Songfacts®:

• This song is about how great it is to be a musician. Amy McDonald explained on her website how she came to write this song: "I saw Pete Doherty's first gig in Glasgow after he left Libertines. It was a great night - he did a little acoustic thing at the aftershow party too, and we got into that. Then me and my pals went back to someone's house and just sat, passing the guitar round, singing songs. It was a brilliant night. The next morning I wrote 'This Is The Life' about it, cause I realized, this is the life."
• On January 13 2008, over 5 months after its release, the This Is The Life album reached the top of the UK album charts.
• Despite only reaching #28 in her native UK, this song topped the charts in a number of European countries, including Austria, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
• "This Is The Life" featured in a 2010 Fiat 500 TwinAir advert that was broadcast across Europe. The song was also used in a Norwegian commercial in early 2011, which triggered a resurgence on the Norwegian charts, where it re-entered at #1.
• The song became popular in Saudi Arabia in the mid-2020s thanks to its use on TikTok and in social media videos featuring football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo.