"No" (stylized in all caps) is a song by American singer-songwriter Meghan Trainor from her second major-label studio album, Thank You (2016). Ricky Reed produced the song and wrote it with Trainor and Jacob Kasher Hindlin; Epic Records released it as the album's lead single on March 4, 2016. A dance-pop song inspired by 1990s pop music and R&B, "No" has lyrics about sexual consent and empowerment, encouraging women to reject unwanted advances from men.
Music critics praised "No" as a showcase of Trainor's confident and mature side and deemed it an improvement from her earlier songs. In the United States, the song reached number three on the Billboard Hot100 and was certified 2× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. It also reached the top 10 in Australia, Canada, Austria, Israel, Latvia, South Africa, and Scotland, attaining multi-platinum certifications in the former two and Poland.
Fatima Robinson directed the music video for "No", which features Trainor performing choreographed dances in a warehouse and entwining her arms with accompanying female dancers. Critics compared it to the visuals of various 1990s female recording artists and praised her creative evolution, particularly the choreography. In further promotion, Trainor performed "No" on television shows such as the iHeartRadio Music Awards, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and the Billboard Music Awards, and included it on the set list of her 2016 concert tour, The Untouchable Tour.
Background and release
Meghan Trainor signed with Epic Records in 2014 and released her doo-wop debut single, "All About That Bass", to commercial success. She initially recorded music in a similar vein for her second major-label studio album, Thank You (2016). L.A. Reid, the chairman of the label, encouraged Trainor to go back to the drawing board because she lacked a proper lead single for the project: "You don't have your bullet. You don't have that big song," a behavior that Trainor described as typical of him. Determined not to write "All About That Bass 2.0", she booked studio time with producer Ricky Reed that afternoon. Reed recounted that they "never set out to specifically go after any particular sound", beginning the session with the idea of a dancehall-inspired rhythm. They texted Jacob Kasher Hindlin to cancel his other session and join them.
Reed considered it impossible to complete the lead single that day and said, "Let's just blow off some steam, fuck around, have a good time." Trainor was determined to write "a big eff-you song, an anthem about girl power that sounded like nothing on the album", and asked Hindlin and Reed to "do a beat that no one expects Meghan Trainor to do". "No" was written within seven hours. Reed described the swift evolution of the song as "a thing of mystery", likening it to opening Pandora's box. When Reid heard it, he jumped up and said "That's what I'm talkin' about!", playing it 29 times in succession. Ultimately, "No" changed the direction of Thank You, as the three started experimenting with new musical styles and produced six more tracks.
In December 2015, Trainor stated that she had almost completed her upcoming album, describing the material as "something that's not on the radio" and disparate. In a Fuse interview published in February 2016, Trainor confirmed the lead single's title as "No" along with a March 2016 release date, calling it an anthem for women about telling a man they are fine by themselves: "No no no. I don't need your hands all over me. I'm good. I'm gonna dance on my own with my girls." On March 1 she unveiled the artwork for the song on her social media accounts. Epic Records digitally released it three days later, along with the preorder for the album. In the United States, the label promoted "No" to adult contemporary radio stations on March 7, and to contemporary hit radio stations the next day. BBC Radio 1 selected the song as the "Track of the Day" on March, while Epic Records solicited it to radio airplay in Italy four days later.
Composition and lyrics
"No" is three minutes and 33 seconds long. Reed played keyboards, piano, and produced and programmed the song. Ethan Shumaker engineered it at Reed's studio in Elysian Park, Los Angeles, Chris Gehringer mastered it at Sterling Sound in New York, and Manny Marroquin mixed it at the Carriage House studio in Nolensville, Tennessee.