A dancehall pop, tropical house and moombahton song, "Sorry" contains in its instrumentation "brassy horn bleats", warm island rhythms and a bouncy dembow riddim drum beat.

While working on his then-upcoming fourth studio album, Justin Bieber enlisted American DJ Skrillex to produce songs for the record after successfully working with him on "Where Are Ü Now", which he sent to Skrillex and Diplo for their project Jack Ü and that became a worldwide hit and helped to revamp his career.

[10] In the same day, Bieber posted a video on his Instagram, where he appeared in the studio with BloodPop and Skrillex, listening to the song and riding around on hoverboards.

[14] Michaels and Tranter, who had already worked together in a handful of tracks and became songwriting partners, were asked to go write with Tucker in a session.

[14] Tucker created the song's melody with Bieber in mind,[11] while Michaels was in a vocal booth with Tranter and the word "sorry" "popped out" of her head, as she recalled.

"[14] Skrillex was responsible for the beat and claimed that he also acted as a support "for what Justin was saying and help[ed] keep it simple, and record good, memorable songs.

[16] BloodPop commented in an interview about the song, stating: "From the perspective of the producer, I find the muffled vocal chops to represent the people or situations in which Justin or the listener could be apologetic towards.

[21][22][31] Lyrically, the song is a plea "for a chance to apologize to an unidentified lover",[32] with Bieber asking forgiveness, "saying that he misses more than just her body and "hoping they can 'both say the words and forget this.

"[24] Andrew Unterbgerger of Spin noted that on the track, "Bieber's still a little too proud to beg he undercuts the penitence of his verses by deflecting 'You know there are no innocents in this game for two,' and never actually delivering the titular apology, merely asking if doing so would still be productive.

"[33] Regarding its lyrics, Sheldon Pearce of Complex found it to be "sincere", while Amy Davidson of Digital Spy thought the opposite, considering it an unapologetic song.

Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly cited the song for being "stripped down for maximum aerodynamics, the vocals mentholated and sweetened with a brushstroke of bass here, a snake-charmer synth line there.

"[21] Brad Nelson of Pitchfork also praised both songs for being "vivid tropical house tracks that sound like sunlight drifting down through palm fronds.

Bieber's voice often resembles a breath contorted inexpressively through notes; here, he lets it weightlessly fall through textures.

"[31] For Bianca Gracie of Idolator, the song "is a few notches above of its single predecessor" due to "the combination of dancehall flair and the continued trend of his 'come hither' laid-back vocals," considering it "one that has been unmatched this year.

"[40] Brennan Carley of Spin wrote that the song "starts with a tropical drum-n-bass situation before exploding into a glorious, neatly wound chorus," calling it "a subdued step forward for the Biebs.

"[33] Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times called it "airy tropical-house banger that makes the singer's first big hit, the puppyish 'Baby', seem like an artifact from a different era (which it pretty much is).

"[43] Sam C. Mac of Slant Magazine opined that the song brought "a mini-resurrection of the house/reggaeton fusion Moombahton, along with Bieber's most grown-n'-sexy lyrics.

"[23] Amy Davidson of Digital Spy concluded: "With its show-offy vocal distortions and tropical feel, 'Sorry' might not be a sincere attempt at forgiveness—but that's probably why it sounds so good.

From the bright opening notes to the manipulated vocal loop in the chorus, the Biebs brought EDM to his pop palette and made fans out of haters with an unforgivably good single.

and "Sorry", respectively, Bieber's Purpose became only the fourth album in Billboard's history to have yielded multiple songs that entered the Hot 100 in the top-two positions (the others were Mariah Carey's Daydream in 1995–96, Butterfly in 1997–98, and Eminem's Recovery in 2010).

Additionally, the same week, Bieber had 17 songs on the Hot 100 simultaneously, breaking the record previously held by The Beatles and Drake.

[58] As of February 2016, "Sorry" has sold 2 million copies in the U.S.[59] In the United Kingdom, the song entered at number two on the UK Singles Chart in October 2015.

[66] As of September 2017, the song had accumulated 724,000 in actual sales, 144 million in streams, making a total of 2,168,000 combined units.

The video features a girl (played by dancer Lauren Hudson Petrilli) who goes through a day of her life, with the words of the song appearing in random places as she wanders around inside and outside her house, alongside the use of special effects.

[73] Additionally, Bieber performed the song during the 2015 American Music Awards, which took place at Microsoft Theater on 22 November 2015 in Los Angeles, California.

[76] In May 2016, Billboard reported that Bieber and Skrillex were being sued by indie artist White Hinterland, who claims the duo used her vocal loop from her 2014 song "Ring the Bell" without permission.

[77] Producer Skrillex responded to the claim by uploading a video of himself manipulating the vocals of co-writer Julia Michaels.