1980

Album: The 18th Day (2004)
Charted: 14
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Songfacts®:

  • This is an autobiographical tale about Estelle living in an apartment above a dead man. She told Giantmag the story of the song: "Oh, that man - he was really old, like extremely old and he had no one coming up to see him, no one to comfort him. But he had all of these cats. Before we knew he passed, my mom began wondering about the smell and she would be like 'Estelle, clean up your room' (laughs). One day, we went downstairs and banged on his door just to check on him and no one answered. And I thought to myself, maybe he's dead and sure enough he was."
  • This was Estelle's debut single.
  • In the same interview with Giantmag.com, Estelle, who was born on January 18th 1980, was asked why she titled her album The 18th Day: "18, it represents my birthday. My first album, The 18th Day, was a dedication to my mother. During my birth she had a procedure that left her near death, but she came back in time to give birth to me. So the album was almost like me thanking her for bringing me here."

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