the first song after manchester, and one of the very few pop records that changes tempo in its opening seconds and gets away with it.
the short answer
the lead single from sweetener, released in april 2018 — her first new music after the manchester arena attack of may 2017. it is about choosing to keep moving rather than about the attack itself, and she has been explicit that she did not want a mournful record. the dave meyers video ends with a manchester worker bee flying towards the camera.
the first twenty seconds
the song opens as a slow ballad and then, before the first chorus, changes tempo and key into a four-on-the-floor house record. that is a structurally strange thing to do on a lead single and it is the entire argument of the song compressed into a musical event: the record does the turn before it tells you about it.
max martin produced it, and it is his most unusual arrangement for her by a distance. everything about the production is designed so that the opening is not a fake-out but a starting point you cannot go back to.
what it is about, in her account
she has been consistent that she did not want to make a record that dwelled on what happened at manchester arena, and that sweetener was to be about light rather than about the event. the song is not a memorial. it is about having reached the end of grief's first phase and deciding to move, which is a harder and less flattering subject than mourning.
the video
dave meyers, and his best work for her. the conceit is an impossible city — streets overhead, buildings folding into one another, a staircase suspended between two towers she walks up the wrong side of. the debt to inception is obvious and acknowledged; meyers has described the idea as disorientation and the search for a floor to stand on, and the open question of whether the ground is found or simply decided upon.
and then the last shot. a worker bee — the symbol of manchester, worn as a tattoo by thousands of people in the city after the attack — flies towards the camera and the video ends. nothing is said, no dedication card appears, and it is the single most restrained thing in her entire body of work.
the chart record it set
it debuted at three on the hot 100, making her the first artist to debut in the top three with the lead single from each of her first four albums. it did not reach number one — that would not happen for another seven months, with thank u, next — and the full account of why her early singles kept stalling is in the number ones piece.
questions people ask
what is no tears left to cry about?
moving forward after grief rather than about the manchester attack itself. she has said she wanted the album to be about light rather than to dwell on the event.
why is there a bee in the video?
the worker bee is the symbol of manchester. it appears in the final shot of the video, with no caption and no dedication card.
why does no tears left to cry change tempo?
it opens as a slow ballad and shifts into a house record before the first chorus — the structure enacts the song's argument about moving rather than stopping.
did no tears left to cry reach number one?
no. it debuted at three, making her the first artist to debut in the top three with the lead single from each of her first four albums.