Songfacts®:

• This is the third single and title track from former burlesque performer turned neo-soul vamp Paloma Faith's debut album. She viewed this wry comment on the cult of celebrity as effectively her manifesto.
  
  "The title is all about perception and I think it's beautifully vulnerable," said the singer to The Independent. "[It's] an introduction to me and what I do."
• Faith explained the song to the Daily Echo: "It's a question to the public and the media because I think we live in a culture where the idea of being iconic has been lost. I think the reason we don't have any contemporary icons is because we know too much about people. It's about what you don't know about these people and their mystery which makes them iconic. When you look back at Marilyn Monroe she was an icon because she was always beautiful but there was a tragedy there. None of us knew the ins and outs of what the tragedy was and that makes her iconic. I think that's something I miss in contemporary culture. Leaving the mind to accept what we don't know."
• Asked whether generally speaking, she wants the truth, or something beautiful during a 2014 Reddit AMA, Faith replied: "I used to say something beautiful, because I'm a fantasist. But the older I get, the more I prefer the truth."
• Faith wrote the song with the singer-songwriter Ed Harcourt, with whom she later collaborated on "Let Your Love Walk In," "The Architect," "If This Is Goodbye" and "If Loving You Was Easy."