My Love Is Like...Wo

My Love Is Like...Wo is the lead single from Mya's third album "Moodring."

Mya re-teamed up with rapper Missy Elliott after the global success of "Lady Marmalade" to record the song.

The single was released on June 10, 2003.

The song was written by Missy Elliott & brothers Charles and Kenneth Bereal. It was produced by Missy & production trio CKB with additional production handled by Ron Fair.

It took Mya a whole year to decide to record the song due to its graphic lyrical content. Lyrically, the mid-tempo song is about self-love.

Song Background
Before Mya decided to release "My Love Is...Wo" as the first single from the album, she admitted she was not always comfortable with the song and its graphic lyric content.

When she spoke to Billboard magazine, she explained:

"Back then, I wasn't so confident in saying, 'My a** is like wo' [...] I was coming out of doing a program with young girls that talked about self-esteem and body image. I realized that I really couldn't worry about what people think of me. I'm at that point in my life now where I can say, 'My ass is like wo.' I wasn't even considering the song to be on the album at that time, but I later fought for it to be the single."

Song Composition
"My Love Is Like...Wo" is a mid-tempo song composed in the key of G major. The song's tempo is set a slow moderate sixty-nine beats per minute in common time. Mýa's vocal range spans from G3 to D5.

The lyrics for the song are composed in the traditional verse-chorus form. Mya opens the song with brief spoken lyrics.

Mya begins the first verse, followed by the chorus leading her into the second verse.

The song continues to the bridge, chorus & then fades out with the piano.

Music Video
The song's music video was featured on MTV's "Making the Video."

The video was filmed and directed by Paul Hunter, who had previously worked with Mya on "Lady Marmalade" with Christina Aguilera, Pink, Lil' Kim, and Missy Elliott.

His concept for the video was to have Mya act as a one-woman show.

Although this initially was not Mya's vision or idea for the song's video, she agreed to it.

However, she did voice her opinion in the styling of the video from the many different costumes changes.

Mya came up with the ideas of the pimpstress and gangster look.

In the video, Mya displayed her tap-dancing during the song's breakdown as well.

The dance sequence in the video was choreographed by Travis Payne. The video was released on May 29, 2003.

The video earned Mya two nominations at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards for "Best Dance Video" and "Best Choreography."

Chart Performance
In the United States, "My Love Is Like...Wo" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number eighty-one on the issue dated June 28, 2003.

The song reached its peak position of number thirteen on the chart dated September 6, 2003, spending four consecutive weeks at its peak.

It spent twenty consecutive weeks altogether on the chart and became Mya's fifth non-consecutive top forty solo hit on that chart.

On Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, the single debuted at number sixty-two on June 21, 2003, peaking at number seventeen on August 23, 2003.

It spent a total of nineteen consecutive weeks on the chart and became Mya's sixth non-consecutive top forty solo hit on that chart.

Elsewhere, the song became a modest hit.

It debuted and peaked at number thirty-three on the UK Singles Chart for the week of September 14, 2003, dropping to number fifty-three the following week before falling off the top seventy-five.

It debuted on the Irish Singles Chart at number thirty-six on September 11, 2003, and it remained on the chart for one week.

In Australia, "My Love Is Like...Wo" debuted and peaked at number twenty-five on the ARIA Singles Chart during the week of September 1, 2003, spending three consecutive weeks at its peak position and twelve weeks in the top fifty.

The song debuted at number forty-nine in New Zealand for the week of September 21, 2003, peaking at number thirty-three six weeks later.

Live Performances
Mya made several television appearances to promote and perform "My Love Is Like...Wo."

On July 22, 2003, she first performed the song on "Live! with Regis and Kelly" on the release day of the "Moodring" album.

She appeared on BET's 106 & Park and performed "My Love Is Like...Wo" again on July 25, 2003.

On August 6, 2003, Mya performed a medley of "My Love Is Like...Wo" and "Whatever Bitch" (a track from "Moodring") on The WB's "Pepsi Smash."

During the performance breakdown of "Whatever Bitch," she vogued with drag queens

Critical Reception
Billboard magazine gave the song a positive review:

"The doe-eyed girl next door is proving to be quite a versatile performer, with a decidedly vampish performance in the movie Chicago and new imaging that redresses Mya as a sexy and certain young woman. The first single from forthcoming Moodring [...] is a playfully coy call to arms for the singer's more tactile attributes, from her love, her kiss, and her touch to her sex, ass, and body—all of which 'are like wo.' Get it? An appropriately hip-swaying beat swirls around the vocal, courtesy of ever-hitworthy producer Missy Elliott. This is the record that will propel Mýa to the A-list among today's pop/R&B icons; throughout the song, she delivers womanly strength and sass with a knowing wink. Moodring sounds like a perfect fit."

Personnel

 * Mya – vocals
 * Sue Ann Carwell – additional backing vocals
 * CKB – co-producers
 * Eric Dawkins – vocal arrangement
 * Dylan "3-D" Dresdow – engineer
 * Missy Elliott – additional backing vocals & producer
 * Ron Fair – additional producer, string arrangements, string conductor & vocal arrangement
 * Tal Herzberg – Pro Tools
 * Dave "Hard Drive" Pensado – mixing
 * Ethan Willoughby – mixing assistant
 * Frank Wolf – string engineer