"Runaway" is the second official single by

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

MC and rapper,

Devlin Devlin may refer to: * Devlin (surname) * Devlin (given name) * Devlin (rapper), a British rapper * ''Devlin'' (TV series), a 1974 animated TV series by Hanna-Barbera * ''Devlin'', a 1988 novel by Roderick Thorp * ''The Devil and Max Devlin '' ...

which features DJ Yasmin (credited as Yasmin). The single was released in October 2010 for digital download.

Background

The song premiered on 28 August 2010 on

MistaJam Peter Dalton (born 19 January 1983), known professionally as MistaJam, is a British DJ and radio presenter. He is known for presenting radio shows on BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1Xtra from 2005 to 2020; since 2020 he has presented on Capital and C ...

's show, and is the second single from

's debut album, ''

Bud, Sweat and Beers ''Bud, Sweat and Beers'' is the debut studio album released by English rapper Devlin, via Island Records and the Universal Music Group. The album was released on 29 October 2010 via digital download, and 1 November 2010, physically. The album w ...

''. The song got on the

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, ...

A-list three weeks before release. Yasmin commented on working with Devlin, about the song and about the A-list: "I’m thrilled. It’s amazing. The beauty of the song is that everyone on it did their own part. I’ve known the producers for ages, Devlin wrote all his lyrics, I wrote my chorus, so it feels like we all own a bit of the song. It feels a bit more special when it’s really your work that’s up there. I’m so excited. It shows a lot of support and belief from Radio One that they put it straight onto the C-List, the next week up to the B-List and the next up to the A-List."

Critical reception

Fraser McAlpine of ''BBC Chart Blog'' gave the song a positive review stating:

I'll admit to feeling a little sceptical about this fella at first. For all that it was only supposed to be a calling-card, 'Brainwashed' didn't really showcase Devlin's story-telling skills, and apart from a couple of sharp one-liners, it wasn't clear why exactly he was as good as he said he was. Now I know. It's because he can come up with a line like "burning rubber over gravel until we see the English channel" in the middle of a song like this. A song which is - musically at least - not that startling. Just another four-chord churnaround based loosely on those Pachelbel changes N-Dubz used for 'We Dance On'. But given the benefit of Dev's precision wordplay, and his urgent delivery, it's transformed into something darkly optimistic, quietly brilliant, and poetic in a really unpoetic way. .

Music video

The music video was directed by

Emil Nava Emil William Capper Nava (born 29 March 1985) is a British music video director. After leaving school at 16, Emil started his career as a chef. He shot to fame after directing Jessie J's song " Do It Like A Dude". He has since directed over 1 ...

Devlin’s Runaway feat. Yasmin by Emil Nava
Promo News, 20 September 2010 and was uploaded to

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 10 September 2010. The video starts off with a man burning pictures. Devlin is then seen around the neighborhoods of

Dagenham Dagenham () is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Dagenham is centred east of Charing Cross. It was historically a rural parish in the Becontree Hundred of Essex, stretching from Hainault Forest ...

. Yasmin is seen singing from a council estate balcony in the Isles Of Dogs and both Devlin and Yasmin in the middle of a

cul-de-sac A dead end, also known as a cul-de-sac (, from French for 'bag-bottom'), no through road or no exit road, is a street with only one inlet or outlet. The term "dead end" is understood in all varieties of English, but the official terminology ...

. Other people are seen running and jumping into the sea.

Track listing

Chart performance

Runaway debuted at number 15 in 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 ...

on 31 October 2010; beating previous single "

Brainwashed Brainwashed may refer to: *Brainwashing, to affect a person's mind by using extreme mental pressure or any other mind-affecting process Music Albums * Brainwashed (George Harrison album), ''Brainwashed'' (George Harrison album), 2002, or the ...

" which peaked at number 31. The following week, the single fell to number 21; coincidentally the album ''

'' was simultaneously at number 21 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

. The single also debuted at number 18 on the

Scottish Singles and Albums Chart The Scottish Albums Chart is a chart compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC) which is based on how physical and digital sales towards the UK Albums Chart fare in Scotland. The official singles chart for Scotland, the Scottish Singles Chart, ...

, falling to number 22 on its second week.

Weekly charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2010 singles 2010 songs 2010s Island Records singles Devlin (rapper) songs Yasmin (musician) songs