If U Stayed

Album: The Storm (2017)
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Songfacts®:

  • In this song, ZZ Ward has learned that her ex is getting married, which brings on a flood of feelings. She starts to wonder what would have happened if they stayed together; if the life he is making with his new bride could have been hers.

    "I'm really proud of that song because I really captured a feeling and an emotion in that," Ward said in a Songfacts interview. "It was a real experience that I was going through where I had moved on from this person I was with, and I had a glimpse of them at their new life. And I started to second guess everything that had happened for that moment.

    I knew at that moment that I wanted to write about it and capture a real emotion because that's what it's all about for me. I grew up listening to a lot of blues, a lot of really authentic music where you can feel somebody's pain. So, if I ever have a moment like that, I try to capture it. I wrote that song really, really quickly because I was expressing what was on the edge of my chest."

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