Long Distance (song)

Long Distance (song)

"Long Distance" is a song by American recording artist Brandy Norwood. It was written by Bruno Mars, Philip Lawrence, Jeff Bhasker, and Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins, and was co-produced by Jerkins and Mars for her fifth studio album Human (2008) based on a demo by Mars. It appears as the seventh track on the album on which it its interluded by a telephone conversation between two lovers. The lyrics of the piano–led power ballad describe the protagonist's emotional state towards an ongoing long-distance relationship, which leaves her in depression.

The song was the second and final single to precede the Human album. Upon its release in October 2008, it garnered a gernally mixed reception from music critics who applauded the song's lyrical content, its vocals and the hymnlike character, while others found the song would sound too clichéd and outdated. Never released outside North America, "Long Distance" managed to peak at number 38 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart but failed to enter the Hot 100; though it became the second consecutive Human single after "Right Here (Departed)" to reach the top spot on the Hot Dance Club Play chart. An alternate pop remix, which featured a different instrumentalization, was serviced to mainstream radio in February 2009.

The accompanying music video for the single was directed by Chris Robinson and filmed at the Park Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles in November 2008. Depiciting Norwood as a singing diva, who remembers moments with her distant love, the video shifts from black-and-white to color photography during its bridge. Both Mars and Lawrence appear as pianists in a sequence of the clip.