Vancouver Island native Lauren Spencer-Smith first came to the public attention when she was a contestant in the 2020 season of American Idol. She made it through the early rounds but got voted out after reaching the Top 20. When she previewed "Fingers Crossed" on TikTok in late 2021, the clip racked up over 22 million views. Spencer-Smith released it as a single on January 5, 2022, and in less than a day the song hit #1 on the US iTunes chart and #2 on the global chart.
The emotional song finds Lauren Spencer-Smith addressing her ex, who broke up with her. She remembers the hours she spent trying to fix his issues with his father and helping him to write songs. Lauren ignored her friends, who told her he was taking advantage of her and that their relationship was doomed to end in heartbreak. All the time her boyfriend was telling Lauren how much he loved her, he must have had his fingers crossed behind his back.
Lauren Spencer-Smith wrote "Fingers Crossed" with Fransisca Hall (Major Lazer's "
Powerful," Imagine Dragons' "
Follow You") and the song's producer, T.I Jakke (Goo Goo Dolls' "
Over And Over," Now United's "Summer In The City").
To cross one's fingers is to hope for good luck and that your plans will be successful. Often, the physical gesture of putting your index and middle fingers across each other accompanies the words. This is a scaled-down version of making the sign of the Cross with your whole hand and arm as a request for divine protection.
Fun Fact: The first ever self-written song Billie Eilish released was titled "
Fingers Crossed." She penned it aged 12 for a home-school assignment and put it out on Soundcloud in 2015.
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Lauren Spencer-Smith starts off the song by recalling when the relationship was going well.
Introduced me to your family
Watched my favorite shows on your TV
Made me breakfast in the morning
When you got home from work.
"Legitimately, I envisioned myself in his room with his family watching my favorite shows on TV," Spencer-Smith explained to
Billboard of writing the first verse. "I'm very specific with what happened in the situation."
Spencer-Smith wrote 'Fingers Crossed" after moving on to a new relationship. Feeling loved and healed from her heartbreak, she could reflect on her previous romance from a new perspective.
"For a while, I think I was in an 'I'm heartbroken, nobody loves me, I hate myself' mindset while writing songs. But for this one, I met somebody new that was raising my standards and teaching me how I should be treated," Spencer-Smith explained. "I went into my session feeling angry and wanted to write a heartbreak song. We came up with the 'Fingers Crossed' idea, and I think the song speaks for itself. It has that angsty emotion. It's not just, 'Oh, you're going to cry in your bedroom.' It's, 'I'm mad at this person, I'm angry, I could say sorry but I'm not.'"
Lauren Spencer-Smith set out to make a song that resonated with her fans' experience of love. "Everyone has that one person," she told the BBC, "whether it's a family member, friend, ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend, who they feel they spent time on for no reason."
The song's success caught the attention of major labels across the US. Spencer-Smith signed a joint deal with Republic and Island Records a month after the release of "Fingers Crossed."
The song topped the charts in several countries, including Ireland and Norway.