The song was a massive success worldwide and was the longest-running number-one single of 2008 in the United States, spending ten consecutive weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100. With over seven million digital downloads it has been certified Diamond by the
RIAA, and was the most downloaded single of
the 2000s decade, measured by paid digital downloads.[1] The song was named third on the Billboard Hot 100 Songs of the Decade.[2]
Several of T-Pain's stylistic effects are present in this song, including
Auto-Tune and call and answer during the chorus. It is a
crunk song that contains electronic elements such as
808-style handclaps and an arpeggiated
ostinato note sequence instead of a chord progression. Flo Rida has sexually charged (but not explicit) lyrics, for example he refers to a woman's buttocks as "birthday cakes" which "stole the show". T-Pain also relies heavily on
synthesizers. The song is written in the key of
E♭ minor and at different times different instrumentation cycles, i.e., sometimes only the synthesizer plays, sometimes only the bass, sometimes only the vocals. Flo Rida uses a style that is common in 1990s hip-hop party music. "Low" is written in common time with a moderate tempo of 128 beats per minute while T-Pain's vocal range spans nearly two octaves from B♭2 to F♯4.
The song debuted at number 91 on the U.S.
Billboard Hot 100 for the week of November 6, 2007, and reached number one for the week of December 30, 2007.[3] The song generated the second greatest one-week digital sales in the history of Billboard's
Digital Songs chart (behind Flo Rida's "
Right Round"), with 467,000 digital copies in one week. "Low" was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for ten weeks and remained in the top ten of the chart for 23 weeks,[4] making it both
T-Pain and
Flo Rida's most successful single to date. The song stayed on the Hot 100 for 39 weeks, before dropping out in June 2008.[5]
As the first number one on the Hot 100 of 2008, "Low" held the top position longer than any song did in 2008 (see
List of Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles of 2008), and was the longest-running Hot 100 number one single since
Beyoncé's "
Irreplaceable."[6] The song is also the longest-running number one single in the history of the Billboard Digital Songs chart, topping the chart for 13 weeks, and also on the now-defunct
Pop 100 chart, where it ruled for 12 weeks.[7] For the week of June 29, 2008, it became the first song ever to sell four million digital copies in the US,[8] and then for the week of June 21, 2009, the first to sell over five million copies.[9] It was best-selling digitally-downloaded song of all time until it was surpassed by
The Black Eyed Peas' "
I Gotta Feeling" in May 2010.[10] The song sold over six million in digital sales by August 7, 2011,[11] and reached its seven millionth sales mark in sales in June 2014.[12]
The physical release of the single occurred in the UK for the week of March 24, 2008. For the week of July 20, 2008, the song moved up to number 19 on the
UK Singles Chart, several months after its official release. Although it failed to reach number one in the UK, it amassed 53 weeks inside the UK top 75 (making it the joint 20th longest-runner of all-time), and 75 weeks inside the top 100.[13] As of January 2012, the song has sold 613,434 copies in the UK.[14]
The song was ranked at number 26 on Billboard's All Time Hot 100.[15] The song was also ranked the number-one song for 2008 in Billboard's ranking of the
Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 2008. For the week of December 28, 2008, it was listed at number 11 on the UK Singles Chart year-end countdown and was named the highest-selling single in Australia in 2008. The song became either a hit in most of European countries, reach the top ten like in Finland (no.9), in Denmark (no.9) or again in Belgium (Flanders charts) (no.7). The song reach the top twenty in Germany, in Hungary and Norway, the top forty in France and top sixty in Netherlands.
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.
In 2019, the viral video "Jessica" or "Jessica, did you sleep with your teacher?" used the song in the background that "Jessica" sung along with until her "Mom" confronted her about sleeping with her teacher. A year later, in 2020, the American grocery chain
Kroger and their subsidiary stores began to use the song's chorus for a series of animated ads, appropriately highlighting coupons and low prices. At the start of 2021, the ads became a minor
Internet meme with user-generated
YouTube and
TikTok remixes.[87] Also, a parody of the song highlighting price drop was used in the 2021
Lazada 11.11 TV commercial featuring K-Pop boy group
Seventeen in the
ASEAN region, where it was sung in
Indonesian,
Tagalog,
Thai,
Vietnamese, and
English.[88]
Another way the song is used in meme culture is in "fake covers," where the song is remixed and sung in the style of a different artist, under the title of "Apple Bottom Jeans".[89]
^"
ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Radio Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Change the chart to CZ – RADIO – TOP 100 and insert 200828 into search.