"American Boy" is about one of Estelle's previous relationships with, you guessed it, an American boy. She told Giantmag: "It's based off my ex, ex-boyfriend. I met him during the first album and he got me pretty excited about American boys (laughs)."
Estelle is British but spent time in America recording her 2004 debut album, The 18th Day.
Kanye West features on this track. He was there when Estelle met John Legend, who signed her to his HomeSchool Records and released "American Boy" on her second album, Shine, which he executive produced.
Legend was signed to West's GOOD Music label and released his debut album in 2004. They were eating at Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles in Los Angeles when Estelle came in and saw them. She told the story to Giantmag:
"I was in LA in this little crap session with a producer who was trying to jerk me and I didn't want to take part in the session anymore. So I went to get some food. I walked in there and I was like, 'That looks like Kanye West,' so I said, 'thank you, Jesus' (laughs). I was a big fan of his and John Legend, because I had heard his voice and it was amazing and I wanted to work with him. So I was speaking to this guy with Kanye for a long time, and this is before I realized it was him [John Legend]. So while talking to Kanye I asked him about John Legend because I wanted to meet him and Kanye was like 'he's right there.' So I was like oh, okay. He was cool about it though and we exchanged info and kept in touch over the years. He actually helped me write a few tracks on [her debut album] The 18th Day. When he'd come to the UK and Europe we'd do work and when I came over here [the US] he'd help too."
"American Boy" was produced by will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas, who was doing a lot of work with Kanye West and John Legend around this time. A number of critics noticed that the song uses the same beat as will.i.am's "Impatient" from his 2007 Songs About Girls album. Estelle told Giantmag.com what happened: "He played me the beat and before the track ['Impatient'] came out I had already recorded 'American Boy' with him. But when he played the beat for me, I was like I love it and I want to use it. But, I heard his track and I was like didn't you play that track for me? But, I think it was just one of those things were his album came out first and our lines got crossed up. But I'm not hating; there's no beef or anything like that. It worked out for both of us so I'm not mad."
"American Boy" was by far the biggest hit for Estelle, and her only song to make much impact in America. It went to #1 in her native UK on March 23, 2008, a day before the single's physical release.
Estelle had a few minor hits in the UK leading up to it on her debut album,
The 18th Day, including "
1980" and "Free."
"American Boy" was really popular at the same time another young British singer with a similar name emerged: Adele, which got a little confusing. Estelle, though, didn't have any more big hits.
On the UK Top 75 singles chart announced on March 30th 2008, Kanye West achieved the unusual feat of being involved with both the #1 song ("American Boy") and the one at #75 (his song "
Stronger").
West was red-hot at the time, with huge albums in 2007 (
Graduation) and 2008 (
808s & Heartbreak).
Estelle told the Daily Record that one of the inspirations behind this song was 1980s English comedienne Su Pollard from the BBC sitcom Hi-De-Hi!'. She said, "The whole point was that I would sing it in the most ditzy voice ever."
Estelle (from the Daily Mail April 4, 2008): "There are too many man-bashing songs, so it was nice to have one with the opposing view. We were also trying to get John Legend into house music."
Estelle has admitted that when she was dancing with Kanye West in the song's video, all she could think about was whether she'd cleaned her ears. She told RealMusic Blog: "He was looking right in my ear and I was worried he'd go and tell his mates that I had dirty ears. I mean, what if I had one piece of errant wax... But I didn't ask him - I just went away with my obsession, told my friends and they laughed at me."
Estelle told the Mail On Sunday July 13, 2008 that originally she "didn't think that song was right for me at first, but now I've got a song I can sing for the rest of my life."
In the same Mail On Sunday interview Estelle explained the hand dance she does in the video: "I was just messing around with that - it's something daft I used to do with my sisters. Now all these girls in clubs are doing it."
When Estelle's record label, Warners, noticed that most iTunes customers were downloading this song but not bothering with anything else on the album, they pulled Shine off iTunes in the US. Estelle's record company hoped that all those people who still wanted to buy the track would purchase the full album but instead the British singer's US sales figures plummeted. Even worse, a cover version of "American Boy" by a soundalike act called Studio All-Stars raced up the iTunes download charts in Estelle's absence. As soon as Warners put Shine back up on the US iTunes store both this song and the album jumped back up the charts, as a result of accumulated demand during the period of unavailability.
This topped the charts in Belgium and Israel, as well as in Estelle's native UK.
This won the Best Single Award at the 2008 Mobo Awards. Estelle also won the prize for Best UK Female at the same ceremony. In her acceptance speech, the British singer said she gave all the prizes she wins to her mother, who "puts them on the shelf."
