"Harlem" is a song by Danish alternative rock band New Politics, released as the first single from their second album A Bad Girl in Harlem on 20 February 2013, through RCA Records, and was accompanied by the release of a music video.
With a notably different style from their previous material, "Harlem" became a national hit in the United States, entering various records charts across the country. The song is widely considered to be their most successful single and their breakthrough into mainstream success.
Background and release
Lyrically, "Harlem" was inspired by a romantic encounter which frontman David Boyd had with a girl from Harlem, a neighborhood in the Upper Manhattan region of New York City. In an interview with The Sun, Boyd explained, "Soren lived above some people and they had a party and that's where I met a girl from Harlem. The girl doesn't know this is about her, it was a bittersweet ending."
On February 20, 2013, "Harlem" was released through RCA Records as the first promotional single for the band's second album A Bad Girl in Harlem. An accompanying music video was uploaded to YouTube on the official New Politics channel the same day.
Commercial performance
After its release, "Harlem" quickly became a hit song and began receiving significant radio airplay in the United States. Within just four days, "Harlem" entered the BillboardAlternative Songs chart, where it peaked at No. 4 and charted for 36 weeks. It remains their most successful single on that chart and all other Billboard charts to date. Later that year, "Harlem" began to enter several Top-40/CHR radio charts in the U.S., most notably the BillboardBubbling Under Hot 100 where it peaked at number 10, and subsequently became their first song to impact Top-40 radio in the country. On June 29, 2017, "Harlem" received a gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America, marking track-equivalent sales of 500,000 units in the US and making it their first and only song to date to receive any certification.
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