Wrong Direction

Album: Half Written Story (2020)
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Songfacts®:

  • Here, Hailee Steinfeld reflects on a romance that took a "wrong direction."

    I don't hate you, no I couldn't if I wanted to.
    I just hate all the hurt that you put me through


    The relationship caused her emotional pain. Though at first "it felt like heaven," Hailee soon came to realize her lover was being unfaithful to her.

    Couldn't even see you through the smoke
    Lookin' back, I probably should have known
    But I just wanted to believe that you were out sleepin' alone
  • Fans were quick to connect the song title to Hailee's romance with One Direction star Niall Horan. The pair reportedly dated for about a year before breaking up at the end of 2018.
  • Hailee wrote the somber ballad with:

    Canadian singer-songwriter Lowell Bolan, who is best known for the song "Ride." A collaboration with Icona Pop, it featured in the 2016 film, Nerve.

    Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Skyler Stonestreet, who was the first unsigned artist to be on the cover of Rolling Stone. Her other songwriting credits include The Chainsmokers' "Kanye" and Dua Lipa's "IDGAF."

    Canadian producer Stephen "Koz" Kozmeniuk, whose other writing credits include Kendrick Lamar's "The Blacker the Berry," Mark Ronson's "Late Night Feelings" and Hailee Steinfeld's "Afterlife." Koz also produced "Wrong Direction."
  • When asked about the song in an interview with Zane Lowe, Hailee said she had written it during a low point in her life. The singer/actress now recognized she had "spent over a year falling in a direction so far from who I was."

    Hailee added that she's learned "how easy it is to fall in love with the idea of falling in love and more importantly how hard it can be to accept the reality of losing yourself in someone else's version of the word."
  • Directed by Alexandre Moors (Miley Cyrus, Kendrick Lamar), the vulnerable video finds Steinfeld delivering an emotional performance. The raw clip shows the singer close-up, sitting in a bathtub with tears streaming from her eyes as she reflects on how her relationship went in the wrong direction.

Comments: 1

  • Neel from MumbaiNot single release only. Part of the EP Half Written Story.
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