 | Where Is the Love?The Black Eyed Peas with Justin Timberlake |
Writer(s): William Adams, Allan Pineda, Jaime Gomez, Justin Timberlake, Printz Board, Michael Fratantuno, George Pajon, J. Curtis (see lyrics here) Released: May 12, 2003 First Charted: May 23, 2003 Peak: 8 BB, 16 RR, 36 A40, 82 RB, 16 UK, 1 CN, 16 AU, 7 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 5.0 US, 2.40 UK, 9.15 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 0.40 radio, 1405.07 video, 1329.86 streaming |
Awards:Click on award for more details. 
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About the Song:The Black Eyed Peas formed in Los Angeles in 1992. The hip-hop meets alternative group was originally formed by rappers will.i.am., apl.de.ap, and Taboo. That trio released a pair of albums before they recruited the “sassy, sexy vocalist Fergie” TB in 2002. She “seemed to be the key ingredient in the sustained popular success that the group has enjoyed since.” TB Their Elephunk album released the next year finally sent the Peas into the big time. The album reached the top 10 and sold three million copies in the United States. The album’s success was largely due to “Where Is the Love?,” a top 10 hit in the U.S. and #1 song in the UK. The song was “a pivot between the head-nodding backpacker Peas and their incarnation as cyborg hit delivery systems.” FT “The sprightly string lines, and [Justin] Timberlake’s hooksome coos and harmonies, speak to a group alive to the possibilities pop offers for big feelings and big earworms.” FT Indeed, the group would be the most successful in the world a few years later with the monstrous #1 songs “Boom Boom Pow” and “I Gotta Feeling.” Tom Ewing asserts on his Freaky Trigger blog that “Love” is “the only No.1 single explicity about the Iraq War and the wider War On Terror.” FT Author Toby Creswell called it an “epic piece of conscious hip-hop” that was “a worthy successor to Marvin Gaye’s or Curtis Mayfield’s ‘70s classics.” TC The Peas wrote the song as a reaction to 9/11 but it took a long time to develop. Will.i.am said he was packing up equipment in San Francisco after the band’s last day of recording sessions when he saw the first plane hit the World Trade Center. It became the emotional inspiration for the song. WK The lyrics about war “are rapped with mounting and hopeless urgency before Justin Timberlake ushers the song into its beatific chorus” FT “of Timberlake-crooned positivity.” FT Timberlake came up with the chorus after hearing the song on the phone. SF When it was released, his name was kept off the credits as his record company wanted to keep the attention on his new album, Justified. SF The song was nominated for a Grammy for Record of the Year. Resources:
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First posted 1/23/2026; last updated 1/24/2026. |
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