"Can I Be Him" is a song performed by British singer and songwriter

James Arthur James Arthur (born 2 March 1988) is an English singer and songwriter. He rose to fame after winning the ninth series of ''The X Factor'' in 2012. His debut single, a cover of Shontelle's "Impossible", was released by Syco Music after the fin ...

. The song was released as a digital download on 15 April 2017 in the United Kingdom by

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 ...

as the third single from his second studio album, ''

Back from the Edge ''Back from the Edge'' is the second studio album by British singer and songwriter James Arthur. It was released on 28 October 2016 by Columbia Records. The album reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and was certified platinum—denoting 3 ...

'' (2016). The song became a moderate hit on a number of charts. As of 2021, it had sold 652,698 copies in the UK.

Music video

On 8 May 2017,

Vevo Vevo ( , an abbreviation for "Video Evolution", stylized as VEVO until 2013) is an American multinational video hosting service, best known for providing music videos to YouTube. The service is also available as an app on selected smart TVs, di ...

released the music video "Can I Be Him" on

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 ...

. It shows James Arthur performing the song in a moving subway

carriage A carriage is a private four-wheeled vehicle for people and is most commonly horse-drawn. Second-hand private carriages were common public transport, the equivalent of modern cars used as taxis. Carriage suspensions are by leather strapping an ...

. He also seems to have some distant

eye contact Eye contact occurs when two people look at each other's eyes at the same time. In humans, eye contact is a form of nonverbal communication and can have a large influence on social behavior. Coined in the early to mid-1960s, the term came from t ...

with two girls. The interior subway shots were mainly made in a ''DT3'' unit servicing the U3 line of the

Nuremberg U-Bahn The Nuremberg U-Bahn is a rapid transit system run by ''Verkehrs-Aktiengesellschaft Nürnberg'' (VAG; Nuremberg Transport Corporation), which itself is a member of the ''Verkehrsverbund Großraum Nürnberg'' (VGN; Greater Nuremberg Transport Netw ...

, Germany.

Track listing

Charts

Certifications

Release history

References

2016 songs 2017 singles James Arthur songs Songs written by James Arthur Columbia Records singles Song recordings produced by Red Triangle (production team) Songs written by Rick Parkhouse Songs written by George Tizzard Songs written by Negin Djafari {{2017-single-stub