauncey "Hit-Boy" Hollis and HazeBanga Music. A pure midtempo power pop and R&B love song with electronic influences, "XO" is complete with electronic musical instrumentation, synthesizers and drums. Musically, it was compared to Beyoncé's own song "Halo" and was noted for having several music hooks including its call and response chorus.
  The usage of an audio sample from Space Shuttle Challenger disaster at the beginning of the song was criticized by the families of the lost crew, NASA, and some media. Beyoncé released a statement saying that the song was intended to help people who have lost loved people in their lives and that the sample was included as a tribute to the Challenger crew. "XO" managed to appear on many music charts across Europe and Oceania and it peaked at number 45 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
context_section_description: The music video for "XO" was directed by Terry Richardson. It was filmed on August 29, 2013 on Coney Island's Cyclone roller coaster. On that same day, Beyoncé was spotted at that location. It was later confirmed by several publications that Beyoncé was filming a video for a then-upcoming song titled "XO" from her upcoming fifth album. The Daily Telegraph further reported that fashion models Jourdan Dunn, Jessica White and Diandra Forrest were present during the filming of the video. Several scenes for the video were also filmed during Beyoncé's concert at the Brazilian festival Rock in Rio at Rio de Janeiro in 2013 where the singer asked the crowd to make X and O shapes with their hands; the hand movement choreography was created by Lee Anne Callahan-Longo, the general manager at Parkwood Entertainment. During a behind-the-scenes video, Richardson described the process for the filming of the clip for "XO",
  "You know, it's amazing cause in one point we were like in the arcade and I said to Beyoncé let's just do this. You wanna open the door and you're gonna perform and we're just gonna walk out and see what happens and she was like 'Yeah, let's go for it'. And literally we came out the door and it was like just hundreds of people sort of coming around us. People everywhere, cameras, people yelling her name. It was incredible, I have never experienced anything like that. It was really reportage, loose, not planned, we went with feeling, we went with instinct... It's a beautiful cycle of energy."
  Beyoncé further described the filming of the video as "insanely chaotic" before adding that it captured "raw, fun and being in the moment". In order to prevent snippets of the song being leaked online, the singer wore earbuds during the filming of the video instead of playing the music loud and lip synced the lyrics. The music video for "XO" was first released on the iTunes Store on the visual album itself on December 13, 2013, which contained a previously filmed music video for every song. It was later released to Vevo on December 16, 2013 along with the video for "Drunk in Love".
caption: The Coney Island Cyclone served as the filming location for the music video
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