“Heartbeat” by James Arthur
James Arthur recently welcomed his first child into the world, with the singer concurrently being 34 years old as of the release of this song (“Heartbeat”). Such is a momentous occasion of course, but it was made more so in his case due to the fact that his significant other suffered a miscarriage in 2021 – an unfortunate event which, by the looks of things, is pretty well-known to his fandom.
And in fact Arthur proceeded to give this new child the same name he intended to grant the first one, that being Emily.
And the reason we’re pointing that out is because it can be taken that those related sentiments also made their way into the lyrics of “Heartbeat”. In other words, the addressee is the vocalist’s newborn child. And where it can be said that any normal father would be happy to bring a healthy new life into the world, James comes off as if he is ultra-appreciative.
More accurately, this song was obviously written before Emily was born. And what it centers on, most easily explained, is her dad looking forward to loving her throughout his entire life. Or as James puts it, she shares ‘his blood’ and even ‘his heartbeat’. So the most basic implication is that the vocalist is someone who takes the responsibility of having actually fathered a child very seriously.
And honestly, such an expression is kinda common as far as popular musicians go. But nevertheless, it is kinda rare and precious to come across a piece where such an idea serves as a thesis sentiment and furthermore is being relayed from a father to his daughter, not in an aggressive or defensive sort of way but rather in terms of him looking forward to being a loving part of her life.
Release of “Heartbeat”
James Arthur has had a mildly-active 2022, i.e. “Heartbeat”, which came out on December 2nd, being his third single of this year. But to note, James dropped another song on the same day entitled “Lose You”, a collaboration with Afrojack.
“Heartbeat” is a product of Columbia Records, and at the time of its issuance, the track wasn’t really connected to any James Arthur album.
Credits
The writers of this piece, besides for the vocalist, are Steve Solomon and Daniel Bingham. And Bingham also produced the song with Randy Merrill and Alex Beitzke.
This song is damn wonderful