Breaking Down The Girl

"Breaking Down The Girl" is a single by pianist/singer Arianna DiCorso. It was the second single taken from Arianna's debut album "Take A Picture, It'll Last Longer", released on January 2nd, 2012 where it became Arianna's second top 2 hit. Arianna had originally intended the song to count as the lead single to the album, but with "The Analyst" being included as a main track on the album, and "Breaking Down The Girl" being released weeks after the album, it became the second single instead.

Background
"Breaking Down The Girl" was written in 2011, and was originally going to be recorded by Jessica Snow for her debut album, but after Jessica fell off the radar the album was shelved and Arianna kept the song for herself. This marked the second time Arianna worked with Jessica, having originally given Jessica the album track "Without You" in 2010 before that album too was shelved. Arianna picked the song to lead her album, but shifting plans saw the album released in December after originally being scheduled to be released in January of 2012. "Breaking Down The Girl" is considered the second single from the album after previous single "The Analyst" was included on the main album. Arianna worked with Dan Certa on the song, which was an aggressive rock song with piano elements, and she filmed a low-budget music video back-to-back with the big-budget video for following single "I Bite" in December 2011.

Reception
"Breaking Down The Girl" premiered on Radio 2 to rave reviews, and demand was high enough that the single was bumped forward a week from its original release date; which had the added bonus of avoiding a major chart-pileup. Fans took extremely well to the song, making it Arianna's biggest digital seller to date. Radio was also readily receptive to the song after "The Analyst" was an airplay smash hit. Arianna's fanbase was also strong enough to help the song chart high, matching her previous single's peak and outselling it overall (albeit not by much). The song's success, and Arianna's hype in general, were enough to earn Arianna a performance spot at the 21st URAPS Awards, where she performed "Breaking Down The Girl".

Promo CD

 * 1) Breaking Down The Girl (Album Version)
 * 2) Breaking Down The Girl (Instrumental Version)

CD

 * 1) Breaking Down The Girl
 * 2) One-Trick Pony
 * 3) Paradise In Purgatory
 * 4) Breaking Down The Girl (Instrumental Version)

Digital EP

 * 1) Breaking Down The Girl
 * 2) One-Trick Pony
 * 3) Colourblind
 * 4) Twenty-Five To Love
 * 5) Breaking Down The Girl (Instrumental Version)
 * 6) Breaking Down The Girl (Music Video)

Music Video
The ‘Breaking Down The Girl’ video is mainly a performance video, with no real storyline. It opens with a long-distance shot of Arianna and her backing band as the intro to the song plays. She stand behind her microphone stand and sings to the camera during the verse, holding it in her hands as she crouches down for a little while. When she stands up again is when the rock-y chorus hits, and she gives a high-energy performance strutting around the open floor space and carrying her mic around. We get a new scene when we reach the second verse; Arianna is in a different outfit now, and she is alone as she sings for the camera. With multi-coloured lights flashing around her she leans back against the wall as the camera zooms in and out on her position. At one point she steps away from the wall, and while keeping her hand on it turns to face the camera which follows her as she walks backwards. We see other shots of Arianna from the side as she does her backward walk, before we see her from the front turning around and walking away from the camera properly.

When we reach the bridge we see a combination of the two previous scenes. With her band Arianna has ditched the microphone now and is just strutting around performing for the camera, while over at the wall scene, Arianna is standing facing the wall with her arms out, looking at the camera as she sings. She acts out the aggression of the lyrics by beating her fist against the wall with a snarl on her face. During the lead-up to the final choruses, we pan up from the band scene to show the pipes of the warehouse Arianna is performing in. The pipes shake, and we see pressure valves on the pipes turning by themselves. The sprinkler system then kicks in, and we follow the water as it rains down on Arianna and her band. Arianna begins to jump up and down as the rain falls on her, not bothered at all by getting wet.

Arianna performs the rest of the song in the rain, getting continually wetter as she works her way through the double chorus. There is a lot of arm waving and hair-flicking, with Arianna shaking water everywhere – not that it makes much difference with the downpour. Arianna’s band plays on as if they haven’t even noticed the water. The video ends with Arianna’s hand clenched into a fist, out of breath and drenched. After the music dies down, there are a few second where all you hear is her breath, before both sound and video fade out.

Chart Performance
With major hype on her side, the possibility was discussed that Arianna could hit #1 with "Breaking Down The Girl", even with major competition from chart rivals Intoxicated. Arianna herself was not concerned with chasing down a chart-topper, and was content for the single to chart however it would. Her hype drove the single to become another top 2 success with sales just as healthy as "The Analyst", becoming her second gold single. Airplay for the single was healthy, earning another top 10 hit for Arianna. Digitally is where the song shone; spending several weeks at the top end of the digital chart to earn Arianna her biggest cumulative digital sales tally.

Chart Run
TOTAL: 230,545
 * Week 1: #2 - 91,144
 * Week 2: #5 - 59,057
 * Week 3: #11 - 33,518
 * Week 4: #13 - 21,843
 * Week 5: #28 - 8,402
 * Week 6: #34 - 6,545
 * Week 7: #32 - 6,038
 * Week 8: #40 - 3,998