Life can be overwhelming, especially when love is involved. This song suggests we just do the best we can and enjoy the show. It's like what Ferris Bueller said: Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
The Australian television actress and singer-songwriter Lenka is known to her parents as Lenka Kripac. She was born and raised in New South Wales until the age of six when her family moved to Sydney. After featuring as vocalist on a couple of albums for the Australian outfit Decoder Ring, she moved to Los Angeles in 2007. This song was the first release from Lenka's debut self-titled solo album.
Lenka wrote this song with the American singer/songwriter Jason Reeves, who is a frequent Colbie Caillat collaborator. In a Songfacts
interview with Jason Reeves, he explained how "The Show" came together. Said Reeves: "We wrote that song together in LA, actually. We got set up by our publisher, Sony, and I never met her but I had heard a couple of her songs before we got together to write. And I just loved her voice. There's something really unique about how she sings. That was the first song we wrote, and sometimes it happens that way. But that's one of my favorite songs I've ever co-written with somebody. And I guess sometimes it doesn't work when you just meet a stranger and write a song, but sometimes it can work very well."
This song has featured in a number of advertisements, including one for the Old Navy clothing store chain.
The song was included on the soundtrack for the 2008 movie, Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, and in an episode of Ugly Betty.
It plays a big part in the 2011 movie Moneyball, which is about Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland A's baseball team. In the film, Beane's 12-year-old daughter, played by Kerris Dorsey, performs the song for him in a music shop. Later, when Beane is considering a lucrative offer to join the Boston Red Sox, which would put considerable distance between him and his daughter, he plays a recording she made of the song and decides to stay.
The film takes place in 2001 and 2002, so use of "The Show," which was released in 2008, was an anachronism.
Lenka told
Spectrum Culture about the concept for the song's video: "I actually received about 15 treatments of different ideas from different directors. I narrowed it down to four and then I eventually picked that one. In his words - the guy that wrote it--it is a metaphor for the invisible hand of fate. I really like that because I hadn't thought of that, but it goes so well with the song. The song is about feeling like you're not in control of your life and that the best thing to do is take a backseat and let go. And so, his idea was that some things are pulling you in and out of different scenarios and you don't get to decide when. He's like, 'Oh, you're having such a good time and then you are thrown in some other situation.' So I thought that was really cool."
Lenka admitted to
Cincy Groove Magazine that filming the music video was an uncomfortable experience: "It was very challenging and very uncomfortable when I decided to do the harness work. When we had our first rehearsal, even the stunt guys couldn't believe I agreed to do this. They thought I was crazy because it was uncomfortable. Your entire body weight is resting on your inner thigh and shins. I was beginning to regret it after I was hanging in the air for hours and hours. I have to say it was fun flying through the air. It took about 2 1/2 to 3 days to shoot."
Reflecting on the song's 15th anniversary,
Lenka told Songfacts she never expected the single to have such an impact on her career, but she remains grateful that it did. "It helped me connect with a larger fanbase due to its relatability and good radio, film, and TV placement," she explained in the 2023 interview. "It's also really great fun to play live. Even after all these years I love it. It's one of those songs that just spilled out. It took 90 minutes to write with Jason Reeves. We thought it was just a cute little ditty at the time."
The original version is a staple of Lenka's live sets, but she also likes to play around with different genres for fun. When she hit the road with her touring band in 2009, she let the audience pick which genre they'd like to hear it in, leading to country, EDM, and Bossa Nova performances.
Lenka also recorded a new version on her 2020 covers album, Recover. She was going through a creative dry spell and decided to revisit some old songs reconnect with her musical identity. For "The Show," she told Songfacts, "The main experiment was to do a version that was not swung, so it's more square to the beat. I like it, but I think the original is better."
