Songfacts®:

• Jason DeRulo is an American pop/R&B singer from Florida. This song was his debut official single after becoming the first artist to sign with multi-platinum music producer J.R Rotem's record label, Beluga Heights/Warner Bros Records. DeRulo co-wrote the song with Rotem, who also produced the track.
• On this song Derulo admits to his girl that he's been flirting with other women behind her back. He asks, "Whatcha Say about some 'kiss and make up?'"
• The song samples English singer-songwriter Imogen Heap's 2005 single "Hide and Seek."
• This song was co-written by DeRulo's Beluga Heights label mate Sean Kingston. The original intention was for the Beautiful Girls singer to record the song.
• This was the first Hot 100 #1 for the Warner Bros label since Daniel Powter's "Bad Day," three years previously in 2006.
• DeRulo told Digital Spy the story behind the song: "Basically my brother called me one day and said, 'I cheated on my girl, but I love her so much and I hope she'll give me one more shot.' I found his story really compelling, so I just went into the studio and tried it out. You know, people go through that kind of thing every day, which is why the song is so relatable. She did take my brother back though and they're actually engaged now, so it all worked out good in the end."
• Digital Spy asked DeRulo whose idea was the Imogen Heap sample. He replied: "Definitely collaborative. My producer JR Rotem is a music lover, and I'm a music lover too, so I'll often go into a record store and grab a CD I've never heard before. One day I picked up Imogen Heap, brought it into JR and we both loved it, so we started to experiment. It just so happened that my brother had just been telling me his story. You know, Imogen's being sort of sarcastic on that line – "Whatcha say, mmm that you only meant well? Well, of course you did" – so it made a perfect marriage."
• The song's music video was directed by Bernard Gourley. DeRulo told Blogcritics Magazine's Clayton Perry what lessons he learnt from the music video director. Said DeRulo: "Throughout the whole shoot he was just telling me to be myself. "Don't try to be anybody else." We set up first the story line, obviously, and then he just wanted me to go. He didn't want to give me too much direction because he wanted it to be me. And I feel like the video captured that. It captured me. It captured my personality, and it captured me, Jason Derülo as a human being and not Jason Derülo, the pop star."
• Jason Derulo: "I wrote 'Whatcha Say' in a booth smaller than a bathroom stall. You don't need a million dollar facility to create magic."
• How did Imogen Heap feel about Derulo sampling her song? She told The Guardian: "I'm not possessive over my tracks and I love it when people give them a new lease of life. I wouldn't put that song on to listen to but I don't find it offensive and it helped pay for my mortgage."