Don't Leave
by Snakehips (featuring )

Album: Single release only (2017)
Charted: 27
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Songfacts®:

  • Released on January 6, 2017, this song marks the first time that British duo Snakehips' have worked with with Danish pop singer MØ. The collaboration started when Snakehips' Oliver Lee and James Carter sent a scratch demo of the song to MØ when she was touring. She recalled in a NME video:

    "I remember when I got the first kind of draft, I guess. I was on tour and I was in my bunk and I was drunk. We had just played a show in Slovakia or something like that, and I heard the draft and I was just feeling it so hard and I was texting the people back: 'We need to get on this one like so much.'"
  • Snakehips worked further on the track with British singer-songwriter Joe Janiak (Ellie Goulding's "Beating Heart," Britney Spears' "Make Me") and RAYE (aka Rachel Keen), who featured on hit singles by Jonas Blue' ("By Your Side") and Jax Jones ("You Don't Know Me.") Oliver Lee recalled:

    "We kind of wrote it with an old buddy of ours called Joe and this girl Rae, as well. And, I mean, we didn't write the lyrics but it's kind of like a relationship type thing. Yeah, it was kind of cool to do something different, it was kind of a different sound for us a little bit, and it was just cool to get the new vibe going."
  • The Snakehips duo continued to send MØ their work in progress. The Danish songstress was especially taken in by the lyrics in which she pleads to her lover not to end their relationship, as what they have is special. MØ explained: "It's just really playing out the love story. I remember, again, when I heard the song for the first time, I was so striked by the lyrics because I felt like I've lived that story."

    Finally, when the song was ready, MØ recorded her vocals in James Carter's kitchen.
  • The music video was directed by Malia James, whose other credits include the clips for Troye Sivian's "Youth" and Hailee Steinfeld's "Rock Bottom." Said MØ: "I feel we tried with the video to just really make the raw emotion of the song and the lyrics come through."

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