INVU (Lacroix Single)

*Weekend*  (2022)

***INVU*** is a song recorded by American singer-songwriter Monica Lacroix off of her fourth studio album of the same name ***INVU***. It was released through Republic Records on December 19, 2022, as the lead single on the same day as the album dropped. It was written by Lacroix entirely and featured production credits by the artist, accompanied with Max Martin assisting the artist in production.

## Background

Originally, Lacroix intended for the album to be more of a resolve and more in depth of recent events in her life, such has recent breakups and the grueling schedule of being one of the most global artists in the world at the moment. She reportedly wanted to usher in a new sound, while experimenting with her vocals and pushing past her limits to new sounds. The artist experimented in previous works such as her critically acclaimed duo albums, ***step forward(2018)*** & ***Rated M(2020)***.

The artist would undergo media thrills such as her heated romance amongst the tabloids with American rapper Travis Scott. The two would become a hot topic amongst various social media networking's as this would be one of Lacroix's third or fourth romances in the spotlight. With Travis Scott's release of Astroworld, many fans would be curious into their life and pregnancy rumors would begin to trail the globe due to the artist not appearing in the media as she normally would. Lacroix would deny these rumors and according to her in an in-depth interview, they recorded a collaborative single she was set to feature on her upcoming album detailing being one of the paparazzi's hottest couples.

In other news, Lacroix wanted her upcoming album to be different and feature more belting, more vocal leaps compared to her previous works. Lacroix wanted her album to have absolutely no features this time around wanting the center stage but also she confirmed Kanye West would not be having any credits on this album due to the involuntary slander of her aunt and their subsequent divorce that was heated throughout the year. The artist would cut off all ties from Ye and subsequently performed their collaborative song using lyrics taken from a demo of the single before he was added as a feature. The artist made it clear she wanted to be involved also in the production, and enlisted previous collaborators Max Martin, and Oscar Holton accompanied with new producers and writers.

Following the heated and highly covered breakup of Travis Scott and Lacroix, the artist re-recorded all of the tracks other than *Weekend* which was released as a pre-release single to showcase the upcoming era. It reportedly took only 15 days, and it featured the original writers according to the credits on the album with INVU being apart of the re-recording sessions.

## Production

"INVU" was written by Lacroix herself, with Max Martin providing oversight and Ricky Rubin assisting. Both claimed the artist however came up with 99% of the song herself. Production was handled by Lacroix & Martin. Musically, the song was described as a house, dance-pop, and synth-pop song with a "funky beat", "soft and dreamy synth sound", "impressive flute melody in the chorus", "vocals that deeply express the various emotions contained in the song", and "splendid high notes [*that*] emphasize the lyrics". The song features "melancholy lyrics by saying 'I envy you' towards a partner who does not take love seriously". "INVU" was composed in the key of B minor, with a tempo of 107 beats per minute.

## Critical review

The single was met with massive widespread acclaim from various sources and outlets due to the artist showcasing her improved vocal abilities, with the final bridge featuring the artist belting. Lacroix has not been known for her vocal capabilities except for a few titles while this song was described by ***Billboard.com*** and ***RollingStone.com*** as the greatest single released this decade, possibly one of the few to be up for century. Many cited its timeless production, accompanied with Lacroix's harmonic vocals that flowed with the production in such a soothing way.

## Commercial performance

Upon release, the single would achieve a milestone 963M views within a span of 7 days, breaking Lacroix's previous record of 800M views in 7 days with *Sex On The Brain* (2021). This was in due partly of the medias headlines frequently mentioning the artist and the accompanied announcement of her album.

On release, the single would enter #1 outside of Latin America & the United States where it entered in at #21, and in Latin America at #3. The single would eventually rise to #14 on the US Billboard Hot 100, before entering the top 10. The single would go #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in the first week of March becoming Lacroix's first single in the year of 2023 to go number one, while also becoming the first single from 2022 to chart at #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 2023.