Perrie – Forget About Us (Single) / Forget About Us (Extended) (Single)

Sony Music Entertainment UK Ltd

Release Date: April 12th / April 19th 2024

Reviewed by: Joshua Andre

Perrie– Forget About Us (Single) / Forget About Us (Extended) (Single) (Amazon mp3/iTunes) (Amazon mp3/iTunes)

Track Listing:

Forget About Us
Forget About Us (Instrumental)
Forget About Us (Acapella)
Forget About Us (Extended)

When Little Mix went on hiatus in 2021; I reckon most, if not all, or us, were drawing parallels between that and One Direction’s split. We weren’t thinking it, but the signs were there that this was the end. Between Us, the group’s final release and a compilation album and greatest hits album in every sense of the word, would serve as a bittersweet goodbye; and Jon reviewed the project– it’s such a brilliant album celebrating the career of one of UK’s most loved girl-groups since The Spice Girls. If you want to know more about Little Mix, you can read about them in the blog I wrote a while back about their future influence. But now, as we move forward and try to fill the Little Mix hole left in our hearts; let’s turn our attention to Perrie Edwards’ debut single “Forget About Us”, just as we did when we glossed over Leigh-Anne Pinnock’s debut solo single “Don’t Say Love”.

I was just so insecure, I think, I was just so shy. And it’s really a drastic change when you go from being in a girl-group and having your girls constantly with you holding your hand – I was literally the baby [of the group]. And it can be quite overwhelming when there’s loads of people in a room and you’re supposed to be talking about your feelings and your emotions and what you want to put in a song.

I sat down with my label at the start and I was like, ‘Guys, I don’t want to write anything. I just want to be sent songs. I just want to sing them.’ Like, I remember watching the Whitney movie [I Wanna Dance with Somebody] and she would sit in the office [with a pile of demos] and say, ‘I like that, I don’t like that.’ That’s how I imagined my music career going. But then they were like, ‘Why don’t you just try some sessions with friends and people you’ve worked with in the past that make you feel comfortable?’ Like Jin Jin – I’ve known her forever and would never feel judged by her in the room.

So the more I did sessions, the more I became confident [and] the more I was writing down lyric and concept ideas. And then I started taking the reins a bit more and it just kind of spiralled from there. There’s only a handful of songs on my album I haven’t either co-written or written so I’m very proud of [going] from one extreme to the other.

So, Ed sent me the song [Forget About Us] and at the time, the lyrics and concept were very direct to what it was about. And I rang him and was like, ‘Would you mind if I just tweaked little bits? I’m not going to just be on the writing credits for the craic because that gives me the ick, I hate when people do that. I don’t want to take away [the fact] you produced and wrote this song [and] sent it to me. I just want to tweak it lyrically so it’s more me and where I’m at in my life now.’

And he was totally cool with it, he was so supportive. He was like, ‘I want you to take full ownership in it – whatever you’re not comfortable with, change it, and we’ll work on it from there.’ So I did a session on Zoom and we kind of got it to where it is now. I’m really happy.

On every song, I want vocal moments somewhere. I didn’t want a song that was just kind of a generic vocal all the way through. Even at the last second – a week ago, maybe, I had an event and I just recorded the ad libs [on the song] that morning because it felt like something was missing. So I rang Dipesh [Parmar], the head of my label, and he was like, ‘Would you want to do more ad libs?’

And I was like, ‘I would never say no to more ad libs – the more the merrier, because I will ad lib from start to finish if I can.’ So I asked him, ‘If I do [them] this morning, will it be ready in time for the event tonight for everyone to hear? And he was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, I’m sure we can make it work.’ Just adding those big ad libs at the end, I think, elevates the song.

Has Perrie herself actually said everything there needs to be said in this ‘review’ of sorts? “Forget About Us” (released in 4 forms- original studio version, acapella version, an instrumental recording and an extended version) is a pop banger co-written with Ed Sheeran, that details the ups and downs of a now-defunct relationship that the persona looks back upon fondly and with no hate nor malice, and that’s how we all should look back at our past relationships anyway! Perrie’s voice has never been better and reminds us that her prowess as a singer has put her in good stead for success as a solo artist. I don’t know what the future holds for her, or any of the other girls. But… you betcha I will be following each of the girls’ solo careers and be cheering them on. Little Mix was such a great band and no doubt these girls are crazily talented and awesome in their craft. Well done Perrie for a well-thought out debut solo single, and I can’t wait for what is in store for you in the future!

[the song ‘Forget About Us’] it’s about my partner. To be honest, it started because I was like, ‘In a relationship, I can be quite petty. I don’t know if that’s my star sign, I don’t know if it’s because I’m cancer and stubborn, but I like to hold a grudge.’ [My partner] and I never argue – we’re pretty chilled out – but at times, I will just hold a grudge for the sake of it. I’ll think that if he just looks at me and smiles and says ‘oh come on’, I’ll be like, ‘OK, all this is forgotten.’ But he doesn’t and I will not back down either. So that’s kind of what the song is about.