"Stop This Flame" is a song by British singer and songwriter Celeste. The single was released on 9 January 2020 through Both Sides and

Polydor Records Polydor Limited, also known as Polydor Records, is a British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in ...

as the second single from her debut studio album ''

Not Your Muse ''Not Your Muse'' is the debut studio album by British singer-songwriter Celeste, released on 29 January 2021 via Both Sides and Polydor Records. It includes the singles "Strange", " Stop This Flame", " A Little Love" and " Love Is Back". ''Not ...

''. It was written by Celeste and

Jamie Hartman Jamie Hartman (born 1971) is an English songwriter and producer based in Los Angeles, CA, and the former lead singer of the indie-pop band Ben's Brother. Early life Hartman was born and raised in London. Career Ben's Brother Hartman formed and ...

, who produced the track with John Hill. The song samples

Nina Simone Nina Simone ( ; born Eunice Kathleen Waymon; February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003) was an American singer, pianist, songwriter, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned styles including classical, folk, gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, and po ...

's version of " Sinnerman" and Nina Simone is credited as a co-author. The song was released following Celeste's win of

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

's annual music poll Sound of 2020. It became her first-ever solo single, and second single overall (since "

Sing That Song "Sing That Song" is a song performed by English producer and songwriter Tieks, featuring vocals from Celeste. The song was released as a digital download in the United Kingdom on 9 September 2014 through Atlantic Records. The song peaked at numb ...

" with

Tieks Mark Tieku, better known by his stage name Tieks (often stylised as TIEKS) is an English record producer and songwriter from London. He is best known for his 2016 single "Sunshine", featuring vocals from Dan Harkna, which peaked at number 15 on ...

), to chart in her home country, spending 8 weeks on the UK Singles Chart. From September 2020, it became the theme song for

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

' weekend coverage ( ''Saturday Night Football'' and ''Super Sunday'') of the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

for the 2020-21 season. The song is also featured on the soundtrack of ''

FIFA 21 ''FIFA 21'' is an association football simulation video game published by Electronic Arts as part of the '' FIFA series''. It is the 28th installment in the ''FIFA'' series, and was released on 9 October 2020 for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switc ...

''. The song also appears in the 2021

Peloton In a road Cycle sport, bicycle race, the peloton (, originally meaning ) is the main group or pack of riders. Riders in a group save energy by riding close (drafting (racing), drafting or slipstreaming) to (particularly behind) other riders. The ...

and

Royal Mail Royal Mail Group Limited, trading as Royal Mail, is a British postal service and courier company. It is owned by International Distribution Services. It operates the brands Royal Mail (letters and parcels) and Parcelforce Worldwide (parcels) ...

TV adverts.

Background and composition

"Stop This Flame" was Celeste's first single of 2020, the year in which she was critically tipped for success by many major publications. Celeste told '' Dork'', "In essence, 'Stop This Flame' is a song about seeing it through to the end. Whether it’s about not letting go of love, not letting go of a dream or stridently coming through some form of adversity. The song has always evoked those feelings within me.” She told Apple Music, "For me when I sing the song, it's about like never ending determination to get that point." The song is "driven by an insistent minor-key piano vamp."

Music video

The song's music video was directed by Leonn Ward and shot in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

. It premiered on YouTube on 7 February 2020, and was later nominated for Best British R&B/Soul Video at the

2020 UK Music Video Awards The 2020 UK Music Video Awards were held on 5 November 2020 to recognise the best in music videos and music film making from United Kingdom and worldwide. The nominees were announced on 29 September 2020. Four new categories were included, R&B/Sou ...

Critical reception

The single was described by Robin Murray of '' Clash'' as "a piano-driven stomper that carries a level of euphoria that rivals club culture", whilst comparing it to " You've Got the Love" by

Florence and The Machine Florence and the Machine (stylised as Florence + the Machine) are an English indie rock band formed in London in 2007 by lead vocalist Florence Welch, keyboardist Isabella Summers, guitarist Rob Ackroyd, drummer Christopher Lloyd Hayden and harp ...

. Peter Helman from ''

Stereogum ''Stereogum'' is a daily Internet publication that focuses on music news, reviews, interviews, and commentary. The site was created in January 2002 by Scott Lapatine. ''Stereogum'' was one of the first MP3 blogs and has received several awar ...

'' described as "a catchy and vaguely jazz-indebted uptempo R&B song". The song was described by ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' as "up-tempo, piano-driven

Amy Winehouse Amy Jade Winehouse (14 September 1983 – 23 July 2011) was an English singer, songwriter, musician, and businesswoman. With over 30 million records sold worldwide, she was known for her deep, expressive contralto vocals and her eclectic mix ...

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from

Tidal Tidal is the adjectival form of tide. Tidal may also refer to: * ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple * Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim * TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music * Tidal (servic ...

: * Celeste Epiphany Waite: vocals, composer, lyricist *

: producer, composer, lyricist, bass programming, guitar,

Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which causes a length of magnetic tape to contact a Capstan (tape recorder), capstan, which pulls i ...

, organ, percussion, piano, recording engineer, strings, synthesizer * John Hill: producer, bass, drums, guitar, programming *

: composer, lyricist * Jeremie Inhaber: assistant remix engineer * Robin Florent: assistant remix engineer * Scott Desmaris: assistant remix engineer * Blake Mares: engineer * Rob Cohen: engineer * John Davis: mastering engineer * Chris Galland: mixing engineer *

Manny Marroquin Manny Marroquin (born September 21, 1971) is a Guatemalan-American record mixing engineer. He has been credited on albums for high-profile pop, R&B, hip hop and rock acts. He has worked with artists including Rihanna, Kanye West, Katy Perry ...

: mixing engineer * Rafa Padilla: percussion *

Davide Rossi Davide Rossi (born 7 August 1970) is an Italian violinist, string arranger, orchestrator, songwriter, composer and conductor, perhaps best known for having been the electric violinist and multi-instrumentalist for the British electronic music d ...

: strings *

Stuart Crichton Stuart Crichton is a music producer and songwriter from Ayr, Scotland, currently based in Los Angeles, California. Career Starting out in 1989 under the name Solo, Stuart self-released the ''Sample Free EP'' in 1990 which featured the song "Ra ...

: synthesizer programming

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{Celeste Celeste (singer) songs 2020 singles Polydor Records singles Songs written by Jamie Hartman