Music
Looking Back
Whatcha Say: why Jason Derulo’s debut single is forever 2009
How an Imogen Heap sample, an adulterous brother, and young pop-R&B protégé were the ingredients for the perfect time capsule track
The year is 2009: Pop Girl is playing reruns of Zoey 101, flip phones are going out of style in the advent of new smart phones that have music functionality, skinny jeans are flying off the racks, and you hear a reimagining of the chorus of Imogen Heap’s ‘Hide And Seek’ set to a R&B track that serves as the needle-drop in a Thanksgiving episode of Gossip Girl. All is right in the world.
Jason Derulo’s debut single ‘Whatcha Say’, produced by pop and R&B aficionado J.R Rotem, is part of the defining sound of 2009 – a blend of 00s R&B yearning, post-2008 financial crisis synths and heavily auto-tuned vocal production, and a new chart-topping It Boy to grace the covers of teen magazines (see also: Jay Sean, Iyaz and Taio Cruz). But before he was part of one of 2020’s biggest TikTok trends with ‘Savage Love‘, before being woven into the fabric of internet meme history with “Jason Derulo has fallen down the steps at the Met Gala“, before we added “Swalla-la-la” to our daily lexicons, we had ‘Whatcha Say’ as an introduction to the Haitian-American pop act.
The song’s origins come from a conversation Derulo had with his older brother, who had cheated on his partner and was hoping to win her back. Jason Derulo had just been signed to J.R Rotem’s boutique label, Beluga Heights Records, home to fellow 00s staples Iyaz and Sean Kingston. In their early studio sessions, Derulo and Rotem talked about the cheating situation, which in an interview with Digital Spy, Derulo described as “very compelling”. The story, coupled with a collaborative production process that sampled the sarcastic chorus from Imogen Heap’s 2005 hit ‘Hide And Seek’, birthed ‘Whatcha Say’, a song that explores what it would be like to try and repair a relationship after cheating. “You know, Imogen’s being sort of sarcastic on that line… so it made a perfect marriage.” (Digital Spy, 2009)
It was a risk to sample Heap’s critically acclaimed song in an pop/R&B context, but a risk that paid off. At just 20 years old, Jason Derulo had a Billboard Hot 100 No.1 hit on his hands with ‘Whatcha Say’, which also peaked at No.3 on the UK Singles Chart, No.5 on the Australian ARIA Chart, and No.3 on the Canadian Hot 100 Chart by the end of 2009. His iconic “Jason Deruuulooo” intro became an instant internet meme. It also featured in one of the most referenced Gossip Girl episodes to date, consistently going viral on TikTok and Instagram reels every Thanksgiving – because what better way to punctuate the drama of ludicrously wealthy university students on the Upper East Side than with Jason Derulo’s “whatcha say! whatcha say!” adlibs.
16 years after its release, ‘Whatcha Say’ is still a part of the pop cultural zeitgeist, and a testament to Derulo’s enduring career as a mainstream pop act. The Pandemic TikTok king continues to be a chart and online staple, even showing that he was ahead of the curve with his debut single. Zouk music and the Haitian meringue-style genre of Konpa has been gaining traction with wider audiences beyond the Black diaspora as a result of TikTok – particularly Fanny J’s ‘Ancrée à ton port’ – and Derulo already paid tribute to his Haitian roots by releasing a French-English version of ‘Whatcha Say’ with Fanny J in 2010. The subject of many a viral moment, multiple No.1 hit singles, and now an upcoming tour that kicks off in January 2026, there seems to be no end in sight for Derulo Domination.
Hear ‘Whatcha Say’, as well as Jason Derulo expansive pop-R&B catalogue at the Last Dance world tour, and experience the pop culture icon in all his genre-blending, multilingual, meme-able and memorable glory.
Find tickets to Jason Derulo’s UK tour dates here
