Pinky promise

## ***pinky promise***Single by Monica Lacroix

"**pinky promise**" (stylized in all lowercase) is a song recorded by American singer Monica Lacroix. It was released by Hollywood Records on June 4, 2018 following Lacroix taking time away from the music industry for four years to recuperate following the passing of her father. Since then, the artist has reportedly grown in numerous amounts of ways and hopes that the music will reflect that change. Monica reportedly wrote the track herself with Max Martin & Victoria Monet assisting in some corrections and fixes. It was the pre-release to Monica's second studio album *step forward (2018)*.

Fans were previously asked for music in the years as she came back into the spotlight a year later following her hiatus and appearing on Keeping Up With The Russels. Following the announcement, she departed from the reality show, returning to her socials once more to confirm the news. The single runs with a slow-tempo beat accompanied with dance-pop elements similar to the ones used in *Wild Ones (2014)*, another one of the artist's diamond certified singles in the United States. The single touches on her father not being there, and her missing his guidance, support and assistance through life with his advice.

The single would be nominated at the annual 2019 Grammy Awards event and would win in all the categories it was nominated in with them being, Best Pop Solo Performance, Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year, and the Best Music Video. It would total Monicas Grammy wins to 6.

## Background & Development

According to the Behind The Scenes video released a day after the music video, Monica recorded the single with additional vocals being featured of her tears taken from a 2014 recording session when her father passed. Monica reportedly had no intentions of making anymore music for the foreseeable future but Kanye West, her aunts husband made a bet with her because her fans were pleading for new music. Monica lost the bet, and as such Kanye offered his full services free of charge to the artist. In the video Monica confirmed there was a more balladic version similar to Adele's Hello(2015) which Monica saw as the inspiration to the single however she didn't want to make it to be fully hearty. Footage taken from the session believed to be around 2017 showcased when asked on the production, Monica stated she just felt it'd feel better being in a slow tempo disco themed song plus she was addicted to the production off of *Wild Ones(2014).*

## Critical acclaim

The single was teased in early April 2018, with photoshoot photos airing throughout the coming months. The single was released to critical acclaim and global success around the world breaking numerous records. It was Monica's first release in the past four years.

## Commercial performance

Upon release, the single was met with critical acclaim and is one of her most highly regarded pieces of work in her career. The single sold over 1 million equivalent units in its first week and set an all time record for biggest opening week for a female artist's release with 495,353,739 streams first week. The music video set an all time record as well for any artist with over 762,574,252 views in a week. The single entered the Top 10 of the US Billboard Hot 100 becoming Monica's fifth entree into the Top 10, while the single would go #1 on every other chart in the world. The single would eventually climb to #1 with sales increasing weekly by demand earning over a million sales (the second best of the streaming era in the United States and the biggest for a female artist in the streaming era in the United States) earning Monica her first US Billboard Hot 100 #1 in over 4 years.

The single would earn the biggest draw on radio airplay for any artist for the past two years with many listeners reportedly turning onto radio to hear the single be played. Monica would confirm in an interview performance live on air at iHeartRadio that the single would be a pre-release to her upcoming second studio album.

After just 8 weeks, the music video surpassed 2 billion views becoming Monica's 2nd most viewed music video on YouTube.

Monica would perform the single in a special performance dedicated to the album released just an hour after the album's individual track visualizers were released on her YouTube channel.

The single has since achieved over 2 billion streams and 3 billion views becoming one of Lacroix's most viewed M/Vs on the platform. The single has been certified nine times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America while being close to nearly selling 10 million units in the region. On January 20, 2019 the M/V associated with the single sat at 3.8 billion views almost touching 4 billion.