Songfacts®:

• "Ignorance is Bliss" is an introspective song about navigating complex emotions in a relationship. Alice Merton sings of confronting the hidden depths of a partner while choosing to remain committed.
• Merton wrote the song from the perspective of a lifelong daydreamer, someone who was frequently told she couldn't, shouldn't, or wouldn't accomplish things, up to and including obtaining a driver's license.
  
  "My head is mostly in the clouds," she confessed, "and so I was always scared that everyone was right about me. That they knew better. Turns out they don't. Turns out if you think you can do something you probably can and should do it."
• The song echoes other Alice Merton songs where she decides to close her eyes and just keep going. On "No Roots," for instance, she embraces her nomadic childhood with defiance and gusto, while on "Why So Serious" she's determined to live with no regrets.
• The title phrase dates back to Thomas Gray's 1742 poem "Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College," in which he concluded: "Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise."
  
  Gray, notably, never had to negotiate a modern situationship, but the principle translates well.
• Several artists have used "Ignorance Is Bliss" as a song title. They include Kendrick Lamar on his 2010 mixtape Overly Dedicated, where he glorifies gangsta rap and street crime but ends each verse with "ignorance is bliss," giving the message "we know not what we do."
• Alice Merton wrote the song with Dan Smith of the British pop-rock band Bastille, along with Paul Whalley and producer Jennifer Decilveo (Miley Cyrus, Hozier). She recorded it at Flóki Studios in Iceland, where Justin Bieber laid down his Swag album.
• The music video doubles down on this whole atmospheric, anti-cynicism ethos, with Merton directing herself in scenes set against the stark and windswept landscapes of Iceland.