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22 (Lily Allen song)

"22"
22 (Lily Allen song).jpg
Single by Lily Allen
from the album It's Not Me, It's You
Released 24 August 2009
Format
Genre
Length 3:06
Label Regal
Songwriter(s) Lily Allen, Greg Kurstin
Producer(s) Greg Kurstin
Lily Allen singles chronology
"Fuck You"
(2009)
"22"
(2009)
"Who'd Have Known"
(2009)
"Fuck You"
(2009)
"22"
(2009)
"Who'd Have Known"
(2009)

"22" is a song by British recording artist Lily Allen from her second studio album, It's Not Me, It's You. Written by Allen and Greg Kurstin, the song was released as the fourth international single of the album, but the third in the United Kingdom, after it was decided not to promote "Fuck You" there. It was released to the music market on 24 August 2009 by Regal Recordings, though a different version called "22 (Vingt Deux)" was released in France.

Contemporary critics were mixed in their reviews of the song, some complimenting the rousing sound and the lyrics, which hide her maturity. However, others considered them to be rather sexist. The single peaked inside the top twenty of the charts of the UK Singles Chart, in Ireland, the Netherlands and Australia, giving the singer her third consecutive top twenty hit in both countries. The accompanying music video portrayed a self-reflection theme, Allen taking a view over her past-self in the mirror and realising her life was wasted on superficial matters. The song was performed live as part of Allen's 2009 concert tour. "22" also appears on the international soundtrack to the Brazilian soap opera Viver a Vida.

While describing the album, Allen said that "we decided to try and make bigger sounding, more ethereal songs, real songs". She chose "22" as a single from the album, and later declared that, lyrically, the song describes a near thirty-year-old woman realizing she's at the end of her prime. The singer commented on the song's meaning:

It's more about girls that haven't figured out what they want to do with themselves. Especially really pretty girls. They can rely on their looks to an extent: people will pay for their dinners and drinks and they don't really have to think. And then suddenly it hits them that they're not doing anything with their lives and it's too late. And, yes, it's about a specific person. Most of my songs start like that and then become more general.

Musically, the song is set in the time signature of common time and in the key of C minor, with a metronome of 132 beats per minute. It has a basic sequence of A♭—E♭/G—Fm—G7—F7 as its chord progression, while piano, synths and percussion are used for the background music, with occasional flourishes from harpsichord and organ. The single distributed in France includes a duet with French singer Ours, called "22 (Vingt Deux)", which is also present on the Paris Live Session.


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