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"Buttons" is a song recorded by American girl group the Pussycat Dolls from their debut studio album PCD (2005). It was written by Sean Garrett, Jamal Jones, Jason Perry and lead singer Nicole Scherzinger, and produced by the former two alongside Ron Fair. A remix of "Buttons", featuring American rapper Snoop Dogg was released as the album's fourth single on April 11, 2006, by A&M Records and Interscope Records.

Background and release
The Pussycat Dolls originated as a burlesque dance ensemble founded by choreographer Robin Antin in 1993. Over the years, the troupe gained popularity which resulted in Antin strucking a deal with Jimmy Iovine—then president of Interscope Geffen A&M Records—to develop the Pussycat Dolls into a brand and create a pop girl group, with Iovine assigning the project to producer Ron Fair. Iovine considered the Pussycat Dolls as one of the "label's high-priority projects" and began enlisting various producers and songwriters to "ensure [a] maximum radio friendl[y]" sound for the debut album, PCD (2005).

The Pussycat Dolls' debut album, PCD (2005), includes three features, "Don't Cha" (featuring Busta Rhymes), "Beep" (featuring will.i.am), and "Wait a Minute" (featuring Timbaland). As "Don't Cha" and "Beep" were were commercially succesful, rapper Snoop Dogg was recruited for the single release of "Buttons", which was the album's fifth track. Lead singer Nicole Scherzinger first confirmed the collaboration at the Grammy Style Studio event in February 2006. The song marks their second collaboration between the group and Dogg; at the 2005 Radio Music Awards the Pussycat Dolls performed "Santa Baby" with Dogg joining them dressed as Santa Claus.

The remix of "Buttons", was released on April 11, 2006, via digital download, as the fourth single from PCD. The song also impacted US contemporary hit and rhythmic radio formats on May 8, through A&M Records and Interscope Records. The remix, subtitled "Final Edit Version", was included on the tour edition of PCD later that year.

Writing and production
"Buttons" was written and produced by Sean Garrett and Jamal "Polow da Don" Jones, with additional writing by Jason Perry and Scherzinger, and additional production by Ron Fair. According to Garrett, "Buttons" was conceived in a short amount of time, with Scherzinger in mind saying: "[she] is very sexy so the concept of loosening up her buttons,—every guy would want that and women wouldn't have a problem with guys loosening up their buttons." Moreover, he credits PCD executive producer Jimmy Iovine for "[pushing] me to be creative and the more creative I am, the more he likes it." Fair and Young Smoke handled the vocal and additional production respectively with Tal Herzberg being credited as a co-producer. Herzberg also operated Pro-Tools and engineering along with J.D. Andrew and Mike "Angry" Eleopoulos, with the assistance of Ariel Chobaz. Jones created a little drum loop, with just a kick drum, handclaps, and tom. The song was then later mixed by Dave Pensado at the Larrabee Sound Studios in Burbank, California, where the tracks were handed to him at different stages. Trans-X Multi plug-in was used on the loop to give it a more transient feeling. Scherzinger's lead vocals were processed through Line 6's Echo Farm by adding distortion. Pensado wanted to give Scherzinger's voice more edge without the need to scream over the microphone. The leads' vocal delay was formed by Tel-ray Variable Delay and is within the 16th range. For the effects of the lead vocals, Pensado wanted to minimize the use of effects, and give them a "chorus-like sound" through Waves' Metaflanger.

Composition
Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club compared the song to the works of Scott Storch.

Snoop Dogg offers his "lyrical smoothness" to the song, rapping lines such as, "I see you wanna play with a player from the hood" and name-dropping all of the members of the group.

Critical reception
"Buttons" received polarizing reviews from critics. While reviewing its parent album, PCD, Linda McGee of RTÉ felt that "Buttons" would "get much airplay in the future." Rabin of The A.V. Club praised the song for being a "terrific guilty pleasure" and for its production. Tim Stack from Entertainment Weekly described the song as "sultry". A writer for Vibe magazine favored the song for "[oozing] sexuality." Rolling Stone highlighted the song's chorus, labelling it as "hot", and Snoop Dogg's appearance. Chris Courtney of the Chicago Tribune described "Buttons" as a "summer sizzler." Kelley Carter of the Detroit Free Press commented that the song is a "the kind of song that makes the clubbers go crazy."

In his review of PCD, Spence D. of IGN commented that the production elements in "Buttons" may be "familiar and funky, but it doesn't present anything new to the realm of female soul pop." Writing for Sputnikmusic, Nick Butler deemed "Buttons" as "enjoyable enough," but felt it "doesn't work as well as ['Don't Cha and 'Beep'], and sonically [is] not far from being all over the place." Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani described the song as "degrading material" noting "[they] are a bit easier to swallow thanks, in part, to the group's cartoonish image." Miriam Zendle of Digital Spy was unimpressed with "Buttons" labelling it "as awful as [their] debut single, 'Don't Cha'," adding the song's sexual vibe "leaves the listener feeling somewhat sullied." Sean Fennessey of Pitchfork criticized Dogg's appearance for his "indolent" verse.

Music video
Filmmaker Francis Lawrence directed the music video for "Buttons". During an interview with the New York Post, Scherzinger said that the group was to return to their burlesque roots. "We wanted to go back to the roots of the Dolls, go with the corset vibe, and have it be a little rawer and hotter." The music video was first available to stream at Yahoo! Music and later premiered on Total Request Live on April 20, where the group made an appearance.

The Village Voice's Tom Breihan described the accompanying visuals with "flashy editing, decent choreography, a distinct look." Scherzinger starts with flirting with Snoop Dogg, then joins the rest of the group and they strut towards the camera. Around the 1-minute mark, the group perform a striptease. Toward the end of the music video, the Dolls perform a Bollywood-esque dance routine, against a background of CGI flames.

Breihan wrote it's a "big, glossy pop video done right". Samantha Friedman wrote that, Scherzinger is "sizzling as usual and an appearance from the iconic [Dogg] makes everything better." Rabin wrote that "the music video led to the spilling of more seed than an explosion at a Monsanto warehouse." Hannah Verdier from The Guardian described the chair dance moment as "iconic". Jules LeFevre from Junkee described the video as "horny" adding "the only drawback is none of these women know what a barre class is."

Accolades
"Buttons" was listed as one of the best songs/music videos of 2006 lists in the following publications: Teen Vogue (9th), The Village Voice's Tom Breihan (10th), New York Post (15th), Vibe (28th), and Rolling Stone (91st). The music video channel MuchMusic, FHM, and Playboy magazines listed the music video on their respective "Sexiest Music Videos of All Time" lists.

"Buttons" has also received industry awards and nominations. At the 2007 ASCAP Pop Music Awards it was honored as one of the Most Performed Songs. At the 2008 BMI Awards, the song was one of the Award-Winning Songs that helped producer Polow Da Don earn the honor Songwriter of the Year. The Pussycat Dolls founder Robin Antin and Mikey Minden were awarded Best Choreography by the 2007 MVPA Awards.

At the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards, the music video for "Buttons" was nominated for Best Choreography, and won for Best Dance Video. At the 2006 Mnet KM Music Festival the Pussycat Dolls won Best International Artist for "Buttons". The song and its visual received nominations at the 2006 Teen Choice Awards for Choice Music – R&B/Hip-Hop Song and at the TMF Awards (the Netherlands) for Radio 538 Single Award. The following year it received nominations at the MTV Australia Video Music Award for Best Hook Up, MuchMusic Video Award for Peoples Choice: Favourite International Group, and at the Myx Music Award for Favorite International Video.

Live performances
"Buttons" was included on the setlist while supporting The Black Eyed Peas' Honda Civic Tour which lasted until May 2006. On May 18th, they appeared on The Jay Leno Show to perform the song. After supporting the Black Eyed Peas in Europe, they returned back to the United States on June 30, 2006 to perform "Buttons" on Good Morning America's Summer Concert Series, which were followed with appearances on The Early Show and So You Think You Can Dance. On September 8, 2006, the group performed the song at the annual international charity fundraiser event, Fashion Rocks with American rapper Jibbs, who replaced Snoop Sogg.

A month later, they performed "Buttons" at the 2006 American Music Awards. Their performance included a chair routine and pyrotechnics during their dance breakdown. The group initially performed as a quintet, before being joined by Thornton in the final 30 seconds of the performance to do her ad-libs. Adam White, who wrote a profile piece on the group for The Daily Telegraph following their 2019 reunion, revisited the performance writing the group did a "messy rendition" of the song highlighting Thornton crashing the performance and Jessica Sutta falling off her chair. Thornton's vocals were described as "if she was Christina Aguilera stuck in a wind tunnel" adding she was singing loudly over Scherzinger's. Both performances went viral in 2020 as there was the perceived tension between Scherzinger and Thornton. With regards to the latter performance, Thornton explained to Entertainment Tonight that traveling issues caused her to miss rehearsals and the only solution was for her to appear at the end and do her part. "Buttons" was also used as the opening number during their PCD World Tour (2006–07) and Aguilera's Back to Basics Tour (2007).

On August 2, 2008, the Pussycat Dolls performed "Buttons" and "When I Grow Up" at the MTV Asia Awards, where they also presented an award, in Malaysia. The song was included on their Doll Domination Tour and The Circus Starring Britney Spears (both in 2009); their dance routine consisted of "full of stomping and syncopated strutting." While reviewing their headlining tour, Colene McKessick of Press and Journal wrote that their performance of "Buttons" "[set] the crowd into a frenzy." Scherzinger performed the song as part of a Pussycat Dolls medley during concerts of her first solo tour in support of her debut studio album, Killer Love (2011).

Usage in the media
Cuban-American actor William Levy and his dance partner Cheryl Burke danced the Argentine tango to "Buttons" on the 14th season of Dancing with the Stars. On the season premiere of its 29th season, American figure skater Johnny Weir and his dance partner Britt Stewart danced the Cha-cha-cha to the song. In January 2020, Scherzinger appeared on David Dobrik's vlog where they sang to "Buttons" in the car. In March 2022, Scherzinger posted a TikTok video dancing to the song with the Old Gays. "Buttons" was included on the 2022 installment of the video game series, Just Dance.