Songfacts®:

• "Leash" is a synth-laden pop song with hazy production and dark, kinky lyrics. Sky Ferreira created the track for the erotic thriller Babygirl starring Nicole Kidman.
• In mid-2024, Dutch filmmaker Halina Reijn was editing Babygirl and contacted Ferreira asking her to contribute to the soundtrack of the film. Reijn felt that Ferreira's style coincided with the theme of the movie.
  
  "I was on tour in Australia playing the Sydney Opera House and got an email from Halina and the music coordinator Meghan [Currier] while they were still editing the film," Ferreira told Vogue. "The film had only wrapped a few months prior, so they showed me a very early cut. I've always wanted to make music for films, so I really went for it even though I wasn't expecting to get the job. I assumed that there were probably a hundred artists submitting songs, so I tried not to get my hopes up."
  
  Modesty, perhaps, but clearly misplaced, as Ferreira's effort triumphed.
• The song draws its inspiration from Kidman's character, a destructive whirlwind of self-sabotage who wreaks havoc on her own life and the lives of those around her only to emerge more evolved.
  
  "I think that's why I connected to the material so much," Ferreira explained. "Even though my own circumstances are wildly different, I could relate to that sense of upheaval."
• After the first chorus, Sky Ferreira counts down from five to one like Janet Jackson in "Rhythm Nation." When Billboard asked her about the countdown, she explained:
  
  "The pop music I gravitate toward is rooted in the '80s and '90s. That's just where my mind naturally goes. I'm a huge fan of Madonna and Janet Jackson. I didn't intentionally try to channel Janet, but after recording it, I thought, 'Oh, doesn't she count a lot in her songs?'"
  
  Ferreira also revealed a playful nod to Nicole Kidman in the concept. "Initially, I wanted to incorporate distorted clips from Eyes Wide Shut and turn them into an instrumental layer, but I realized using actual audio could cause legal issues. So, it's my voice doing the countdown. I spent about 30 minutes trying to imitate Nicole Kidman, and honestly, I got pretty close! It was funny hearing myself sound more 'womanly' and less like a West Side LA girl."
• And then there was the deadline - an anxiety-inducing two and a half weeks to write, produce, and polish the track in time for the film's Venice Film Festival premiere. For a self-professed perfectionist who admits, "It takes me forever to do anything," this was akin to cramming for finals after skipping half the semester. Yet, somehow, Ferreira pulled it off, producing the track alongside her longtime collaborator, Jorge Elbrecht. She marveled at the feat, saying, "I've never worked so much in my life - well, maybe I have, but never under such a time crunch."
• Released on December 5, 2024, "Leash" was Ferreira's first new song since leaving Capitol Records in late 2023, a move she described as freeing but rife with frustrations over years of creative blockades. "They kept me from putting out new music for 10 years as a way of making me look like I'm incapable of it," she told Vogue.
  
  "It feels liberating, but I'm honestly still angry about the situation," Ferreira added talking about how she was dropped from the label that signed her when she was 15. "It's kinda like when someone gets out of prison and they don't know what to do with themselves."
• Ferreira views "Leash" as a conflation of the film's themes and her own experiences in the music industry, describing the release as liberating yet still tinged with anger over her past situation.