Songfacts®:

• "I'm Getting Ready" was British soul musician Michael Kiwanuka's debut single. It was released in the United Kingdom as a digital download on July 24, 2011. He explained the song's meaning to This Is Fake DIY: "I have a real problem of sticking things out. With anything, if you do it for so long then it will inevitably start getting difficult, and it was getting frustrating constantly giving up on things, whether it be university or playing guitar for people. So 'I'm Getting Ready' is about keeping on going, building on things and not dropping everything instantaneously."
• After releasing this single, Kiwanuka landed a gig opening for Adele and won the BBC Sound Of 2012 poll. By the time he released his debut album, Home Again, he was well known in the UK. Despite the accolades and the accomplishments, he was riddled with self-doubt when it came time to make his follow-up album. With help from the producers Inflo and Danger Mouse, he was able to work through it. When the album, Love & Hate, was finally released in 2016, it went to #1 in the UK.
• Michael Kiwanuka wrote "I'm Getting Ready" as a reflection of his Christian faith, but he was hesitant to share it with his label. Running low on material for his debut album, he reluctantly included the track and was taken aback when they suggested releasing it as a single.
  
  "I was very, very nervous. I thought: how's this going to get on Radio 1?" he told The Guardian in 2024. "You still think you're in year nine, getting laughed at. Singing about my faith and beliefs was scary because if someone disagrees, it'll be hard. I want to be cool, I want to fit in."
  
  Kiwanuka's anxiety was magnified by Christianity's complicated history. "It hasn't always acted in the best way towards people. You don't want to bring up any of that pain, or make people feel like you agree with any of that," he explained. "But as I got older, you realize - you are who you are. If you know you're not hurting people and there's no malice in it, it's OK."