Life Goes On

Album: Double Dutchess (2016)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Here, Fergie sings about pushing through adversity when the going gets tough.

    Life goes on with or without you
    It's up to you what you're gonna do
    You could go or you could stay
    Who cares anyway?
    Life goes on with or without you


    She explained the song's meaning to Radio.com: "It's just a little bit of my frustration about a little inner conversation, a little subconscious versus conscious voice. It's that battle with yourself and pushing through negativity and all that noise and just kind of getting past the fear and all that darkness. It's all, who cares about that anyway, man? It just doesn't even matter. Really, it's just, you know what? Be the change you wanna see."
  • Fergie co-wrote the song with Toby Gad, with whom she also did "Big Girls Don't Cry." His other credits include Beyoncé's "If I Were a Boy" and Selena Gomez & the Scenes's "A Year Without Rain." She told Radio.com about collaborating with the Los Angeles-based German music producer/songwriter:

    "He's one of those guys that he's very soft-spoken. He's like, 'Fergie, what's going on in your life? Tell me what's going on.' I just feel safe with him to kinda just dump everything that I'm going through. He's just one of those people in my life for me.

    And it's like a therapy session when I go to him. I'm not going to him and going, "Let's write 'M.I.L.F. $' or 'Fergalicious' or something like that. He's one I feel totally safe with just going to that deeper level of vulnerability and emotion and just kind of letting my guard down and letting my journals just create a song, follow through and create a song.

    He gets on piano, or he'll get on guitar, and it's just really organic. He'll say, 'I like the melody,' and he'll keep going, and we'll pick, and I'll just kind of go and vamp, and we'll listen back and pick the pieces that we like, kind of put something together, and the subject kind of just reveals itself."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

James Bond Theme Songs

James Bond Theme SongsMusic Quiz

How well do you know the 007 theme songs?

Dexys (Kevin Rowland and Jim Paterson)

Dexys (Kevin Rowland and Jim Paterson)Songwriter Interviews

"Come On Eileen" was a colossal '80s hit, but the band - far more appreciated in their native UK than stateside - released just three albums before their split. Now, Dexys is back.

Director Wes Edwards ("Drunk on a Plane")

Director Wes Edwards ("Drunk on a Plane")Song Writing

Wes Edwards takes us behind the scenes of videos he shot for Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley and Chase Bryant. The train was real - the airplane was not.

Metallica

MetallicaFact or Fiction

Beef with Bon Jovi? An unfortunate Spandex period? See if you can spot the true stories in this Metallica version of Fact or Fiction.

Director Paul Rachman on "Hunger Strike," "Man in the Box," Kiss

Director Paul Rachman on "Hunger Strike," "Man in the Box," KissSong Writing

After cutting his teeth on hardcore punk videos, Paul defined the grunge look with his work on "Hunger Strike" and "Man in the Box."

Spooner Oldham

Spooner OldhamSongwriter Interviews

His keyboard work helped define the Muscle Shoals sound and make him an integral part of many Neil Young recordings. Spooner is also an accomplished songwriter, whose hits include "I'm Your Puppet" and "Cry Like A Baby."