Selfish (Madison Beer song)

"Selfish" is a slow tempo pop ballad with stripped-down production.^[1][3] The song was written by Madison Beer, Leroy Clampitt, Jaramye Daniels, Jeremy Dussolliet, Elizabeth Lowell Boland, and Tim Sommers. Beer and Clampitt handled production of the song.^[4] In terms of music notation, "Selfish" was composed using ⁴
₄ common time in the key of A major with a slow tempo of 75 beats per minute. Beer's alto vocal range spans from the low note of F#₃ to the high note of E₅.^[5] For much of the song, the stripped-down instrumentation consists of an electric guitar, placing emphasis on Beer's vocals, which are doubled in select parts of the song such as the chorus.^[3][6] Beer's vocal performance on the track was described by one music critic as "emotional".^[1] Deemed a "breakup ballad" by one music critic,^[3] "Selfish" contains lyrics about a toxic relationship and feelings of betrayal.^[6][7]

"Selfish" received universal acclaim. Billboard magazine praised Beer's vocal performance on the song, writing that the singer "sounds poised [on "Selfish"], committed to the approach and confident in her capabilities as a vocalist".^[6] Brian Cantor, writing for Headline Planet, praised the song as an "impressive vocal showing" and "perhaps the strongest 'mainstream pop' song to hit the market thus far in 2020".^[1] Mike Wass of Idolator deemed the song a "stirring breakup ballad".^[3]

"Selfish" was accompanied by a music video co-directed by Madison Beer and Jason Lester that was released the same day as the single.^[3] The visual features the singer performing the song on the ground with various rain effects.^{[citation needed]} After its upload, the video currently has over 53 million views as well as more than 1 million likes.

On December 15, 2020, a Vevo LIFT live performance of "Selfish" was released on Beer's YouTube account.^[8] The video features the artist lying down on an illuminated platform, she progresses throughout the song with more powerful runs that weren't originally present in the track.

Adapted from Tidal.^[4]

• Madison Beer – lead artist, songwriter, producer
• Leroy Clampitt – songwriter, producer, bass, drums, keyboards, programmer, recording engineer
• Jaramye Daniels – songwriter
• Jeremy Dussolliet – songwriter
• Elizabeth Lowell Boland – songwriter
• Tim Sommers – songwriter
• Kinga Bacik – cello
• Oscar Scivier – executive producer
• Chris Gehringer – mastering engineer
• Mitch McCarthy – mixing engineer