"Beauty in the World" is a song by the American soul

Soul music

Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

 singer Macy Gray

Macy Gray

Macy Gray is a Grammy Award-winning American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress, famed for her distinctive raspy voice, and a singing style heavily influenced by Billie Holiday and Betty Davis.Gray has released five studio albums, with her fifth studio album, The Sellout,...

. It is the first single from her fifth album The Sellout

The Sellout

The Sellout is the fifth studio album by American R&B-soul singer–songwriter Macy Gray, released on June 22, 2010 in the United States. The album's lead single, "Beauty in the World" was released in April 2010...

. The song was released digitally on March 30, 2010 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and the music video, as well. It was notably used on the series finale of the ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 dramedy series Ugly Betty

Ugly Betty

Ugly Betty is an American comedy-drama television series developed by Silvio Horta, which premiered on ABC on September 28, 2006, and ended on April 14, 2010. The series revolves around the character Betty Suarez and is based on Fernando Gaitán's Colombian telenovela soap opera Yo soy Betty, la fea...

, in the 2010 film Killers

Killers (2010 film)

Killers is a 2010 American romantic comedy action film starring Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher, Tom Selleck and Catherine O'Hara. The film was released in the United States and Canada on June 4, 2010...

., and in Microsoft videos for Internet Explorer 9

Internet Explorer 9

Windows Internet Explorer 9 is the current version of the Internet Explorer web browser from Microsoft. It was released to the public on March 14, 2011 at 21:00 PDT. Internet Explorer 9 supports several CSS 3 properties, embedded ICC v2 or v4 color profiles support via Windows Color System, and...

Background and writing

The Sellout

The Sellout

The Sellout is the fifth studio album by American R&B-soul singer–songwriter Macy Gray, released on June 22, 2010 in the United States. The album's lead single, "Beauty in the World" was released in April 2010...

, Gray’s fifth album and first since her under-performing 2007 album, Big

Big

Big is a 1988 romantic comedy film directed by Penny Marshall and stars Tom Hanks as Josh Baskin, a young boy who makes a wish "to be big" to a magical fortune-telling machine and is then aged to adulthood overnight...

, is her return to musical form after almost conforming when her last album didn’t take off. “I thought after Big flopped maybe I should do what everyone else was doing,” she said. “Go out and hire the hottest producers, the best writers, get real skinny. But none of those people called me back.”

The song was inspired by hearing her daughter’s laughter on a down day. “I didn’t even know what she was laughing at. I thought ‘at least she’s happy.’ And I felt at least I hadn’t failed there, because my daughter’s happy.”

Promotion

Gray performed the song on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jay Leno that initially aired from May 25, 1992 to May 29, 2009, and resumed production on March 1, 2010. The fourth incarnation of the Tonight Show franchise made its debut on May 25, 1992, three days following Johnny...

 on May 12. She also went to Good Morning America

Good Morning America

Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...

 on June 23, and on The View on June 24.

Reception

Monica Herrera from Billboard magazine gave a positive review for the song, saying that:"Gray makes a strong case for her ability to craft another anthemic pop song. Nonthreatening folk pop is the vehicle of choice here: Over hand claps, a casual guitar strum and jangly tambourine, Gray sings, "Listen to the sound, and lose it/It's sweet music, and dance with me." While the concept feels a little hokey-as does rhyming "beauty in the world" with "shake your booty, boys and girls" in the chorus-it's the kind of song that should appeal to the singer's original fan base". John Bush from Allmusic didn't like of the song and went to say that ""Beauty in the World," has a lyric and melody by Gray alone, and despite the positive sentiments in the song, its melody is unmemorable and it includes a few embarrassing lines (e.g., "There is beauty in this world/So much beauty in this world/Always beauty in this world/So much beauty in this world/Shake your booty boys and girls/For the beauty in the world")".

First version

The video for the song, directed by Adria Petty premiered on April 9, 2010, and features Gray performing the song with cheerleaders, kids jumping rope, dancing and hand-clapping.

Second version

A second version of the video was made due to the 2010 World Cup and was titled "Beauty In The World Cup". The "World Cup" themed music video for "Beauty in the World!" shows Macy with beautiful models & soccer players in dresses and heels.

Charts

Chart (2010)	Peak position
Japan Hot 100 Japan Hot 100 The Japan Hot 100 is a music singles chart in Japan. It is compiled by Billboard and Hanshin Contents Link ever since February 2008. The chart is updated every Wednesday at billboard-japan.com and every Thursday at billboard.com ....	78
US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play Hot Dance Club Play The Hot Dance Club Songs chart is a weekly national survey of the songs that are most popular in U.S. dance clubs...	2
US Billboard Adult Pop Songs	40
US Billboard Adult Contemporary	23