Give It Up

"Give It Up" is a song by the Victorious cast featuring American actress and singers Elizabeth Gillies and Ariana Grande from the soundtrack album Victorious: Music from the Hit TV Show (2011).

Background
American actresses and singers Ariana Grande and Elizabeth Gillies started singing on a TV show called Victorious and their first song was "Give It Up". "Give It Up" was played for the first time Victorious during a one-hour special episode called "Freak the Freak Out" on November 26, 2010. In the episode, Tori Vega (played by Victoria Justice) and her friends were happy to go to a fake karaoke club called Karaoke Dokie, where there are singing contests every week. During a singing contest, Jade West (played by Gillies) and Cat Valentine (played by Grande) performed "Give It Up" together. However, the owner of the karaoke club changed the rules of the contest so that his daughter and her friend could win instead.

Release and music
"Give It Up" was officially released on August 2, 2011, as the seventh track on the soundtrack album called Victorious: Music from the Hit TV Show. The music style of "Give It Up" is a mix of teen pop, pop, and R&B. Kristen S. Hé, who wrote for Billboard magazine, said that in "Give It Up," Grande sang with a different and deeper voice compared to her other songs. Bob Hoose and Steven Isaac, writing for Plugged In, compared "Give It Up" to a song called "Lady Marmalade" by Patti LaBelle, which was released in 1974. In the song, Grande and Gillies tell a boy to "come a little closer": "At the end of the night/It's the same old story/But you never get it right/Give it up/Take a backseat, boy/'Cause now I’m driving."

Reception
According to Xandra Harbet from Looper and Delilah Gray from The List, "Give It Up" is a very popular song for fans of Victorious. A person from Entertainment Weekly named Marcus Jones said that "Give It Up" is a very famous song that people like to sing when doing karaoke. Hé made a list of all the songs by Ariana Grande and put "Give It Up" at number 104. She said the song was similar to the music of Christina Aguilera and has aged well over time. She also believed that Gillies did the best singing in the song. Justin Curto from Vulture  made a list of all 54 collaborations of Grande and placed "Give It Up" in third place. He said that the song keeps getting better even when you don't think it can get any better. Megan Gaertner from Her Campus put "Give It Up" at number seven on her list. She said the song was a girl-power song with strong singing and is great to listen to if girls want to ignore boys. Sam Margolis also from Her Campus put "Give It Up" at number one on her list of the best songs from Victorious. She said that Grande and Gillies showed what real talent is. William Ruhlmann from AllMusic did not like the song very much. He said that "Give It Up" sounds like a song that Britney Spears didn't want to use.

Live performances and other usages
Grande continued her Sweetener World Tour after she had to skip a concert because she was sick. On November 19, 2019, Grande posted a message on Twitter saying that she was working on something special, saying, "Guys I can't tell u why yet, but I'm so excited for tonight. I've never felt this way. Goodbye." Later that night, at a concert in Atlanta, Georgia, Grande surprised her fans by having Gillies on stage to perform "Give It Up" live. Grande also asked Matt Bennett, the actor who played Robbie in Victorious, to sing "I Think You're Swell" during the concert. "Give It Up" was also played in the background on two episodes of the TV show iCarly.

Credits and personnel
Credits adapted from Tidal.

Elizabeth Gillies vocals
Ariana Grande vocals
Victorious cast associated performer
Dena Chutnik background vocals
Dan Schneider writer
Michael Corcoranwriter, producer, engineer, associated performer
CJ Abrahamwriter, producer, keyboards
Brian Gardner mastering engineer
Greg Wells mixing engineer

Charts
+ Weekly chart performance for "Give It Up" Chart (2011) Peakposition US Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles (Billboard) 23

References

Category:2011 songs