Leave Right Now

Album: Friday's Child (2004)
Charted: 1 81
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Songfacts®:

  • Will Young is an English singer and actor who won the first UK Pop Idol contest. Friday's Child, his second album, reached #1 on the UK albums chart and has gone five times platinum in the UK, with worldwide sales of over 1.8 million. >>
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  • This song was written by British songwriter and producer Eg White. It won a 2004 Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically.
  • Young told The Daily Mirror November 18, 2009 that when he first heard this song, he didn't like it, nor was he enthusiastic about the video. Young explained: "Funnily enough, I initially was never keen on the video, which is interesting, and initially not that keen on the song. I think probably I was wanting to try too hard at the time. If it had been up to me, I would have probably done something disastrous, haha! It's a really simple idea, one take, me, turning up to a party to confront my ex, heartbroken. We had to do it 21 times and we took the 19th take. It was a long day! We shot it in the old Saatachi Gallery in St Johns Wood (North London)."
  • This was used as the exit song for the ninth season of American Idol six and a half years after it charted in the UK.
  • Young discussed the song with MTV News: "Funny enough, the song is more about taking yourself out of a situation, so in a way, I'm telling myself to leave, which is almost the harder thing to do. I think that's what it is about, that song. So many people have experienced that. You're coming back, and you think, 'I really shouldn't be in the situation, but here I am again.' You know, that awful feeling where your heart has been broken once and you don't know if you can do it again. That's what that song is about. And that's why I always love performing it."
  • Speaking with The Daily Telegraph, Will Young revealed that he had to redo his vocal performance several times. "I didn't know at the time, but when I was recording 'Leave Right Now', someone at the record company said I 'sounded gay' and kept making me re-record the track," he said. "There's a real flavor to homophobia and bigotry. It's really shaming. People don't understand the power of language."

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