"Save the Day" is a song recorded by American singer and songwriter Mariah Carey. It was released on August 21, 2020 as the lead single from her eighth compilation album, The Rarities (2020) by Columbia and Legacy Records. The song's music was composed by Carey, and the lyrics and melody were written by Carey, Jermaine Dupri, James "Big Jim" Wright, Charles Fox, and Norman Gimbel. The song was also produced by Carey along with Dupri. The song samples vocals from American singer and rapper Ms. Lauryn Hill on the song "Killing Me Softly" (1996) by the Fugees, therefore Hill is credited as a featured artist. In 2020, The Guardian ranked the song as the 30th greatest Mariah Carey single, and Billboard ranked it as the 60th greatest song of her career, that same year. Background Carey and longtime collaborator Jermaine Dupri began working on the song in February 2011. Originally, the idea was to reunite a variety of musicians to conceive the song as a charity single. The inspiration for the song comes from Points of Light Institute. In March 2011, Carey's representative Cindi Berger stated that royalties for "Save The Day", which was originally written for Carey's fourteenth studio album, Me. I Am Mariah... The Elusive Chanteuse (2014), would be donated to charities that bring awareness to human rights issues. Berger also said that "Mariah has and continues to donate her time, money and countless hours of personal service to many organizations both here and abroad". On February 11, 2012, Carey stated on her Twitter account that the song was "in a holding pattern for a very special reason, to be revealed at a later date". Prior to the song release in 2020, Carey and Dupri believed that it was an appropriate time to release the song, with the former commenting, "the lyrics are so apropos to this exact moment". Promotion and release On August 19, 2020, Carey announced that "Save the Day" would be released as the lead single from her eighth compilation album The Rarities. A day before the song's release, Carey premiered the song during a Zoom virtual private listening party. The song was released on August 21, 2020. Music video On September 13, 2020, Carey delivered a debut television performance of "Save the Day" as part of the U.S. Open Women's Final broadcast. The video featured clips of female tennis stars like Venus and Serena