"Beautiful Girls" is the debut single by the Jamaican-American singer and rapper Sean Kingston from his 2007 debut album Sean Kingston. The song, which samples the 1961 song "Stand by Me" by Ben E. King, is about a boy who feels "suicidal" after being rejected by a "beautiful girl".
Commercially, the song reached number one in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as the top ten in fourteen additional countries. Rapper Lil Mama and actors Kenny Vibert and Lil' JJ are featured in the music video directed by Marcus Raboy, which has 1.5 billion views on YouTube as of May 4, 2026.
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Lyrics controversy
Due to the lyrics containing references to suicide, the song was re-recorded for Radio Disney, with every instance of the word "suicidal" replaced with "in denial". Complaints about the suicide references also caused the song to be banned from FM104 in Dublin.
Track listing
UK CD single
"Beautiful Girls" (album version) – 4:02
"Beautiful Girls" (a cappella) – 3:41
"Beautiful Girls" (instrumental) – 3:40
"Beautiful Girls" (remix) (featuring Fabolous and Lil' Boosie) – 3:27
"Beautiful Girls" (video)
Chart performance
The week after the song's digital release it hit number one on Billboard's Hot Digital Songs, debuting with 260,000 downloads in its first week (the second highest digital sales for a new song of 2007, only behind Rihanna's "Umbrella"). Kingston became the first artist born in the 1990s to top the Hot 100. It has also occupied the top spot on the US Hot 100 Airplay and the Canadian Hot 100. It remained on top of the UK Singles Chart for four weeks. The song ended 2007 as the year's 15th biggest-selling single in the UK. On the ARIA charts in Australia, it debuted at number one.
JoJo version
"Beautiful Girls" (also known as "Beautiful Girls Reply") is a song by American singer JoJo. It was released digitally on July 20, 2007, as a cover response to "Beautiful Girls" by Sean Kingston. The song samples Ben E. King's "Stand by Me". Whereas Kingston's version is about a boy who is suicidal over the failure of his relationship with a "beautiful girl", JoJo speaks from a girl's perspective.
Chart performance
The song debuted at number 39 on the Billboard Rhythmic Top 40 chart one month after its release.