"Ordinary" is a sweeping, heartfelt pop anthem that explores the transformative power of love. Alex Warren celebrates finding someone who elevates life from mundane to extraordinary, blending personal devotion with spiritual imagery.
Warren tied the knot with longtime partner Kouvr Annon in 2024, and he's said in interviews how their relationship influenced the song. He describes "Ordinary" as a love letter to the kind of romance that brings both passion and stability.
Warren released "Ordinary" as a single on February 7, 2025. The song follows the success of "
Carry You Home" and "
Burning Down," forming a sort of emotional trilogy. "Burning Down" deals with breaking free from toxic relationships, "Carry You Home" is about unwavering support, and "Ordinary" is what happens when you find an extraordinary love.
Warren teamed up with producer Adam Yaron and singer-songwriters Cal Shapiro and Mags Duval to pen "Ordinary." The same team also wrote "Carry You Home" and "Burning Down."
The writing process was playful and spontaneous. "We were all hyped up on coffee and joking around,"
Warren told Billboard. One lyric, "the holy water's watered down," actually started as a coffee joke.
Before his rise to fame, Alex Warren was living in his car, and his now-wife, Kouvr Annon, chose to stay by his side even if it meant sleeping in the car with him. Her unwavering support became the inspiration for "Ordinary."
Alex Warren is a committed Christian and has stated that his songs are inspired by worship music. He collaborates with writers who share similar backgrounds like Mags Duval, who is also a Christian.
"We take a lot of Biblical references and were inspired a lot by worship music,"
Warren told Official Charts. "These aren't worship songs, but with 'Ordinary,' for example, we wanted to create a love song that said 'our love is so strong that angels in Heaven... are jealous of the love we've found.'"
"Ordinary" spent 13 weeks atop the UK Singles Chart, including 12 consecutive weeks. It broke two records:
1. Warren became the US male solo act with the longest-running continuous stay at the summit, besting Slim Whitman, who spent 11 consecutive weeks at the summit with "
Rose Marie" in 1955.
2. "Ordinary" overtook Ed Sheeran's "
Bad Habits" 11-week run in 2021 to become the longest-running chart-topper of the 2020s on the UK Singles Chart.
Speaking on the Hits Radio Breakfast Show, Warren admitted he hated this song when it was first written. "It was just us and a guitar, and I thought, 'This doesn't sound like a record I'd put out,'" he told hosts Fleur East, Will Best, and James Barr.
At that point, it seemed destined for the cutting room floor.
"Then I sang it and I was like, 'Okay, let's see where this goes.'"
That tentative step turned into a full sprint once production kicked in. "We started adding stuff to the file, and when we put the choir on top, it sounded insane," Warren recalled. "I was like, 'Holy shoot. This is amazing.'"
A particular line in "Ordinary" is frequently misheard as something sexual. The actual lyric is: "Oh, my life, how do ya? Breathe and take my breath away?"
But many listeners, including Warren's own wife, initially heard it as "All my life, I'll do ya," leading to a humorous and viral online trend.
"One day my wife was like, 'Hey, my mum listens to this song, why did you write it like this?'" Warren recalled to MTV with a laugh.
The mix-up has been so common that he now sometimes sings the cheekier version live. "I thought it was hilarious, so I just sing it how everyone thinks," he said.
Warren pulled off a stirring
performance of "Eternity" and "Ordinary" at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2025, where he won for Best New Artist. During "Ordinary" he was joined by a troupe of dancers in white on a set that evoked the biblical, angelic references in the song.
The song was written during a snowy February in Nashville, a rare sight for the city. Warren laughed as he remembered the session: "We were just trying to name things that were out of the ordinary."
