"Grenade" is a pop and power pop song written by Bruno Mars, Philip Lawrence and Ari Levine (the Smeezingtons), with additional songwriting by Brody Brown, Claude Kelly and Andrew Wyatt. Produced by the Smeezingtons, it was released as a promotional single on 28 September 2010 from Mars's debut studio album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans. It developed from an unreleased track that was originally uptempo and guitar-based; it was slowed, stripped down and re-recorded. It is in D minor at 108 bpm, with a vocal range from A3 to D5.
Released first as an iTunes exclusive on 4 October 2010, it received generally positive reviews. It was Mars's third Billboard Hot 100 number one in January 2011 and also reached number one in Canada, Australia, the UK, Germany, Ireland and about fifteen other countries. It is certified 16 times platinum by the RIAA. Its nominations at the 2012 Grammys for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance were all lost to Adele. The music video, directed by Nabil Elderkin in November 2010, passed one billion YouTube views in 2021. Covers by Boyce Avenue, Within Temptation, Memphis May Fire and Trackstarz are among the notable ones, and Lil Wayne recorded an official remix in 2011.
