24 Hrs

Album: 24 HRS (2016)
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Songfacts®:

  • Olly Murs split from his girlfriend of three years, property developer Francesca Thomas, in late 2016 and his fifth album was written in the aftermath. The singer told the BBC he didn't intend to write a breakup record, but the lyrics came pouring out in the studio.

    "When you've broken up with someone, the first part of the day you might be 'Cool, it's fine, happy days'. And then, all of a sudden you remember 'Oh no, I'm on my own. I miss her'," he said. "So it was like 'Yeah, let's write something a little bit like that.'"
  • Murs recalls on this song the intensely mixed emotions he had the day after the break up:

    Thanks so much for letting me know
    That you're finally letting me go
    My mind is out of control
    But it feels so good


    He told HMV.com: "I remember the 24 hours when I broke up with my girlfriend and it was like an out of body experience, I had no idea whether to be happy or down, it was an odd day."
  • Asked when he settled on the title of 24 HRs, Murs replied:

    "I really struggled with this one, I had no idea what to call it. 24HRs really popped out of nowhere, we had the song and I knew it would be on the album, but I wanted there to be more to it than that. For me it's about how we all have good days and bad days, live everyday like it's your last, especially with all the stuff that's going on in the world at the moment, try and smile and love each other."

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