“Girl on Fire” by Alicia Keys

"Girl on Fire" led the charge for Alicia Keys' fifth studio album of the same name, arriving on September 4, 2012 as her first release on RCA after a Sony shake-up shut down J Records. Keys wrote and produced the R&B ballad with Jeff Bhasker and Salaam Remi, and it rides the drums from Billy Squier's 1980 rocker "The Big Beat", which earned Squier a writing credit.

The song grew out of the birth of her son Egypt and her marriage to Swizz Beatz, who's credited with the arrangement. She cut it as a three-part suite: the main take, an "Inferno" remix with two new Nicki Minaj verses, and a "Bluelight" mix pared down to bass and a smokier, re-sung vocal. She debuted it at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards with Minaj and gold-medal gymnast Gabby Douglas, and it has gone six-times platinum.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.