Six Degrees Of Separation

Album: #3 (2012)
Charted: 32
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Vocalist and The Voice UK coach Danny O'Donoghue found himself in the papers when he split with Lithuanian model Irma Mali after four years together and was subsequently linked to Voice runner-up Bo Bruce. This song, is about his painful break-up, which he told The Sun was a huge learning process for him in how to deal with the public and media. He explained: "This is the band's first time of dealing with the spotlight. I've been asked why I let the rumours go on for so long. But there's no handbooks on how to deal with this, plus I was grieving. My relationship had ended."
  • The song title refers to the idea that everyone is on average approximately six steps away from any other person on Earth. The phrase was coined by an American academic, Stanley Milgram, after his "small world experiment" in 1967 in which he sent several packages to 160 random people living in Omaha, Nebraska, asking them to forward the packet only to others they knew by name. The aim was to get it, eventually, to a set final individual, a stockbroker from Boston, Massachusetts. The average number of times it was passed on, he said, was six. Hence, the six degrees of separation.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Boy Bands

Boy BandsFact or Fiction

From NKOTB to 1D, how well do you know your boy bands?

Weird Al Yankovic

Weird Al YankovicFact or Fiction

Did Al play on a Beach Boys record? Did he have beef with George Lucas and Coolio? See if you can spot weird but true stories.

Millie Jackson

Millie JacksonSongwriter Interviews

Outrageously gifted and just plain outrageous, Millie is an R&B and Rap innovator.

Kip Winger

Kip WingerSongwriter Interviews

The Winger frontman reveals the Led Zeppelin song he cribbed for "Seventeen," and explains how his passion for orchestra music informs his songwriting.

They Might Be Giants

They Might Be GiantsSongwriter Interviews

Who writes a song about a name they found in a phone book? That's just one of the everyday things these guys find to sing about. Anything in their field of vision or general scope of knowledge is fair game. If you cross paths with them, so are you.

Song Cities

Song CitiesMusic Quiz

Nirvana, Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen are among those who wrote songs with cities that show up in this quiz.