Big White Room

Album: Who You Are (2011)
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Songfacts®:

  • Jessie spent time in London's Great Ormond Street Hospital at the age of eleven being treated for an irregular heartbeat. Inspired by a sad incident during her stay there, seven years later she wrote her first ever song, which later found its way onto Who You Are. She recalled in an interview with The Independent December 10, 2010 waking up in the middle of the night to see a little boy in an adjacent bed praying, and her mother explaining that he was having an operation the next day and was asking God to save him. Jessie continued: "He died the next day so I said to my mum 'but God didn't save him'. I was so angry and it really confused me. I always wanted to write a song about the experience, but I knew I had to be of an age where it wasn't tacky or depressing and had a lightness to it."
  • The version that appears on Who You Are is a live recording. Jessie explained to The Sun: "We recorded and reproduced it so many times but for some reason it never felt right, like it was missing something. I think the live recording at Scala in London with Ben on guitar was perfect. It joins ties together all the pieces in my journey."

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