2012 single by Avicii and Nicky Romero
"I Could Be the One" is a song by Swedish DJ Avicii and Dutch DJ Nicky Romero, which features uncredited vocals from Swedish singer Noonie Bao.[2] The song was written by Avicii, Romero, Bao, Arash Pournouri, Linus Wiklund and Måns Wredenberg, and produced by the former two and Pournouri. The song was released as a digital download in Sweden and the Netherlands on 26 December 2012. It peaked at number three on the Swedish Singles Chart. Internationally, the single topped the charts in Hungary and the United Kingdom, peaked within the top 10 in Australia, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway and the Republic of Ireland and the top 20 of the charts in Austria and New Zealand.
Background and release
Before its official release, the track had been undergoing various name changes. Initially without a title, it was first played by Avicii at the Super Glow event in DC Armory, Washington, USA on 18 November 2011. It was later given the working title "Nicktim", which is a combination of both producers' first names (Nick Rotteveel and Tim Bergling). The instrumental track contained a sample from "D.A.N.C.E." by Justice, which was later removed in the final version.
A year later, a vocal version of the track was premiered on 4 November 2012 through Avicii's "LE7ELS" podcast, as well as on Nicky Romero's podcast "Protocol Radio" a week later.[3][4] After fully mastering the track, they settled on using the track name "I Could Be the One (Nicktim)" while the artists are stated as Avicii vs Nicky Romero.
In 2017, the track's vocalist and songwriter Noonie Bao revealed to Spotify that despite working on the track, as well as another one on his 2013 album True, she had never actually met Avicii until a number of years later.[5]
Music video
A music video to accompany the release of "I Could Be the One" was first released onto YouTube on 24 December 2012 at a total length of 4 minutes and 46 seconds.[8] It was directed by Peter Huang and won first prize for non-European music video at the Young Director Award 2013 in Cannes.[9]
The video stars Inessa Frantowski[10] as a woman who works in an office. Simu Liu also appears as one of her coworkers. She clearly hates her job, her morning routine and her colleagues' attitudes. Next, she is seen waking up in a room next to a used condom and a man in bed with her. When she opens the doors in her room, it reveals a balcony with a view of a beautiful beach. She finds a "To-Do List" in the room, with the only 'job' being to "not give a fuck". Then there are several shots of her enjoying herself: walking down a beach destroying a little girl's sandcastle (while giving her the finger), eating a selection of foods in a restaurant before kissing the waiter and dancing in a club with a man before having sex with him on a yacht. She then wakes up in her own apartment, and all is revealed to be a dream. She sees a therapist, who does nothing but prescribes her "more pills". Back in her office, she sits at her desk listening to her colleagues' mundane conversations. Finally, she loses it and begins to wreck the office, throwing her paperwork around, destroying a fax machine, insulting and assaulting some of her colleagues before fleeing the office. Bursting out the office door, the final scene shows her on her phone, booking a one-way ticket to Barbados. As she runs across the road to her car, she is hit by a delivery van which is labelled 2Late. It is unknown whether she survives.
