Selfies

Album: Peroxide (2014)
Charted: 40
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Songfacts®:

  • This bouncy track finds Nesbitt singing of someone being dumped by a boy who calls her vain. She then posts happy pictures of herself to pretend he hasn't hurt her. "I wrote 'Selfies' with my bassist when we were discussing how when people feel a bit low about themselves, they often take pictures of them looking happy or out doing cool things," said Nina. "Then they post them online to either cheer themselves up or to try and make the person that's let them down know what they're missing. I'll put my hands up and say I've done it myself. Some people would call it attention seeking, others would say there's no harm in trying to feel good about yourself."

    "Social networks have made it easy for us to express ourselves, but also to live our lives through a kind of 'fake reality,'" she added. "We only put online what we want to show everyone, meaning people don't see the not so great parts of our lives too. So even though some people's lives seem amazing on the internet, nobody's life is perfect."
  • A selfie is a type of self-portrait photograph, normally taken with a digital camera or camera phone. 'Selfie' was The Oxford Dictionary's 2013 Word of the Year. The annual award is given to the word, or expression, that they considered attracted the most interest during the year. Other 21st century words of the year have included podcast, bovvered, carbon-neutral, carbon footprint, credit crunch, simples, unfriend and refudiate.

    According to the dictionary, the earliest usage of selfie dates back to 2002 in an Australian internet forum. The post read: "Um, drunk at a mates 21st, I tripped ofer [sic] and landed lip first (with front teeth coming a very close second) on a set of steps. I had a hole about 1cm long right through my bottom lip. And sorry about the focus, it was a selfie."
  • The music clip was released onto YouTube on December 15, 2013. Nina told The Sun: "The video is about how easily people can let their life through a fake persona and pretend that their life is better than it actually is. A lot of my early success was on YouTube and Vevo. I did have some negative liberty on social media – sadly, from people who knew me."

    "But it taught me to develop a tough skin in pursuit of what I love doing," Nina added. "You have to look at the negative comments and compare them to have many positive people there are supporting you."

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