Just Perfect

Album: Bridget Jones's Diary soundtrack (2001)
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Songfacts®:

  • Written for the Bridget Jones's Diary soundtrack, this is a song of self-acceptance, understanding that one way or another, everything will all work out - you're just perfect the way you are.

    It was written and performed by Tracy Bonham, best known for her 1996 hit "Mother Mother." With strings and a full soundscape, it's very cinematic, in line with her training as a classical violinist. The song is on the soundtrack but doesn't appear in the film.
  • In a 2022 Songfacts interview with Tracy Bonham, she told the story behind this song. "It was specifically for the movie," she said. "My product manager asked me to write a song for Bridget Jones's Diary. I'd probably gotten the script, and I wrote a song that was lyric-driven. It was unlike anything I'd written. I was a little nervous about it because it seemed a little more mainstream than what I had wanted to portray. I wanted to be an edgy artist.

    We went into a studio and recorded that as a one-off. Now, I love it because I'm not so precious, but back then I was still trying to be cool. I was still trying to shoegaze and sound like I'm not trying too hard. But that song now I'm really proud of. It's got a very Beatle-esque vibe. It's got kind of a James Bond vibe and I love the lyrics because now that I'm not so precious anymore I can really get behind those lyrics and feel really confident about that as a song and my songwriting. I'm really proud of that message."
  • Most of Bonham's songs are very personal, expressing whatever emotion has come to the surface. For this song, she had the Bridget Jones character in mind, but put herself into it as well. "You can blur those edges," she told Songfacts. "You can think that you're writing about someone else but it's really about you."

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