Songfacts®:

• In the midst of recording Love Is Magic, Grant's relationship with his Icelandic graphic designer boyfriend came to an end. However, the singer told Uncut that this person remains hugely important to him. "I've been able to let go of them to a large extent and still be friends, which feels great," he said. "I wrote the lyrics to 'Is He Strange' standing at the mike and then sort of broke down a little bit when I was trying to sing it for the first time. Because it felt so accurate."
• "Is He Strange" is not only a total love song, but it's also about loving yourself. Grant explained to Billboard:
  
  "It's very painful to know that somebody has chosen to not love you anymore or to get out of a relationship with you because, um, because of certain character traits you have or certain baggage that you have, they can no longer deal with or don't feel like they can deal with.
  
  You can't take the whole thing on yourself and keep totally blaming yourself for failure and relationships. It's about forgiving yourself as much as continuing to love the other person. In this particular case, I learned that, that I was capable of doing that and that you don't have to punish the other person for not loving you."
• The song was inspired by Grant finding he was able to still love his ex while letting go of them. "That is something that I didn't think I would be able to do," he told The Independent. "Because I didn't want to break up with them. It was them breaking up with me, because of not being able to deal with my deep depression coming back from tours, and me imposing schedules on myself that made it impossible to really be there for that person."