Songfacts®:

• Here, Charli XCX sings about a lover who comes and goes just as he pleases. He's about to catch a flight when she asks him to stay with her for just an hour or two more. So desperate is Charli that he doesn't leave now, she's prepared to beg for him to stay by her side.
• Anglo-Japanese singer-songwriter Rina Sawayama joins Charli on the song. She too is obsessed with her man and misses him badly when he's not beside her in bed.
• This is the second song Charli XCX recorded with Rina Sawayama. The first, a ballad they laid down for her 2019 self-titled album, got scrapped after XCX cut the tracks from 20 to 15.
• The post chorus interpolates Swedish singer September's 2006 dance-floor filler "Cry For You." "I love the original and I feel like it's something that my fans really connected with as well that kind of like Euro dance pop thing," Charli told BBC Radio 1's Clara Amfo.
• Charli XCX and Rina Sawayama wrote the song with:
  
  The track's producer, Nick Gale (a.k.a. Digital Farm Animals). His other credits include Galantis' "No Money," Dua Lipa's "Be The One," and KSI's "Holiday." Gale also provided all the instrumentation (synthesizer, percussion, keyboards).
  
  Alex Soifer (Lil Yachty's "Mamicita," Ally Brooke's "No Good").
  
  Rollo (Noah Cyrus' "Young And Sad" and "Lonely").
  
  Sorana (The Chainsmokers & Illenium's "Takeaway," Galantis' "Heartbreak Anthem"). Sorona also supplied additional background vocals.
  
  Jonas von der Burg, Anoo Bhagavan, Niclas von der Burg, the writers of "Cry For You," also get credited.
• The rousing song came about when Sorana, Rollo and Alex Soifer sent Charli a rough sketch of the chorus for "Beg For You."
  
  "I remember I was driving in the car listening to it when I was in LA and I was just it was making me feel extremely nostalgic," she recalled to Clara Amfo.
  
  Then XCX had a brainwave. She sent the demo to Sawayama as she felt it was "seriously Rina." When the British-Japanese singer sent back her vocals, XCX knew she'd made the right choice.
• Sawayama's verse features XCX's favorite line in the whole song:
  
  Separated by a degree
  Hesitate, gonna lose you, so far out of reach
  
  "I just love the switch of the rhythm in that line," Charli said to Entertainment Weekly of the lyric. "It's more a tonal, phonetic thing than the actual lyric. I find that that rhythm is really catchy."
• Charli XCX released a remix featuring SEVENTEEN's Vernon. The K-pop idol is a longtime fan of Charli and frequently includes the English singer's music in his playlists.
• Charli XCX sang the song on the March 5, 2022 episode of Saturday Night Live, performing it without Rina Sawayama. It was the pop star's second appearance on the comedy show, following her 2014 debut.