Life Goes On

Album: Double Dutchess (2016)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Here, Fergie sings about pushing through adversity when the going gets tough.

    Life goes on with or without you
    It's up to you what you're gonna do
    You could go or you could stay
    Who cares anyway?
    Life goes on with or without you


    She explained the song's meaning to Radio.com: "It's just a little bit of my frustration about a little inner conversation, a little subconscious versus conscious voice. It's that battle with yourself and pushing through negativity and all that noise and just kind of getting past the fear and all that darkness. It's all, who cares about that anyway, man? It just doesn't even matter. Really, it's just, you know what? Be the change you wanna see."
  • Fergie co-wrote the song with Toby Gad, with whom she also did "Big Girls Don't Cry." His other credits include Beyoncé's "If I Were a Boy" and Selena Gomez & the Scenes's "A Year Without Rain." She told Radio.com about collaborating with the Los Angeles-based German music producer/songwriter:

    "He's one of those guys that he's very soft-spoken. He's like, 'Fergie, what's going on in your life? Tell me what's going on.' I just feel safe with him to kinda just dump everything that I'm going through. He's just one of those people in my life for me.

    And it's like a therapy session when I go to him. I'm not going to him and going, "Let's write 'M.I.L.F. $' or 'Fergalicious' or something like that. He's one I feel totally safe with just going to that deeper level of vulnerability and emotion and just kind of letting my guard down and letting my journals just create a song, follow through and create a song.

    He gets on piano, or he'll get on guitar, and it's just really organic. He'll say, 'I like the melody,' and he'll keep going, and we'll pick, and I'll just kind of go and vamp, and we'll listen back and pick the pieces that we like, kind of put something together, and the subject kind of just reveals itself."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Billy Joe Shaver

Billy Joe ShaverSongwriter Interviews

The outlaw country icon talks about the spiritual element of his songwriting and his Bob Dylan mention.

Concert Disasters

Concert DisastersFact or Fiction

Ozzy biting a dove? Alice Cooper causing mayhem with a chicken? Creed so bad they were sued? See if you can spot the real concert mishaps.

Timothy B. Schmit

Timothy B. SchmitSongwriter Interviews

The longtime Eagle talks about soaring back to his solo career, and what he learned about songwriting in the group.

Timothy B. Schmit of the Eagles

Timothy B. Schmit of the EaglesSongwriter Interviews

Did this Eagle come up with the term "Parrothead"? And what is it like playing "Hotel California" for the gazillionth time?

Dar Williams

Dar WilliamsSongwriter Interviews

A popular contemporary folk singer, Williams still remembers the sticky note that changed her life in college.

Kristian Bush of Sugarland

Kristian Bush of SugarlandSongwriter Interviews

Kristian talks songwriting technique, like how the chorus should redefine the story, and how to write a song backwards.