“This time, baby / I’ll be bulletproof,” Elly Jackson sings defiantly on the refrain of La Roux’s 2009 smash hit, “Bulletproof.” It was the third single from the British electro-pop duo of Elly Jackson and Ben Langmaid. Dropped on June 21, 2009, 5 days earlier than their self-titled debut album, it turned the most important track of La Roux’s profession. For a minimum of two years, the track was ubiquitous on dance flooring worldwide, and catapulted Jackson to pop star standing, one thing she by no means fairly settled into.
“It’s a relationship song about being fed up – fed up of treating myself like this, and of letting myself be treated like this. It’s saying I’m not going to do this anymore, or make the same mistakes anymore. It’s been very good for women who are just breaking up with men, or independent women. It’s like my Destiny’s Child song, I guess,” Jackson stated in 2010.
Take heed to La Roux’s “Bulletproof” now.
The largest 2009 pop hits in america included Girl Gaga‘s “Poker Face” and “Just Dance,” Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies,” and The Black Eyed Peas‘ “Boom Boom Pow” and “I Gotta Feeling.” Americans were ready to dance it into the new decade. The dance party readiness of La Roux fit in with the times, but sounded different. The production harkened back to ’80s pop, however sounded recent. Impressed by the likes of David Bowie, Prince, the Knife, Nick Drake, and Joni Mitchell, heartfelt, common lyrics set to emotive, synthy grooves turned La Roux’s signature. “Even if you listen to ‘Bulletproof’ without vocals, it sounds defiant, and it’s relentless. ‘In for the Kill’ is supposed to have a feeling of striding, of purposefully doing something. You have to create a soundscape that goes with the track. That’s the essence of songwriting for me,” Jackson defined.
The anthemic observe was an immediate pop hit in La Roux’s house nation, however took a 12 months to succeed in the mainstream pop viewers stateside. It debuted at No. 1 on the UK singles chart and reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Dance Membership Songs chart by September. (“In for the Kill” was a No. 2 UK single, and in 2010, after the Skream remix was featured on HBO’s Entourage, a No. 1 on the U.S. Dance Membership Songs chart.) On March 16, 2010, La Roux carried out “Bulletproof” on The Ellen DeGeneres Present, and it entered the Billboard Sizzling 100 4 days later, hitting a excessive at No. 8 in June.
In the summertime of 2009, La Roux performed huge UK festivals Studying, Leeds, and Glastonbury, in addition to main US fests like Lollapalooza. (They performed Coachella the next 12 months.) La Roux went platinum within the UK, received the Finest Dance/Digital Album GRAMMY Award in 2011, and was nominated for a Mercury Prize. La Roux had develop into an enormous dance pop act.
Swiftly and sharply, the duo felt the double-edged sword of success. Jackson’s anxiousness heightened, inflicting her to lose her voice and have panic assaults. After delays and challenges, together with Landmaid’s departure from the group, the critically acclaimed sophomore La Roux album, Hassle In Paradise, got here in 2014. “I found success really, really hard,” Jackson mirrored in a 2020 Guardian interview. “It made me want to run for the hills. It wasn’t cool to be that popular.”
“Bulletproof” put her on the map and helped her purchase a home, nevertheless it some methods it overshadowed the androgynous icon. It stays her largest hit. “I think it’s weird when so many people see you as being represented by that song, and you feel so far away from it,” she said in 2014. “Part of the anxiety I experienced was because of the type of attention that ‘Bulletproof’ received, and therefore I received. I wasn’t that keen on it. I don’t know if I want to have a hit like that again.”
Extra lately, “Bulletproof” has had a second life amongst Gen Zers. Controversial figures like Tana Mongeau and James Charles used the inspirational observe in a 2020 TikTok “challenge” that has logged over 806,000 entries, the place video textual content reads “You think you can hurt my feelings?” “People use our songs for so many different things,” Jackson stated in 2010. “It’s so true that a song means whatever you want it to mean.”
La Roux’s “Bulletproof” appeared on NOW That’s What I Name Music 35, alongside different hits like Girl Gaga’s “Alejandro.” Searching for extra tales behind music’s largest hits? Take a look at the Now! That’s What I Name Music web page.
