"Get Down" is a song recorded 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 fi ...

. It was released on 3 March 2014 as the fourth and final single from his self-titled 2013 debut studio album, ''

''.

Background

Originally, the backing track for the song "Get Down" belonged to Mutya Keisha Siobhan, formed by the original

Sugababes Sugababes are a British girl group composed of Mutya Buena, Keisha Buchanan and Siobhán Donaghy. The lineup changed three times before returning to the original lineup in 2011. Formed in 1998 by All Saints manager Ron Tom, Sugababes releas ...

members

Mutya Buena Rosa Isabel Mutya Buena (born 21 May 1985) is an English singer and songwriter who rose to fame as a member of girl group the Sugababes. With the Sugababes, Buena had four UK number one singles, an additional six top-ten hits and three multi-p ...

Keisha Buchanan Keisha Kerreece Fayeanne Buchanan (; born 30 September 1984) is an English singer and a founding member of the girl group Sugababes alongside Mutya Buena and Siobhán Donaghy. With the Sugababes, she had six number one singles and two number ...

and

Siobhán Donaghy Siobhán Emma Donaghy (born 14 June 1984) is an English-Irish singer and songwriter. She is best known as a founding member of the girl group Sugababes. Donaghy left the Sugababes in 2001 and released her debut solo album, '' Revolution in Me'', ...

. The song was called "Too In Love" and was not released. The instrumental was used in a song they were recording for the album '' The Sacred Three''. The arrangement was later used by Arthur for "Get Down". The MKS track was leaked on 25 December 2016, three years after Arthur's song. On 14 January 2014, Arthur confirmed on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

that "Get Down" would be the fourth single to be released from his debut album. The track premiered online on 20 January 2014. Prior to the release of "Get Down", Arthur had generated much controversy in November 2013, over the use of

homophobic Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred or antipathy, m ...

lyrics in a song. Micky Worthless, a

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

battle rap Battle rap (also known as rap battling)Edwards, Paul, 2009, p. 25. is a type of rapping performed between two or more performers that incorporates boasts, insults and wordplay. Battle rap is often performed or freestyled spontaneously in live ...

per, had issued "Stay in Your Lane", a track mocking Arthur, because Worthless did not feel it was right that Arthur was presenting himself as a battle rapper on national radio. Arthur had responded to Worthless with his vitriolic

diss track A diss track, diss record or diss song (diss – abbr. from ''disrespect'') is a song whose primary purpose is to verbally attack someone else, usually another artist. Diss tracks are often the result of an existing, escalating feud between the ...

"Hey Mickey" issuing string of slurs directed at Worthless, rapping "Hilarious, precarious you

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, jihadist, and Pasht ...

i confused, imbellic mimic of a gimmick" adding the homophobic slur "You fucking queer". This sparked outrage among the LGBT community and led to Twitter spats with comedians

Frankie Boyle Francis Martin Patrick Boyle (born 16 August 1972) is a Scottish comedian and writer. He is known for his cynical, surreal, graphic and often controversial sense of humour. A stand-up comedian since 1995, Boyle first gained widespread recogni ...

and

Matt Lucas Matthew Richard Lucas (born 5 March 1974) is an English actor, comedian, writer, and television presenter. He is best known for his work with David Walliams on the BBC sketch comedy series ''Little Britain'' (2003–2006, 2020) and '' Come Fl ...

, and singer

Lucy Spraggan Lucy Honour Ruby Spraggan (born 21 July 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. She auditioned for ''The X Factor'' in 2012, performing her own composition, " Last Night". On 3 November 2012, it was announced she would be quitting her run on ''T ...

. Arthur immediately apologised for his comments and claimed that he was not homophobic. Following this, he announced that he would not be posting on Twitter anymore, with his management taking up control of his page. The backlash continued, however, with a

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

campaign to see his upcoming appearance on ''

The X Factor ''The X Factor'' is a television music competition franchise created by British producer Simon Cowell and his company Syco Entertainment. It originated in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for '' Pop Idol'' (2001–2003 ...

'' be cancelled. Many radio stations were reluctant to play the song "Get Down" due to controversy over Arthur. Several stations even blacklisted the song. This led to very weak sales for the single "Get Down". In defense of Arthur, an online petition was launched on the website

Change.org Change.org is a worldwide nonprofit petition website, based in California, US, operated by the San Francisco-based company of the same name, which has over 400 million users and offers the public the ability to promote the petitions they care abo ...

in a bid to get Arthur some airplay. The petition stated that Arthur is "a talented singer who needs to be heard" and urged

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

to play "Get Down". The petition was signed by over 830 people. The single only made it to number 96 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 ...

. iTunes offered refunds for Arthur's debut album ''James Arthur'' due to complaints from customers. Arthur performed it live in an acoustic session and published it on 5 November 2013 in his own

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and 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 Google, and is the second mo ...

channel titled "Get Down (Acoustic)". He also performed it live in a duo with contestant Shem Thomas during '' The Voice of Switzerland'' in 2014. Arthur has included the song in his later concerts despite the single not making much impact when released.

Music video

The audio track was uploaded to YouTube on 20 January 2014. The official music video premiered on 3 March 2014, the same day as the single's release.

Track listing

*CD single #"Get Down" – 3:46 #"Get Down" (Live) – 5:47 *Digital remixes EP #"Get Down" (Live) – 5:47 #"Get Down" (Smooth Remix) – 4:58 #"Get Down" (D-Wayne Remix) – 6:45 #"Get Down" (Taiki & Nulight Remix) – 5:05 #"Get Down" (Sharoque Remix) – 3:54

Charts

Release history

John River version

In 2015, the song was sampled by Canadian rapper John River, under the same title "Get Down", but with altered rap lyrics and verses, keeping the main music sequences including samples from the original. The song was planned to appear on the mixtape ''The Storm'', River's follow up to his debut mixtape ''The Calm''. The track was advertised as the "third installment" off the upcoming mixtape, but ultimately didn't make the final cut. A music video for River's version was shot in Mississauga,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada and was directed by Abstrakte and produced by MadRuk Ent. It premiered on River's official YouTube channel on 23 June 2015. River's version of the track was featured prominently in the second season of the popular

web series A web series (also known as a web show) is a series of scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet, which first emerged in the late 1990s and became more prominent in the early 2000s. A single in ...

Teenagers Adolescence () is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with the t ...

''.

External links

Vimeo: James Arthur - Get Down - Official music videoJames Arthur YouTube channel - "Get Down (Acousic)

References

{{authority control 2014 singles 2013 songs James Arthur songs Syco Music singles Songs written by Wayne Hector Songs written by James Arthur Songs written by Mustafa Omer Songs written by Jonny Coffer Songs written by Ronald Bell (musician)