Lonely Day

Not to be confused with Lovely Day.

"Lonely Day" is a song by American heavy metal band System of a Down. It was released in 2006 as the second single from their fifth album Hypnotize (2005), and written by guitarist Daron Malakian, who also provides lead vocals on this track. The song received a nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards.^[2]

"Lonely Day"
Single cover. Maxi-Single features a red theme.[1]
Single by System of a Down
from the album Hypnotize
B-side	"Snowblind" "The Metro" "Marmalade"
Released	April 17, 2006 (2006-04-17)
Length	2:47
Label	American Columbia
Songwriter(s)	Daron Malakian
Producer(s)	Rick Rubin Daron Malakian
System of a Down singles chronology
"Hypnotize" (2005) "Lonely Day" (2006) "Vicinity of Obscenity" (2006)
Music video
"Lonely Day" on YouTube

Music video

The music video opens with a shot of downtown Los Angeles, with the traffic light at the corner of S Broadway & 6th St on fire. The video continues with shots of the band members sitting in their tour bus. There are other various shots of other items that are on fire. In order of appearance, they are as follows: a padlock, a building, shrubs in front of an office building, a newspaper dispenser, a shopping cart, a pay phone, a train car, a stack of wooden pallets, several trees, a billboard, a single car in traffic among other non-burning cars, an advertisement in Chinese at a bus stop, a bench at a train station, a dumpster, another building, and the roof of a gas station.

As of May 2025, the music video for "Lonely Day" has over 408 million views on YouTube.^[3]

Track listing

Digital download

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Lonely Day"	Daron Malakian	2:47

CD extended play

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Lonely Day"	Daron Malakian	2:48
2.	"Shame" (System of a Down featuring Wu-Tang Clan)	Ghostface Killah GZA U-God Inspectah Deck Ol' Dirty Bastard RZA Method Man Raekwon	2:41
3.	"Snowblind" (Black Sabbath cover)	Ozzy Osbourne Tony Iommi Geezer Butler Bill Ward	4:40
4.	"Metro" (Berlin cover)	John Crawford	2:59
5.	"Marmalade"	Serj Tankian (lyrics) Daron Malakian (music)	3:01
6.	"Lonely Day" (Video CD extra)		2:57

Notes

• "Shame" is a cover of "Shame on a Nigga" by Wu-Tang Clan

Personnel

• Daron Malakian – guitars, lead vocals
• Serj Tankian – keyboards, backing vocals
• Shavo Odadjian – bass
• John Dolmayan – drums

Charts

Weekly chart performance for "Lonely Day"

Chart (2006)	Peak position
Australia (ARIA)[4]	37
Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40)[5]	62
Canada Rock Top 30 (Radio & Records)[6]	17
Czech Republic (Radio Top 100)[7]	55
Denmark (Tracklisten)[8]	20
Finland (Suomen virallinen lista)[9]	16
France (SNEP)[10]	84
Germany (GfK)[11]	46
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[12]	17
Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)[13]	72
US Bubbling Under Hot 100 (Billboard)[14]	23
US Alternative Airplay (Billboard)[15]	10
US Mainstream Rock (Billboard)[16]	10

Certifications

Certifications and sales for "Lonely Day"

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
New Zealand (RMNZ)[17]	Platinum	30,000‡
Spain (PROMUSICAE)[18]	Gold	30,000‡
United Kingdom (BPI)[19]	Silver	200,000‡
United States (RIAA)[20]	Platinum	1,000,000‡
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.