Songfacts®:

• In this song, Dua Lipa thanks Maria, her boyfriend's ex-girlfriend, for giving him the proper training that refined him into the perfect guy. She made up the characters in the song but can relate to the story.
  
  "When you go through a breakup, you're like, 'that person is going to be so much better for someone else now,' because whatever happened here, they've learned and are going to put it into action in the next relationship," she said on Amazon Music. "I think everyone has done that. With every relationship, you grow and you become hopefully a better version of yourself from the experiences you've had. So 'Maria' is really about being grateful to the ex and being like, 'thank you for doing that.' Because we all grow, we all learn, and now I have this person who is meant for me in this way."
• "Maria" is part of Dua Lipa's third album, Radical Optimism. It's her first album with lyrics she wrote by journaling. Lipa was looking to spend less time on screens so she bought a notebook at CVS that became her constant companion. She ended up writing the lyrics, along with her journal entries, in that notebook.
• Most of the Radical Optimism songs are dance-friendly, heavy on synthesizers and drum machine. "Maria" has a steady beat, but with acoustic guitar played by Adam James.
• Lipa worked with a team of ace songwriters on this one: Andrew Wyatt, Julia Michaels, Caroline Ailin and Daniel Harle. Wyatt worked on Lipa's Barbie song "Dance The Night" and also Ryan Gosling's song from the movie, "I'm Just Ken." Michaels is on the credits for songs by Maroon 5 ("Help Me Out"), Ellie Goulding ("Easy Lover") and Shawn Mendes ("Nervous"). Ailin and Harle are two of Lipa's main collaborators.