Glad You Came

Album: Battleground (2011)
Charted: 1 3
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Songfacts®:

  • The second single by the British-Irish Pop boy band The Wanted's second studio album received its radio premiere on May 24, 2011 and was released July 10, 2011. Speaking about their latest song, band member Tom Parker said: "When we first heard 'Glad You Came' we just knew it had to be the first single from the new album. We all felt it was a new, refreshing sound and a perfect song for the summer which really gets you in the mood for a party."
  • The song's music video was shot in Ibiza, and finds the boys cavorting with hot models. Jay revealed to MTV UK: "The theory of the video was take The Wanted to Ibiza and just film everything and then just cut bits that were useable. But the girls were models, they weren't just girls we picked."

    However Max admitted: "Actually no, the girl I had to spend time with was just literally picked up off the street after a night out."
  • The song had a significant sales jump in the US after being performed on the third mid-season finale of Glee by the show's Grant Gustin along with fellow members of the Warblers. The track shifted 188,000 downloads throughout the following week resulting in it jumping from #23 to #5 on Hot 100. This meant that The Wanted became the first UK Boyband to achieve a top 5 hit in the States.

    Tom Parker of The Wanted told MTV UK that when the boys got the call that the song was getting covered on Glee, they reacted to the news with, er, glee. "I thought it was absolutely great, and it was the first time I had seen a dance routine put to the song," he said. "So it was really strange actually, 'cause obviously we don't dance. I rang up the boys, like, 'Boys, maybe we should start dancing because actually it looks really good.'

    [Our manager] Scooter [Braun] rang us up, and he was like, 'So your song's going to be covered by Glee, ' and if you could have measured the level of noise in the car at that very time, some might call it deafening, we were screaming so loud," he continued. "I couldn't even believe it. It's an honor really to do something like that. I think it represents [that] the song's a really good song. To be honest, it's all a bit surreal."
  • This dance-pop song about getting people to party was written by Steve Mac, Wayne Hector and Ed Drewett, the same trio who also penned "All Time Low" and "Lightning." Speaking with Artist Direct, band member Jay McGuiness described the threesome as "our dream team." He went on to say, "When they work together, they make the greatest songs ever. They played 'Glad You Came' for us and it was a different sound for us. We had poppy rock and cool string vibes going. We liked the song, went in and did our version of the vocal, and we were surprised! We started doing it at gigs, and the fans went crazy, so we knew it had to be the next single."
  • Fans suspected a hidden orgasm innuendo behind the lyrics. When Elvis Duran asked the guys about the rumors on his Z100 morning show they replied in unison, "Yes!"

    "It's meant to be a very positive song about going to a party," added band member Nathan Sykes.

Comments: 1

  • Camille from Toronto, OhThis may have been released in 2011, but I'm watching the Dancing With The Stars *All Stars* semi-finals right now (11//20/12), and The Wanted is singing this song...and I'm hearing it all over the radio these days. So maybe it's begun a resurgence. It's a great song, sung beautifully, love the lyrics.
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