Dignity (Hilary Duff song)

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“Dignity”
Song by Hilary Duff
Album Dignity
Released March 23, 2007 (Italy)
Genre Dance-pop
Length 3:13
Label Hollywood
Writer Hilary Duff, Kara DioGuardi, Chico Bennett, Richard Vission
Dignity track listing
"Stranger"
(1)		 “Dignity”
(2)		 "With Love"
(3)


"Dignity" is a song written by Hilary Duff, Kara DioGuardi, Chico Bennett and Richard Vission, and recorded for Duff's third studio album, Dignity (2007).

[edit] Publicity

Although not slated for release as a single, the song attracted substantial publicity outside the album in sources such as MSNBC and Radar magazine; they alleged that "Dignity" and another track on the album, "Gypsy Woman", were about Nicole Richie, who was dating Duff's ex-boyfriend Joel Madden.[1][2][3][4] Radar wrote, "really, what could be more dignified than publicly calling out the anorexic ex-junkie who stole your boyfriend?"[3] Entertainment Weekly said, "When the fairy-tale romance between [Duff and Madden] went belly-up late last year, the Good Charlotte frontman speedily rebounded into the twiglike arms of [Richie], and the world moved on. Duff, it seems, did not, and hell hath no fury like a young woman scorned."[5] Duff did not deny the rumors, saying the track "is definitely about people in Hollywood ... I wouldn't say that it is about [Richie] specifically but it is about people that kind of do what she does and act the way she acts."[6] According to the Washington Blade, such people include "celebutantes" Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan.[7]

[edit] Critical reception

USA Today wrote of the song, "[Duff] now feels free to address such issues as stalkers and celebrity airheads in song ... You have to laugh when Duff sneers [on "Dignity"], 'You'd show up to the opening of an envelope.'"[8] Rolling Stone said that with the song, Duff "[rails] against the Paris Hiltons of the world, over Gwen Stefani-style techno-lite beats."[9] The Guardian said Duff was "charmingly chameleon-like" on the song, which it said was one of the tracks on the album on which she was "most triumphant"; it also wrote that the song was "tabloid fodder" and "could be taken as a catty swipe at Lindsay Lohan, with whom she has an ongoing feud."[10] Slant magazine commended Duff for "explicitly excluding herself from her peers, chiding fellow celebrities' public exhibitionism ('You'd show up to the opening of an envelope') and the press's enabling of it ('It's not news when you got a new [bag]')."[11] Entertainment Weekly said Duff "sneers" on the song, which it described as "churning".[5] The Washington Blade said that the song "has a lot more bite than one would expect from Duff... she sings with feeling that recalls Pink's "Stupid Girls"."[7] Blender magazine wrote that the song "has the same "shame on you" message as ["Stupid Girls"], but it's roughly a thousand times better. Backed by a sizzling dance-rock beat, Hilary whips off a laundry list of bitch-slap one-liners ... before landing at the tisk-tisk hook".[12]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ "Hilary Duff takes aim at Nicole Richie?". MSNBC. March 7, 2007. Retrieved April 9, 2007.
  2. ^ "Hilary Duff's Richie rant". FemaleFirst.co.uk. March 8, 2007. Retrieved April 9, 2007.
  3. ^ a b Bercovici, Jeff. "Hilary Duff Settles Score — In Song!". Radar. March 7, 2007. Retrieved April 9, 2007.
  4. ^ "Hilary Duff lyrics lash out". The New Zealand Herald. April 26, 2007. Retrieved June 28, 2007.
  5. ^ a b Bernstein, Jonathan. "Dignity (2007) - Hilary Duff". Entertainment Weekly. March 30, 2007. Retrieved April 9, 2007.
  6. ^ "Hilary dumps teen queen tag". The Sunday Mail. April 1, 2007. Retrieved April 9, 2007.
  7. ^ a b Cooke, Buck C. "'Dignity' is 'Big' this spring". Washington Blade. April 13, 2007. Retrieved June 28, 2007.
  8. ^ Gardner, Elysa. "Duff finds 'Dignity' in words". USA Today. April 2, 2007. Retrieved April 3, 2007.
  9. ^ Greene, Andy. "Hilary Duff - Dignity". Rolling Stone. April 2, 2007. Retrieved April 9, 2007.
  10. ^ Macpherson, Alex. "Hilary Duff, Dignity". The Guardian. March 23, 2007. Retrieved April 9, 2007.
  11. ^ Cinquemani, Sal. "Music Review: Hilary Duff: Dignity". Slant Magazine. March 27, 2007. Retrieved April 5, 2007.
  12. ^ "Blender Blog - Newer Than New Music: Hilary Duff Takes Aim at Paris & Co.". Blender.


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