"You Belong with Me" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift and the third single from her second studio album Fearless (2008). Big Machine Records released the song to radio on April 20, 2009. Swift was inspired to write "You Belong with Me" after overhearing a telephone call between a touring band member and his girlfriend; she and Liz Rose wrote the lyrics, which discuss an unrequited love. Swift and Nathan Chapman produced the track, which has a banjo-led country pop production and incorporates fiddle, mandolin, and rock-influenced bass and electric guitars. Although the single was promoted on country radio, some critics categorized it into 1980s pop subgenres such as pop rock and power pop. Early reviews of the song generally praised its radio-friendly production and the emotional engagement of the lyrics, although a few deemed the songwriting formulaic. Some feminist critics took issue with the lyrics as slut-shaming, but retrospective opinions have considered "You Belong with Me" one of Swift's signature songs. At the 2010 Grammy Awards, the song was nominated in three categories, including Song of the Year and Record of the Year. The single reached the top 10 on several charts and received certifications in Australia, Canada, Japan, and New Zealand. In the United States, it peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, and was the first country song to reach number one on both the Hot Country Songs chart and the all-genre Radio Songs chart. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified the single seven-times platinum. Roman White directed the song's music video, which stars Swift as both the antagonist—an unsympathetic, popular brunette cheerleader—and the protagonist—a sympathetic, blonde girl next door who yearns for the antagonist's boyfriend. The video premiered on CMT on May 4, 2009, and won Best Female Video at the MTV Video Music Awards; Swift's acceptance speech was interrupted by Kanye West, which caused a controversy widely covered by the press and instigated a feud between the artists. Following a 2019 dispute about the ownership of Swift's back catalog, she re-recorded the song as "You Belong with Me (Taylor's Version)" for her album Fearless (Taylor's Version) (2021). As of 2024, "You Belong with Me" has been included in the set lists of five of Swift's six headlining tours. == Background and writing == Taylor Swift wrote songs for her second studio album Fearless while touring as an opening act for other country musicians to promote her self-titled debut studio album during 2007 and 2008, when she was 17-to-18 years old. Continuing the romantic themes of her first album, Swift wrote songs about love and personal experiences from the perspective of a teenage girl to ensure her fans could relate to Fearless. The product was a collection of songs about the challenges of love with prominent high-school and fairy-tale lyrical imagery. Swift and Nathan Chapman recorded over 50 songs for Fearless; "You Belong with Me" was one of the 13 tracks that made the final cut. The track, which was recorded by the audio engineer Char Carlson, was produced by Swift and Chapman, and mixed by Justin Niebank at Blackbird Studio in Nashville, Tennessee. Swift was inspired to write "You Belong with Me" after she overheard a telephone call between a band member and his girlfriend. She recalled him becoming defensive when his girlfriend confronted him, which prompted the opening lines: "You're on the phone with your girlfriend, she's upset. She's going off about something that you said." Out of sympathy for him, Swift imagined herself as a "girl-next-door-itis" character with hidden feelings for a close male friend, whom she understood but who was in a relationship with a popular-yet-"snobby, ridiculous, overrated girl". Swift immediately wrote some lyrics and developed a complete narrative in a songwriting session with Liz Rose. Swift played the pre-chorus and chorus to Rose and sang the lines, "She wears short skirts / I wear T-shirts", which were her favorite to write on the song. Rose suggested Swift write "something about bleachers" and they conceived another lyric: "She's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers." == Music and lyrics == "You Belong with Me" follows a verse–chorus form that has a pre-chorus between the verse and the chorus. The verse and chorus follow the diatonic I−V−ii−IV chord progression (F♯−C♯−g♯−B) and each chord is maintained for two measures. The pre-chorus, though using the same chords, follows the ii−IV−I−V progression and each chord is maintained for one measure. The track is set to a medium-tempo 44 time signature and each section is divided into eight-measure phrases. Swift sings with melodic variation; each section from the verse to the pre-chorus rises in register. Toward the chorus's end, Swift uses melisma on the words "see" and "me" in the lyric "Why can't you see / you belong with me?"—for each of the words, she sings with three notes that descend a short distance (B−A♯) and then a considerable drop (A♯−D♯). The musicologists Nate Sloan and Charlie Harding label this three-note melodic motif the "T-Drop", which also occurs on many of Swift's later songs. Reviews from mainstream publications generally called "You Belong with Me" a country pop song but many critics and musicologists deemed it a pop song that is applicable to more than one radio format. American Songwriter's Savannah Dantona said it is "openly a pop song influenced by country, not country influenced by pop". Nolan Gasser said the country-music stylistic foundation is in the instruments; banjo strums that drive verses, a pedal steel guitar, occasional slide guitar riffs, and a slight twang in Swift's vocals. As the song progresses into the chorus, the banjo and pedal steel submerge to make room for dynamic electric and bass guitars. Jody Rosen categorized "You Belong with Me" as power pop, while Gasser wrote that the arrangement is typical pop rock, and Andrew Unterberger of Billboard said the dynamic shift from the verses to the chorus make the track sound "almost ... like a '90s rock song". Gasser, Michael Campbell, and James E. Perone, citing the song structure, rhythm, and collective use of acoustic, electric, and bass guitars, likened the song with 1980s styles of pop rock, new wave, and pop-punk. For Perone, this 1980s connection is in the "highly unusual" incorporation of guitars and country banjo, fiddle, and mandolin in the steady eighth-note texture. In "You Belong with Me", a female narrator expresses her feelings for a male friend who is in a relationship with an unappreciative girlfriend. The lyrical motifs evoke a typical American high-school setting; the narrator sees herself as an unpopular girl and an "underdog", and the girlfriend is a popular, attractive cheerleader. The narrator appreciates the male friend ("She doesn't get your humor like I do ... She'll never know your story like I do"), and although they share the same sense of humor and an easy rapport, he is unaware of her affection. The narrator discusses the contrasts between herself and the girlfriend in the verses: "She wears high heels, I wear sneakers / She's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers." Throughout the song, the narrator persuades the male friend to acknowledge her charm. Some critics found the lyrics melancholy despite the upbeat production and said that, contrary to Swift's status as an attractive and popular figure, her narrator's position as an unpopular girl contributes to her reliability and popularity among her audience. Ken Tucker of NPR wrote the lyrics and vocals are full of "intense ache" that effectively conveys adolescent yearning. Gasser described the narrative lyrics as the most profound country influences on "You Belong with Me", while Tom Breihan of Pitchfork found its narrative about unrequited love reminiscent of "the most fragile, heartbroken strains of twee indie pop". In the Edmonton Journal, Amanda Ash said the lyrics are not as sentimental because Swift's character "mocks a guy for his choice in women but also sheds a tear for his blindness". == Release and commercial performance == Before Fearless was released, Big Machine Records made "You Belong with Me" available for download exclusively via the iTunes Store in November 2008 as part of the promotional campaign "Countdown to Fearless". The track debuted at number 12 on the US Billboard Hot 100, tying Swift with the Jonas Brothers for the most top-20 debuts (five) within one calendar year. Big Machine released the song to US country radio on April 20, 2009, as the third single from Fearless. The track was released to US contemporary hit radio on May 18, 2009, by Big Machine in partnership with Republic Records. The single peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 in August 2009, kept off the top by the Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling". Driven by non-country airplay, the song gained the largest crossover radio audience since Faith Hill's "Breathe" in 2000. By 2011, it held the record for the highest audience impression for a country artist's song. On the US Radio Songs chart, "You Belong with Me" peaked at number one, becoming Swift's first single and the first country song to do so since Billboard began incorporating Nielsen BDS-monitored data in 1990. On other US airplay charts, it spent two weeks atop Hot Country Songs and 14 weeks atop Adult Contemporary, and it peaked at number two on both Pop Songs and Adult Pop Songs charts. It was the second-most-played song on US radio of 2009 behind Fearless's lead single "Love Story". The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified "You Belong with Me" seven-times platinum for passing seven million units based on sales and streaming, and the single had sold 4.9 million copies in the United States by July 2019. In the United Kingdom, "You Belong with Me" was released as a single on August 24, 2009, on Mercury Records; it peaked at number 3