"Blame It on Me" is a song by British singer-songwriter

George Ezra George Ezra Barnett (born 7 June 1993) is an English singer, songwriter and guitarist. After releasing two EPs, '' Did You Hear the Rain?'' (2013) and '' Cassy O (2014), Ezra rose to prominence with the release of his hit single, "Budapest", ...

. It was released as the fourth single from his debut studio album, ''

Wanted on Voyage ''Wanted on Voyage'' is the debut studio album by British singer-songwriter George Ezra. It was released on 30 June 2014. It released in the United States on 27 January 2015. It was produced by Cam Blackwood at Voltaire Road Studios, Clapham, Lo ...

'' (2014). The song was released in the United Kingdom as a digital download on 11 August 2014 through

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

. It debuted at number 6 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

, marking Ezra's second consecutive top 10 hit.

Background

Ezra explained the song to ''

InStyle ''InStyle'' was an American monthly women's fashion magazine founded in 1994. It was published in the United States by Dotdash Meredith. In February 2022, it was announced that InStyle would cease print publications and move to a digital-only ...

''. "I wrote it when I was 18 and had just moved to

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

. I was saddled with student loans, and I realised there were so many opportunities to play music, so unless I got busy, I could only blame myself."

Music video

An official lyric video to accompany the release of "Blame It on Me" was issued on 20 June 2014, with Ezra holding an old-fashioned TV with the lyrics appearing on it; at the same time, he is sitting on the seat of a dunk tank while several tennis balls are thrown towards it from off-screen. At the end of the

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

, a ball hits the button and Ezra falls into the water. He then holds the TV above his head for a while, whilst his face is barely visible. As the song ends, tennis balls are thrown towards the TV, which finally falls out of Ezra's hands and into the water. The video then ends with him laughing. The official music video was directed by Rob Brandon. It was first released onto

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

on 12 August 2014 at a total length of three minutes and forty-four seconds. The video begins with a

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

pickup full of criminals driving past Ezra, who is carrying his guitar in its case, and a Japanese man. The man asks Ezra in Japanese "Are you sure you want to follow the

yellow brick road The yellow brick road is a fictional element in the 1900 children's novel ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' by American author L. Frank Baum. The road also appears in the several sequel Oz books such as ''The Marvelous Land of Oz'' (1904) and ''The ...

?" and then walks away without Ezra giving a response. The rest of the video features Ezra having a very bad day, including his guitar case blowing open and the instrument falling out into the road before being run over by a police car; getting tackled by a

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

team; hit with a sucker dart fired from a toy pistol by a child, defecated on by a bird and winding up in the middle of a gunfight between police officers and the aforementioned criminals. As some signs from the industrial estate featuring on the video reveal, the video was shot in the Bellvitge area of

L'Hospitalet de Llobregat L'Hospitalet de Llobregat (; es, Hospitalet de Llobregat), often shortened to L'Hospitalet or just L'H, is a municipality of Spain, located to the immediate southwest of Barcelona, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. It is part of the Bar ...

near

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

and in the

Poblenou El Poblenou (; ) is an extensive neighborhood of Barcelona ( Sant Martí district) that borders the Mediterranean Sea to the south, Sant Adrià del Besòs to the east, Parc de la Ciutadella in Ciutat Vella to the west, and Sant Andreu to the nort ...

district of the

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

capital. The video has over 66 million views as of August 2022.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{authority control 2014 singles 2014 songs George Ezra songs Columbia Records singles Songs written by Joel Pott Songs written by George Ezra Song recordings produced by Cam Blackwood