Supergirl (Hannah Montana song)
Encyclopedia
"Supergirl" is a pop
song by American recording artist and actress Miley Cyrus
, performing as Hannah Montana – the alter ego
of Miley Stewart – a character she played on the Disney Channel
television series Hannah Montana
. The song was written by Kara DioGuardi
, in collaboration with Dan James, and produced by Dreamlab. "Supergirl" was released on August 28, 2009, by Walt Disney Records
as the lead
and only single from the series' third soundtrack, Hannah Montana 3
. A karaoke
version is available in Disney's Karaoke Series: Hannah Montana 3. The song is characterized by dance-pop
elements in its musical composition and contains lyrics regarding the lows of pop stardom.
The song received average to mixed reception from contemporary critics and garnered average commercial outcomes for Cyrus in several countries, compared to those of her previous efforts as Montana. In the United States, it peaked at number five on Billboard
s Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles
(Hot 100–105). It marked Cyrus' first entry as Montana in Austria; it peaked at number fifty-eight on the Austrian Singles Chart. A music video
for "Supergirl" was released, taken from footage of a concert performance.
, who composed a total of four songs on Hannah Montana 3, and Dan James. A karaoke
version is available in Disney's Karaoke Series: Hannah Montana 3. "Supergirl" leaked into the Internet in November 2008, along with six other songs from Hannah Montana 3. The song first premiered on Radio Disney
on July 2, 2009, in order to promote the soundtrack and was afterward released as the lead
and only single from Hannah Montana 3 on August 28, 2009.
and teen pop
elements in its music, while Mikael Wood of Entertainment Weekly
cited rock music as its main influence. Peter Larsen of The Orange County Register
described the track as a bouncy dance-pop number also. The song is set in common time
and has a moderate rock tempo. It is written in the key of C major
and it follows the chord progression
Am11–Fmaj7–C–G. Warren Truitt of About.com
interpreted the lyrics of "Supergirl" to be about the lows of pop stardom. Larsen believed the line "You just wanna be like me" was a representation of Cyrus, "a super duper girl".
. While reviewing a concert before the release of the soundtrack, Peter Larsen of The Orange County Register predicted it would be released as a single and become popular with children, yet "saturate [parents'] ears for a month or two".
, thus its chart appearances consisted mainly of digital downloads. On the week ending July 25, 2009, in the United States, "Supergirl" debuted at number five on Billboard
s Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles
Chart (Hot 100–105) upon Hannah Montana 3s release. The song dropped from the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles Chart in the following week. On the week ending September 11, 2009, "Supergirl" debuted and peaked at number fifty-eight on the Austrian Singles Chart, marking Cyrus' first appearance in the country as Montana; it also dropped from the Austrian Singles Chart after one week. Along with its B-side, "Every Part of Me", the song peaked at number forty-two on the German Singles Chart
.
. The performance began with Montana, dressed in a white and pink tie-dye
tee shirt, white pants, pink leather jacket, and large sunglasses. The performance begins with Cyrus sitting in a bench, facing a mirror, as backup dancers apply makeup on her and attend her. She stands up and roams around the stage to sing afterward. Peter Larsen of The Orange County Register called it one of "hits of the night". The performance was later premiered as the song's music video
on July 2, 2009, on Disney Channel
to promote Hannah Montana 3.
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
song by American recording artist and actress Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus
Miley Ray Cyrus is an American actress and pop singer-songwriter. She achieved wide fame for her role as Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel sitcom Hannah Montana....
, performing as Hannah Montana – the alter ego
Alter ego
An alter ego is a second self, which is believe to be distinct from a person's normal or original personality. The term was coined in the early nineteenth century when dissociative identity disorder was first described by psychologists...
of Miley Stewart – a character she played on the Disney Channel
Disney Channel
Disney Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. It is under the direction of Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney. The channel's headquarters is located on West Alameda Ave. in...
television series Hannah Montana
Hannah Montana
Hannah Montana is an American television series, which debuted on March 24, 2006 on the Disney Channel. The series focuses on a girl who lives a double life as an average teenage school girl named Miley Stewart by day and a famous pop singer named Hannah Montana by night, concealing her real...
. The song was written by Kara DioGuardi
Kara DioGuardi
Kara Elizabeth DioGuardi is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, music publisher, A&R executive, composer and TV personality. She writes music primarily in the light pop-rock, dance, and R&B genres. DioGuardi has worked with many popular artists; her songs have appeared on more than 159...
, in collaboration with Dan James, and produced by Dreamlab. "Supergirl" was released on August 28, 2009, by Walt Disney Records
Walt Disney Records
Walt Disney Records is a family music record label owned by the Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Records was formed in 1956 as Disneyland Records. Before that time, Disney recordings were licensed out to a variety of other labels such as . It was Walt Disney’s brother Roy O...
as the lead
Lead single
A lead single is usually the first single released by a musician or a band before the release of its home album.During the era of the grammophone record, all music arrived in the marketplace as what is now termed a single, one potential hit song backed by an additional song of generally less...
and only single from the series' third soundtrack, Hannah Montana 3
Hannah Montana 3
Hannah Montana 3 is the third soundtrack album for the Disney Channel Original Series Hannah Montana. It was released to stores and digital retailers on July 7, 2009 in the United States under Walt Disney Records. The album was originally set for release on July 14, 2009, but was pushed forward a...
. A karaoke
Karaoke
is a form of interactive entertainment or video game in which amateur singers sing along with recorded music using a microphone and public address system. The music is typically a well-known pop song minus the lead vocal. Lyrics are usually displayed on a video screen, along with a moving symbol,...
version is available in Disney's Karaoke Series: Hannah Montana 3. The song is characterized by dance-pop
Dance-pop
Dance-pop is dance-oriented pop music that originated in the early 1980s. Developing from post-disco, it is generally up-tempo music intended for clubs with the intention of being danceable or merely dancey...
elements in its musical composition and contains lyrics regarding the lows of pop stardom.
The song received average to mixed reception from contemporary critics and garnered average commercial outcomes for Cyrus in several countries, compared to those of her previous efforts as Montana. In the United States, it peaked at number five on Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
s Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles
Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles
The Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States. It lists the top 25 singles below number 100 that have not yet charted on the Billboard Hot 100. Sometimes, however, singles halt their progress on this chart, and never appear on the Hot 100...
(Hot 100–105). It marked Cyrus' first entry as Montana in Austria; it peaked at number fifty-eight on the Austrian Singles Chart. A music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
for "Supergirl" was released, taken from footage of a concert performance.
Background
"Supergirl" was co-written by Kara DioGuardiKara DioGuardi
Kara Elizabeth DioGuardi is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, music publisher, A&R executive, composer and TV personality. She writes music primarily in the light pop-rock, dance, and R&B genres. DioGuardi has worked with many popular artists; her songs have appeared on more than 159...
, who composed a total of four songs on Hannah Montana 3, and Dan James. A karaoke
Karaoke
is a form of interactive entertainment or video game in which amateur singers sing along with recorded music using a microphone and public address system. The music is typically a well-known pop song minus the lead vocal. Lyrics are usually displayed on a video screen, along with a moving symbol,...
version is available in Disney's Karaoke Series: Hannah Montana 3. "Supergirl" leaked into the Internet in November 2008, along with six other songs from Hannah Montana 3. The song first premiered on Radio Disney
Radio Disney
Radio Disney is a radio network based in Burbank, California and headquartered out of the Disney Channel headquarters on West Alameda Ave., from where it has been based since November 2008. Prior to that, the network was based in Dallas, Texas...
on July 2, 2009, in order to promote the soundtrack and was afterward released as the lead
Lead single
A lead single is usually the first single released by a musician or a band before the release of its home album.During the era of the grammophone record, all music arrived in the marketplace as what is now termed a single, one potential hit song backed by an additional song of generally less...
and only single from Hannah Montana 3 on August 28, 2009.
Composition
"Supergirl" is pop song with a length of two minutes and fifty-five seconds. According to Allmusic, the song contains dance-popDance-pop
Dance-pop is dance-oriented pop music that originated in the early 1980s. Developing from post-disco, it is generally up-tempo music intended for clubs with the intention of being danceable or merely dancey...
and teen pop
Teen pop
Teen pop is a subgenre of pop music that is created, marketed and oriented towards teenagers. Teen pop copies genres and styles such as pop, dance, R&B, hip hop, country and rock....
elements in its music, while Mikael Wood of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
cited rock music as its main influence. Peter Larsen of The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register is a daily newspaper published in Santa Ana, California. The Register is the flagship publication of Freedom Communications, Inc., which publishes 28 daily newspapers, 23 weekly newspapers, Coast magazine, and several related Internet sites.The Register is notable for its...
described the track as a bouncy dance-pop number also. The song is set in common time
Common Time
"Common Time" is a science fiction short story written by James Blish. It first appeared in the August 1953 issue of Science Fiction Quarterly and has been reprinted several times: in the 1959 short-story collection Galactic Cluster; in The Testament of Andros ; in The Penguin Science Fiction...
and has a moderate rock tempo. It is written in the key of C major
C major
C major is a musical major scale based on C, with pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature has no flats/sharps.Its relative minor is A minor, and its parallel minor is C minor....
and it follows the chord progression
Chord progression
A chord progression is a series of musical chords, or chord changes that "aims for a definite goal" of establishing a tonality founded on a key, root or tonic chord. In other words, the succession of root relationships...
Am11–Fmaj7–C–G. Warren Truitt of About.com
About.com
About.com is an online source for original information and advice. It is written in English, and is aimed primarily at North Americans. It is owned by The New York Times Company....
interpreted the lyrics of "Supergirl" to be about the lows of pop stardom. Larsen believed the line "You just wanna be like me" was a representation of Cyrus, "a super duper girl".
Critical reception
"Supergirl" received average to mixed reception from contemporary critics. Heather Phares of Allmusic said, "That feeling of familiarity extends to the songs that haven't appeared anywhere else. Whether it's the happy side of Hannah ('It's All Right Here,' 'Supergirl') [...] they sound very much like what came before them." Warren Truitt of About.com agreed but stated, "[The song] may be a little cookie-cutter, but at least the songwriters realize who their audience is and they deliver the goods". Mikael Wood of Entertainment Weekly compared the song's style to that of Kelly ClarksonKelly Clarkson
Kelly Brianne Clarkson is an American pop rock singer-songwriter and actress. Clarkson came into prominence after becoming the winner of the inaugural season of the television series American Idol in 2002 and would later become the runner-up in the television special World Idol in 2003.In 2003,...
. While reviewing a concert before the release of the soundtrack, Peter Larsen of The Orange County Register predicted it would be released as a single and become popular with children, yet "saturate [parents'] ears for a month or two".
Chart performance
"Supergirl" received exclusive airplay on Radio DisneyRadio Disney
Radio Disney is a radio network based in Burbank, California and headquartered out of the Disney Channel headquarters on West Alameda Ave., from where it has been based since November 2008. Prior to that, the network was based in Dallas, Texas...
, thus its chart appearances consisted mainly of digital downloads. On the week ending July 25, 2009, in the United States, "Supergirl" debuted at number five on Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
s Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles
Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles
The Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States. It lists the top 25 singles below number 100 that have not yet charted on the Billboard Hot 100. Sometimes, however, singles halt their progress on this chart, and never appear on the Hot 100...
Chart (Hot 100–105) upon Hannah Montana 3s release. The song dropped from the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles Chart in the following week. On the week ending September 11, 2009, "Supergirl" debuted and peaked at number fifty-eight on the Austrian Singles Chart, marking Cyrus' first appearance in the country as Montana; it also dropped from the Austrian Singles Chart after one week. Along with its B-side, "Every Part of Me", the song peaked at number forty-two on the German Singles Chart
Media Control Charts
The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie...
.
Live performances
On October 10, 2008, Cyrus, dressed as Montana, premiered "Supergirl", along with eight other songs, at the concert taping for the third season of Hannah Montana, which was set on October 10 in Irvine, California at the Verizon Wireless AmphitheatreVerizon Wireless Amphitheatre (Irvine)
Not to be confused with amphitheatres in Georgia, Missouri, or Virginia.Verizon Wireless Amphitheater Irvine is a 16,085-capacity amphitheater, located in Irvine, California...
. The performance began with Montana, dressed in a white and pink tie-dye
Tie-dye
Tie-dye is a process of resist dyeing textiles or clothing which is made from knit or woven fabric, usually cotton; typically using bright colors. It is a modern version of traditional dyeing methods used in many cultures throughout the world. "Tie-dye" can also describe the resulting pattern or an...
tee shirt, white pants, pink leather jacket, and large sunglasses. The performance begins with Cyrus sitting in a bench, facing a mirror, as backup dancers apply makeup on her and attend her. She stands up and roams around the stage to sing afterward. Peter Larsen of The Orange County Register called it one of "hits of the night". The performance was later premiered as the song's music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
on July 2, 2009, on Disney Channel
Disney Channel
Disney Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. It is under the direction of Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney. The channel's headquarters is located on West Alameda Ave. in...
to promote Hannah Montana 3.
Track listings
- U.S. / EU Vinyl CD Single / Digital Download
- "Supergirl" (Album Version) – 2:55
- "Supergirl" (Instrumental) – 2:55
- "Every Part of Me" – 3:30
- EU 2-Track CD Single
- "Supergirl" (Album Version) – 2:55
- "Every Part of Me" – 3:30
Charts
| Chart (2009) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Austrian Singles Chart Ö3 Austria Top 40 Ö3 Austria Top 40 is the name of the official Austrian singles chart, as well as the radio show which presents it, aired Fridays on Hitradio Ö3. The show presents the Austrian singles, ringtones and downloads chart. It premiered on 26 November 1968 as Disc Parade and was presented by Ernst Grissemann... |
58 |
| German Singles Chart Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie... |
42 |
| U.S. Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles The Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States. It lists the top 25 singles below number 100 that have not yet charted on the Billboard Hot 100. Sometimes, however, singles halt their progress on this chart, and never appear on the Hot 100... |
5 |
External links
- Third Season Concert Taping on YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
(posted by Walt Disney RecordsWalt Disney RecordsWalt Disney Records is a family music record label owned by the Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Records was formed in 1956 as Disneyland Records. Before that time, Disney recordings were licensed out to a variety of other labels such as . It was Walt Disney’s brother Roy O...
)