Riverside ft. Ariana Grande (Rita Ora Song)

Riverside Single Cover

"Riverside" is a song by British singer-songwriter Rita Ora, and features Ariana Grande. The song was recorded for Ora's debut studio album, Heartbreaker, and was released as the official third and final single for the era. The tracks was written by Ora herself alongside Ariana Grande. Alesso produced the track, Peter Karlsson was responsible for vocal production and John Hanes was responsible for mixing and mastering.

The single was released on November 12, almost three moments after the album's release. The star-studded music video directed by Hannah Lux Davis was released on the same day. The single debuted at No. 23 when the album was being released and quickly left the charts after that. Because of it being made a single, Riverside managed to peak at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. This marked Ora's fourth Top 10 hit single.

## Background and release

Ora first got to know Grande due to them meeting at several events. Ora was working on Riverside and reached out to Grande if she wanted to feature on the song and she was over the moon.

The existence of the two collaborating was first teased on Twitter on January 21nd when Ora tweeted out a picture of them [Ariana & Rita] in the studio working on the song. Quickly, media outlets shared the picture and it went over the entire world. Ora was asked multiple times in interviews about the collaboration between the two but she kept very silent about it due to it being for her debut studio album. On June 14th, Ora revealed that Riverside was the fifth track on her debut studio album and released a instrumental snippet of the song. Ora began teasing the release of Riverside as a single on October 26th as she began tweeting out lyrics of the song with GIFs of rivers. On November 3rd, Ora started slowly revealing the single cover for the song which features Ora and Grande on the river in a cute beige boat. On November 9th, Ora announced the single being released as the third official single and announced the release date, together with that she announced the star-studded music video including the cast of the video.

## Critical reception

"Riverside" received positive reviews from critics. Critics called the song "the most memorable production of the album" and praised its lyrics and Ora's and Grande's vocals on the song and called it one of the outstanding songs on Ora's debut album. Riverside is being named a stand-out track on the album.

Lyrically, the song is being praised and is, as of right now, Ora's best song lyrically together with her album track "Heavy".

## Commercial performance

"Riverside" is on the list of Ora's most succesful songs. Debuting at No. 23 with 111,000 sales in it's opening week when Heartbreaker was released. After it being released as a single, the song re-entried the chart at No. 9 with 606,900 sales in it's opening week, Ora's biggest opening week ever in terms of sales. The song was also streamed over 50,000,000 times in it's week of being a single, which is also was a new high for Ora. The single went on to peak at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, Ora's fourth Top 10 single.

## Credits and personnel

### Management

* All rights administrered by Sony Music Group/Physical Records

### Personnel

* Rita Ora - lead vocals, songwriter
* Ariana Grande - lead vocals, songwriter
* Alesso - producer
* Peter Karlsson - vocal production
* John Hanes - mixing, mastering