Happy Anywhere

Album: Body Language (2020)
Charted: 32
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Songfacts®:

  • "Happy Anywhere" is a quarantine-themed song inspired by the ongoing events of the coronavirus pandemic. Recorded by Blake Shelton with his girlfriend Gwen Stefani, the feel-good song focuses on how it doesn't matter where you are as long as you're together with your sweetheart. "We've all been in quarantine and lockdown, and hopefully we've been doing that with somebody that we really love and enjoy being around," Shelton reflected. "That's what happened with Gwen and me this summer - and this entire year."
  • It appears one of the loved-up couples' happy places is in the recording studio. "Listening to it afterwards was a blast," Shelton said. "I had a moment where Gwen told me 'you know, there's something about this song that just makes you smile'. And it doesn't hurt that it has 'Happy' in the title."
  • Ross Copperman, Josh Osborne and Matt Jenkins penned the song. Copperman and Osborne are frequent co-writers for Shelton, with both contributing to his previous duet with Stefani, "Nobody But You." Matt Jenkins co-penned the Texoma Shore track "Got the T-Shirt."
  • Released on July 24, 2020, the self-isolation anthem marks the power couple's fourth collaboration together, following "Go Ahead and Break My Heart" (2016), "You Make It Feel Like Christmas" (2017), and "Nobody But You" (dropped by Shelton earlier in 2020). He said: "Even though Gwen and I just had a single out we decided that, under the circumstances, this year... man, there's never been a better time for 'Happy Anywhere.'"
  • Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber released a song with a similar theme during the pandemic. "Stuck With U" finds the pair cherishing being quarantined with their loved ones.
  • The music video is a montage of some of some of the locations and situations where Shelton and Stefani are happy being together. The clip, shot by the No Doubt frontwoman's younger brother Todd Stefani, is accompanied by home video of the country star making faces at the camera and blowing out the candles on his birthday cake.

    Todd Stefani is a video producer who was in quarantine with his sister and Shelton at the time in Oklahoma. Gwen Stefani employed him as a camera operator for her 2006 long-form concert video, Harajuku Lovers Live, which was recorded during a stop on the singer's 2005 Harajuku Lovers Tour. Todd Stefani also directed the video for "Baby Come Home" by Bush, the band fronted by his then brother-in-law Gavin Rossdale.
  • That's Ilya Toshinskiy playing the banjo. He's best known for his collaborative work with Dutch singer Waylon, including "Outlaw in 'Em," Netherlands entry in the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest.

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