Olaf HeineHe’s been a star in the U.K. since he won that country’s version of X Factor in 2012, but James Arthur now has his first American hit with “Say You Won’t Let Go.” But he says at first, he didn’t want to release the song, because of all the tracks on his album Back from the Edge, it was “the easiest to write.”
“It wrote itself in a couple of hours, and I thought it might be filler…” James tells ABC Radio. “The whole album is about redemption, and it’s about my personal journey back from a place where I was giving up. And I wanted it to…help people out who were maybe going through a dark time.”
As a love ballad, “Say You Won’t Let Go” didn’t “represent” the rest of the album, James says, so he was worried it would flop. Turns out it was the perfect song to break him in the U.S.
“This song has just translated over here. It seems universal. It’s soulful and honest, and I guess that’s what America’s about,” he tells ABC Radio. “It’s about honesty and hard work and love, and all that good stuff.”
James thinks one lyric in particular is why the song –which is about meeting the love of your life in a club — is connecting. That lyric is: “I held your hair back/when you were throwing up.”
“I felt like that line is why the song is so special, really, because it could not be more relatable, especially in the modern culture,” he explains.
He adds, “People find love in the most random places, and that’s…the most real picture I could’ve painted when describing falling in love with someone.”
James will be touring this summer with OneRepublic and Fitz & the Tantrums.
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