Identifying the “new hit”
The Martin Solveig track promoted in May 2016 as a prospective new hit was “Do It Right,” featuring Australian-Zimbabwean singer and rapper Tkay Maidza. It was not a leak, an unreleased demo or a stray club edit. The single received an authorized digital release on May 20, 2016. Apple Music’s release record dates it to that day and attributes the 2016 phonographic copyright to KOPG Ltd under exclusive licence to Virgin EMI Records.
That primary date is supported by the French digital store Qobuz, which lists the same release day, a running time of 3:33 and detailed performance credits. Some databases also associate the single with Spinnin’ Records or Big Beat in particular territories, while later club and remix packages carry their own dates. Those variations reflect regional marketing and subsequent versions; they do not displace May 20 as the original single release.
The record arrived during Solveig’s post-album phase. After the international breakthrough of “Hello” with Dragonette and the 2011 album Smash, he had increasingly concentrated on individual collaborations. “Intoxicated,” made with GTA, and “+1,” featuring Sam White, had already demonstrated a lighter, more buoyant alternative to the oversized festival drops then dominating commercial EDM. “Do It Right” continued that run.
Two credited writers, two audible identities
Martin Solveig is the professional name of Martin Picandet. The documented credits identify Picandet and Takudzwa Maidza as the song’s composer-lyricists, with Solveig serving as producer, keyboard player and programmer and Maidza providing the featured vocal. Qobuz presents those roles directly, while the Dutch Top 40 song record independently lists Picandet and Maidza as composers and Solveig as producer.
That division is important because “featuring” can make a vocalist look incidental even when the performance defines the record. Maidza does more than supply a topline. Her clipped phrasing determines how the groove breathes: she moves between sung command, teasing repetition and the percussive attack associated with her rap work. Solveig’s production gives her ample negative space rather than burying her under a maximal drop.
Musically, the track is a compact piece of vocal house. A dry four-on-the-floor pulse anchors bright keyboard figures, rubbery low end and sharply gated accents. The arrangement repeatedly withholds weight, then lets the chorus land through rhythmic clarity rather than sheer volume. Its hook is built on conditions and challenge: attraction is present, but access depends on the other person meeting the singer’s standard.
That reading is interpretation, not biographical fact. Nothing in the documented credits requires listeners to treat the scenario as Maidza’s diary. What can be said with confidence is that her delivery makes the lyric sound active rather than ornamental. She is the person setting the record’s terms.
Why it sounded like Solveig in 2016
By 2016, crossover dance music was changing. Tropical house had softened radio textures; deep-house bass patterns had entered pop; and the blunt instrumental “drop” was no longer the only route from a verse to a chorus. Solveig’s singles from this period responded with economical structures and unusually cheerful timbres. “Do It Right” uses some of deep house’s spaciousness but declines its melancholy pose.
The result also differs from Solveig’s earlier “Hello.” That song’s indie-pop guitar and call-and-response writing made its crossover intentions obvious. “Do It Right” is more synthetic and more circular. It behaves like a DJ tool compressed into pop length: phrases repeat with small additions, and the pleasure comes from the exact placement of drums, bass and voice.
Contemporary dance coverage recognized that immediate utility. EDMTunes reported the release on May 20, while specialist outlets treated it as a summer-facing successor to Solveig’s recent singles. Such “song of the summer” predictions are promotional judgments, not historical outcomes. The chart evidence is more restrained.
In the United Kingdom, “Do It Right” reached only No. 97 on the main singles chart. The Official Charts Company records one week in the Top 100, alongside a No. 54 peak on both the sales and download charts. Elsewhere in Europe it performed more strongly, and its long digital afterlife has exceeded what that British peak might suggest. It was a recognizable international dance single, but calling it a major UK chart hit would overstate the record.
The video’s architectural fantasy
The official video arrived on June 2, two weeks after the single. Published on Solveig’s official artist channel, it credits Monsieur L’Agent as director, Benjamin Benhamou as producer and Philip Lozano as director of photography. The production was based in Barcelona, but its defining location was farther down Spain’s Mediterranean coast: La Muralla Roja in Calpe.
Designed by Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill, the residential complex is a maze of saturated red, pink and blue walls, stairs, bridges and terraces. Architectural Digest España identified Bofill’s building as the video’s setting. The choice was more than decorative. Solveig’s production works through crisp blocks of sound and sudden openings; the building supplies a visual equivalent in geometric planes, corridors and sky-filled voids.
Solveig and Maidza move through an immaculate resort fantasy populated by coordinated performers. Bold costumes and controlled poses turn human figures into graphic elements. The video resists the dark warehouse vocabulary attached to some house music, emphasizing sunlight, absurdity and fashion instead. Its surfaces are deliberately artificial, a suitable complement to a record whose charm lies in polished construction.
The clip also clarifies the collaboration’s balance. Solveig appears as the recognizable producer-host, but Maidza supplies the kinetic center. Her gestures, expressions and styling translate the vocal’s authority into images. The video does not document the studio process; it stages the song’s flirtatious contest as a colorful world with its own physical rules.
Versions, chronology and legacy
The original single runs approximately three and a half minutes. A longer club mix and later remixes were marketed separately, so uploads bearing extended running times should not automatically be labeled the original. Nor should unofficial reposts be treated as the source video when Solveig’s rights-holder channel hosts the authorized clip. The clean chronology is original single on May 20, official video on June 2, followed by club promotion and chart activity through the summer.
Maidza released her debut album Tkay later in 2016, continuing a career that would move through rap, alternative R&B and electronic pop. Solveig followed “Do It Right” with “Places,” featuring Ina Wroldsen, another streamlined vocal-house record that achieved a stronger British chart run. In retrospect, “Do It Right” sits at the hinge between their paths: an international platform for Maidza and a demonstration of Solveig’s increasingly disciplined singles craft.
Its durability is easier to hear than to quantify. The song does not depend on a novelty sound or a colossal climax. Instead, it aligns a memorable voice, a compact hook and production in which every bright detail has room around it. “Do It Right” was officially released, fully credited and visually supported—not an elusive internet find. What made it feel fresh in May 2016 was the precision with which it turned restraint into pop momentum.