London based songwriter Amanda Ghost (James Blunt's "You're Beautiful") co-wrote this song in which Beyoncé re-imagines the classic aria in a new musical setting. Ghost told the Daily Telegraph November 8, 2008 the original inspiration for this track: "We were talking about how much we loved the Schubert Ave Maria. We had both recently got married, and it turned out we had both come up the aisle to that song. So I said wouldn't it be great to try and rewrite it. And the lyric is very much about her. She talks about being surrounded by friends but she's alone: 'How can the silence seem so loud?' and then 'There's only us when the lights go down'. I think that's probably the most personal line on the whole album about her and Jay, because they are very real, and they're very much in love, and it must be pretty tough to have that love when you're incredibly famous."