Keith Urban Revels in Success of 22nd No.1 Single, ‘Blue Ain’t Your Color’
..."'Blue' was just immediate love," Urban recalled of the first time he heard the song.
It’s hard to beat a Friday afternoon when you’re gearing up for a work-free weekend and not a care in the world. The only thing that can top the welcome to the weekend is a private Keith Urban concert to celebrate his 22nd No.1 song “Blue Ain’t Your Color,” which is exactly what members of the country music industry were treated to on Friday (March 3) when the singer jumped onstage at The Basement East to perform the hit track.
Urban wasn’t alone on stage, however, as songwriters Hillary Lindsey, Steven Lee Olsen and Clint Lagerberg surrounded the singer to join him in singing the hit single. After their performance, the celebration got on its way, with many of the publishers involved with the writers taking the stage to express their excitement over its success.
The occasion was surrounded with an extra buzz of excitement as it marked the first time Olsen had a song he’d written top the charts. Many of his family flew in from Canada to attend the event and share in the successes he’s had throughout the past year. Prior to the event, Olsen shared with media that the idea for “Blue Ain’t Your Color” came after a nap on his couch. He awoke with the idea, jotted it down, and fell back asleep. After presenting the idea to Lagerberg, the two called Lindsey and asked her to join their write, and the rest is history.
Eventually, Olsen’s demo of the song made its way to Urban, who knew the song was a hit from the second he first heard it, crediting his instinct for telling him that he had to cut it for Ripcord.
“It’s just a feeling. It’s a feeling I have when I hear a song. I feel like, meeting a relative I didn’t know I was related to. It’s that kind of thing. It’s just someone, just meeting someone that you somehow find out down the track, you’re a distant relative. There’s that feeling of familiarity with the song immediately,” Urban told Sounds Like Nashville and other media before the event. “I think it encompass everything, the key the song is in, where the melody sits, the shape of vowel sounds used in the words. It goes really deep into something that resonates what I do and … it doesn’t always work. You know, I’ve taken songs with a tune I loved and I just couldn’t make them feel authentic. Much to my frustration because I can love a song that just doesn’t fit me. But ‘Blue’ was just immediate love.”
“Blue Ain’t Your Color” is the third single from Urban’s GRAMMY-nominated album Ripcord. The song currently has two nominations for the upcoming 52nd Annual Academy of Country Music Awards, including Single Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
