"Only You" is a song by American

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

trio Cheat Codes and British girl group Little Mix. It was released on June 22, 2018, as a single through Syco Music and 300 Entertainment. The song was written by Richard Boardman, Pablo Bowman, the three members of Cheat Codes (Trevor Dahl, Kevin Ford, and Matthew Russell), and Digital Farm Animals (Nicholas Gale), and was produced by Dahl and Digital Farm Animals, along with Maegan Cottone . The song featured on the

Ministry of Sound Ministry of Sound or Ministry of Sound Group is a multimedia entertainment business based in London with a nightclub, shared workspace and private members' club, worldwide events operation, music publisher (popular music), music publishing busin ...

compilation album ''The Pool Party'', and later on the deluxe edition of Little Mix's fifth studio album '' LM5'' (2018), and the acoustic version appears on the Japanese edition of the album. "Only You" was met with positive reviews from critics. The song's lyrics are about missing a special someone in your life. A music video was later released and features a same sex couple with an LGBTQ+ themed storyline. "Only You" reached the top ten in Hungary. The song peaked at number fifteen on the UK Singles Chart, and reached the charts in thirteen other territories including France, Ireland and Australia. It has since received two platinum and two gold music certifications. Little Mix performed the song at the 2018 Jingle Bell Ball, BBC Teen Awards, and on tour, the most recent being The Confetti Tour in 2022.

Background

The song was written by Pablo Bowman, Nicholas Gale and Richard Boardman, with production by Digital Farm Animals, Maegan Cottone. The song was revealed in June 2018 with its inclusion on ''The Pool Party'' album, which accompanied the television series '' Love Island''. Snippets of the song were teased by Cheat Codes and Little Mix prior to the song's release. Cheat Codes and Little Mix announced on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

that the song would be released on June 22, 2018. The song's picture cover was released a day later along with some leaked lyrics.

Composition

"Only You" is a midtempo EDM song, backed by an

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

, that runs for three-minutes and nine seconds. It includes elements of electronic, tropical house and ambient. It contains backing vocals by the members of Cheat Codes. All the lyrics are structured in verse–pre-chorus–chorus which contain no vocals but instead an instrumental. Lyrically it is about love and post-breakup phase of a relationship.

Music video

The music video for the song was released on July 12, 2018, on Little Mix's official YouTube channel. The video features an LGBTQ+ storyline between two girls (played by Lisa Starrett and Peyton List) at a house party, one of whom turns out to be a mermaid. The video was directed by Frank Borin.

Synopsis

The plot shows a girl (played by Lisa), picking clothes for a party and it later shows her arriving and has trouble interacting with the others and she decides to sit on the couch. Meanwhile, a mysterious girl (played by Peyton) is seen hiding in the bushes and runs and takes a nearby yellow jacket and runs off and enters the party and Lisa and Peyton lock eyes and decide to dance and seen having fun together at the party, such as conversations, games and dancing. Then a group of other girls show up interrupting the two. One specific girl notices Peyton has her jacket. Angry, she pushes Peyton in the pool and she doesn't show up for a while. Worried, Lisa jumps in the pool to save her and find out she is okay and they kiss. It then shows the two kissing on the party while also showing the shocking discovery of Peyton being the mermaid. It then shows Lisa carrying Peyton to the ocean while also showing scenes of their greatest times and Lisa kneels on the beach sunrise where Peyton is, having to let her go.

Critical reception

MTV called the song a "sun-tinged tune". They also said that it was "so good" to finally have the girls back again. Kat Bein from '' Billboard'' said: "It's most certainly a summer-made single, dripping in youthful romantic sentiments with an acoustic foundation".

Live performances

The band made a televised debut of the song on October 21, 2018, at the 2018 BBC Radio 1's Teen Awards, where they also won the Best British Group award.

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from Tidal. Personnel * Electric – songwriter, producer, engineer, instruments, programming * Pablo Bowman, Trevor Dahl, Nicholas Gale and Richard Boardman – songwriter * Digital Farm Animals, Maegan Cottone and Trevor Dahl – producer * Danny Casio – engineer * Randy Merrill – mastering engineer * Serban Ghenea, John Hanes – mix engineer

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2018 singles 2018 songs Cheat Codes (DJs) songs Little Mix songs Music videos directed by Frank Borin Songs written by Richard Boardman Songs written by Pablo Bowman Songs written by Digital Farm Animals Song recordings produced by Digital Farm Animals