Easy On Me (song)

“Easy On Me”
Single by Adele from the album 30
Released	October 15, 2021
Genre	Soul, pop
Length	3:44
Label	XL Recordings
Writer(s)	Adele Adkins, Greg Kurstin
Producer(s)	Greg Kurstin
Adele singles chronology
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“Water Under the Bridge”	“Oh My God”
30 track listing
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“Strangers By Nature”	“My Little Love”
Audio

“Easy On Me” is a song by British singer-songwriter Adele. It was released as the lead single from her fourth studio album, 30, on October 15, 2021. It marks the first new music from Adele released in six years, following her third album 25 in 2015. “Easy On Me” was co-written and produced by Greg Kurstin, who previously collaborated with Adele on “Hello,” “Water Under the Bridge” and “Million Years Ago.” A minimally produced ballad, “Easy On Me” is set to a prominent, sombre piano, propelled by sparse bass beats. Expressing themes of nostalgia, regret, and forgiveness, the song’s lyrics represent Adele’s plea to her son Angelo, asking him to be undemanding by citing her troubles post-divorce.

Adele announced the song on Tuesday, October 5 with a clip of its music video on her social media accounts. The announcement followed a series of global billboards and projections that seemingly alluded to Adele’s forthcoming album, titled 30, and mysterious updates to Adele’s website and social media accounts the day prior to the announcement. She debuted a snippet of the song during an Instagram Live on October 9, 2021.

The song impacted adult contemporary radio on October 18, and pop radio on October 19. Commercially, the song garnered the Spotify and Amazon Music records for the most streams for a song in a day, and has topped the charts in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. “Easy On Me” also became the most played song in U.S. radio history during a song’s first week on the air and the most-added song in the history of Mediabase.

An alternate version of the song featuring country singer-songwriter Chris Stapleton was included on the Target deluxe edition of the album as a bonus track and was sent to country radio on November 19 to coincide with the release of the album.

Background and promotion

On October 1, 2021, multiple posters and projections with the number “30” appeared on significant landmarks and buildings in different cities around the world, prompting speculation that they were linked to the title of Adele’s upcoming studio album. Three days later, Adele’s social media accounts were updated for the first time in months, and the following day, she posted a teaser for her new song, “Easy On Me,” and its accompanying music video.

Composition

“Easy On Me” was the first song written for 30 and, much like other tracks from the album, was largely inspired by words of encouragement from Adele’s friends in the wake of her divorce from Simon Konecki. “It makes me think about how lost I was when I left my marriage,” she told ELLE.

During her interview with British Vogue, Adele previewed “Easy On Me” for journalist Giles Hattersley, who described it as having “verses that recall her fraught childhood, her lost marriage and the lessons learnt and unlearnt about family, love and abandonment along the way.” Adele said it was written specifically for her son Angelo to answer his questions prompted by his parents’ separation. “I just felt like I wanted to explain to [Angelo], through this record, when he’s in his twenties or thirties, who I am and why I voluntarily chose to dismantle his entire life in the pursuit of my own happiness,” Adele said. “It made him really unhappy sometimes. And that’s a real wound for me that I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to heal.”

The majority of “Easy On Me” was conceived in one day, after Adele was inspired to write the song’s first verse in the shower. It was written in the key of F major with a slow tempo of 70 beats per minute.

Duet version

The Target deluxe edition of 30 includes an alternate version of “Easy On Me” in which Adele harmonizes with country singer Chris Stapleton. According to Adele, she kept hearing a harmony on the chorus of “Easy On Me,” but after trying it with female vocals — both her own and one of her friend’s — she realized it was best suited for a male voice, and having been a fan of Stapleton’s for years, she felt he would be the best choice. “There’s something so country about ‘Easy On Me,’ for me, and Chris Stapleton’s one of my favorite singers in general,” she said. “But I just knew I couldn’t ask Chris Stapleton to just sing one harmony on a bloody chorus, so he very kindly said yes to doing the whole thing as a duet, and he sings like no one’s business on it. It was incredible.” Furthermore, she revealed the collaboration proved to be more difficult because Stapleton and Adele were never able to meet in-person as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting meetings over Zoom call to make the duet happen.

The duet version of “Easy On Me” was sent to country radio on November 19, 2021 to coincide with the release of 30 and was played hourly across all country radio stations owned by iHeartMedia. This marked the first Adele song to officially impact country radio. It debuted on the Country Airplay chart at #25, making “Easy On Me” the first song to scale Billboard’s pop, rock, R&B/hip-hop and country airplay charts.

Music video

The accompanying music video for “Easy On Me” was shot in Quebec on September 15 and 16, 2021, and was directed by Xavier Dolan, who previously directed the music video for “Hello” in 2015. Filming took place at the Chemin Jordan and the Domaine Dumont Chapelle Ste-Agnès in Sutton, a town in southwestern Quebec, and reportedly involved more than 100 technicians. The music video opens in black and white and shifts to color halfway through, as the track’s beat becomes more prominent. Adele vacates the house and drives off in a furniture-filled truck, past a “Sold” sign board planted by the property. Numerous pages of sheet music fly out the car’s back windows and scatter all over a road as she drives away.

The video also contains references to her previous music videos for “Hello,” “Rolling in the Deep” and “Chasing Pavements.”

Commercial performance

Upon release, “Easy On Me” broke the all-time record for the most streamed song in a single day on Spotify with 24 million global streams as well as the record for the most streamed song in a single week with 84.3 million streams. Additionally, it broke two Amazon Music records — the most first-day streams globally, and the most first-day Alexa requests for any song in the platform’s history. In the United Kingdom, “Easy On Me” broke the record for the most streamed song in a day, with over 3.2 million streams earned.

In the United States, “Easy On Me” broke the record for the most played song in U.S. radio history and became the first song to be the most-added at five different formats (pop, adult contemporary, adult pop, adult album alternative and R&B) in a single week. “Easy On Me” debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 68 with only five hours of availability in the country. In that timeframe, the song garnered 3.1 million streams, 3.1 million radio audience impressions, and 14,800 digital copies sold; it marked Adele's 14th career entry on the Hot 100. The following week, “Easy on Me” surged to number one on the Hot 100, becoming Adele’s fifth No. 1 on the chart and her first since “Hello” in 2015/2016. With the song’s move from number 68 to number one, “Easy On Me” was the largest jump to the top spot since Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do” in 2017. “Easy On Me” garnered 74,000 downloads, 53.9 million streams and 65 million radio audience impressions in its second week on the Hot 100. It also debuted at number four on the Radio Songs chart, becoming the highest debut on the chart since Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” (2011) debuted at number six, and reached the same position on the Adult Contemporary chart the same week.

In the United Kingdom, “Easy On Me” debuted at number one on the Official Singles Chart on the week ending October 28, 2021, moving 217,300 units in its first week. It marked the highest first week sales week for a song since Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” in 2017. “Easy On Me” accumulated 24 million streams in the UK in its first week, breaking the record for the most streamed song in a single week previously held by Ariana Grande’s “7 Rings” in 2019. Elsewhere, “Easy On Me” debuted atop Australia's ARIA Singles Chart, becoming Adele’s third song to reach the top position. In Germany, “Easy On Me” went straight to number one on Offizielle Deutschen Singles Charts, scoring her fourth chart-topper within Germany. In Italy, “Easy On Me” debuted at number one on the FIMI Singles Chart, becoming her fifth chart-topper in the country. It also debuted at number one in Ireland.

Credits and personnel

Adapted from the CD single liner notes and YouTube.

Song

• Adele Adkins – vocals, songwriter
• Greg Kurstin – producer, engineer, songwriter, bass guitar, drum machine, piano
• Alex Pasco – recording engineer
• Julian Burg – recording engineer
• Tom Elmhirst – mixing engineer
• Matt Scatchell - assistant mixer
• Randy Merrill – mastering engineer

Video

• Xavier Dolan – director
• Phil Lee – creative director
• André Turpin – cinematographer
• Untold Studios – production company

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)	Platinum	600,000‡
United States (RIAA)	Platinum	1,000,000‡
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Release history

“Easy On Me” was released as the lead single from 30 on October 15, 2021. A limited edition single cassette for the song was made available exclusively through Adele’s online store. A limited edition CD single was also released exclusively to German retailers.

Region	Date	Format(s)	Label
Various	October 15, 2021	Digital download • streaming	Columbia Records
Italy		Contemporary hit radio	Sony Music
United States	October 18, 2021	Adult contemporary radio	Columbia
		Triple A radio
	October 19, 2021	Contemporary hit radio
Russia	October 21, 2021		Sony
Germany	October 22, 2021	CD single	Columbia • Sony
Various	November 2021	Cassette single	Columbia

Lyrics

There ain’t no gold in this river That I've been washing my hands in forever I know there is hope in these waters But I can’t bring myself to swim When I am drowning in the silence Baby, let me in Go easy on me, baby I was still a child Didn’t get the chance to Feel the world around me I had no time to choose what I chose to do So go easy on me There ain’t no room for our things to change When we are both so deeply stuck in our ways You can’t deny how hard I've tried I changed who I was to put you both first But now I give up Go еasy on me, baby I was still a child Didn’t get the chancе to Feel the world around me Had no time to choose what I chose to do So go easy on me I had good intentions And the highest hopes But I know right now It probably doesn’t even show Go easy on me, baby I was still a child I didn't get the chance to Feel the world around me I had no time to choose what I chose to do So go easy on me