By Maricruz Villalobos
Welcome back to Behind the lyrics! My name is Maricruz Villalobos and I ask artists to breakdown their songwriting process and share their inspirations behind the song
For today’s episode I invited 24 year old singer/songwriter Amber Wilson to help us dive into her song "Don’t Forget I’m Human." After receiving heart warming messages from several fans, she wanted to write a song that reminded her audience that she’s still a person. Wilson expresses that “regardless of what her platform looks like she’s still the same Amber who geeks out over Harry Styles just like everybody else does.”
I’m nervous and unprepared
Your eyes turn to look and stare
I wonder what you expect of me
You cheer when I’m at my best
And never when I’m a mess
I wonder what you expect of me
The first verse is pretty self explanatory! It's just the idea of me realizing what has just happened... by what meaning when I hit the 10,000 followers on Tik Tok! That moment, I just very vividly remembered just being like, "Things are starting to be different and become different and honestly are different." There's a fear that comes with the unknown, like it could blow up for the best or honestly it could flop. I'm not really sure what that looks like. The line that talks about, "You cheer when I'm at my best. Never a mess." is a little acknowledgment to things like cancel culture. People love to be there for us when we are at our best, when we are living the highlife. But never when we're down or when things are not looking so great. Or things don't always look like a highlight reel. Another layer of fear that comes with that is, can I get away with showing all the parts of my life? Or will I only be accepted for just the nice parts of my life? I don't want to sacrifice myself because people only want to see the nice parts of me and not the other parts of me too.
Don’t put me on a pedestal
I’m not always acceptable
You don’t know past what you see
I promise that you don’t know me
When you think about people that have a very strong social presence, or just are very big household names, it's very easy to elevate them into a position that sometimes is bigger than themselves even. I think it's pretty self explanatory. Like for me, if it does get to that point and I do get the opportunity to have a platform... don't put me on a pedestal. I'm human and I'm not always perfect. I don't always do things well, and I'm still learning and growing every day. Just like anyone else, you know? I also think about the song that Shawn Mendes and Justin Bieber released a long time ago called "Monster" where they talk about the same thing. Don't forget that human, and I'm going to fall short. I'm going to make mistakes, and I'm not always going to have it together.
Don’t forget I’m human
Don’t fall in love with you think I am
Don’t forget I’m human
Don’t forget
Don't fall in love with who you think I am or what you see on the internet! The internet isn't an accurate portrayal of what life looks like. It's literally just handpicked, selected, curated, highlighted moments of our lives that only show the best part. It doesn't always show the parts that are not cookie cutter and are not clean. It sometimes gets hidden and tucked away under the carpet. So again, just that reminder of like, "I may look cool, but I have things behind the scenes that happen too! That I don't share!"
I’m still who I was back then
I don’t think you understand
I’m doing the very best I can
Just like on thе internet
You want me to bе perfect
I’m doing the very best I can
I do fear things a little bit like cancel culture. I find myself having to watch what I say, post, or contribute to society because I'm definitely very hyper aware that once you say something...you can't take it back. Words are very powerful and have the power to bring life or destruction. Having this insurgence of internet by which we are all consuming social media at a crazy crazy rate, feels like there's just a high demand to put out more content and songs. I definitely find myself overwhelmed with the idea that there may be a point where I might not be able to keep up and put in 100%. Sometimes I just need people to just understand that I'm just doing my best and your best looks different every day.
Don’t put me on a pedestal
I’m not always acceptable
You don’t know past what you see
I promise that you don’t know me
The moment you start to idolize someone to the point where you forget that they are flawed, and that they do make mistakes, kind of ruins it because you set yourself up for heartbreak and disappointment. So I guess in a way, it's just like a roundabout way of me telling the listener, "Hey, I'm human. So don't get your hopes up! Because I might disappoint you!" And, yeah! That's my song "Don't Forget I'm Human." She's special. She's cool. She's vibrant. Give her a listen! Cool.
Listen to the episode!
You can reach Maricruz Villalobos at maricruv@uci.edu !
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