This Is Why

“This Is Why“ is Paramore’s first release in over five years. Taken from their sixth studio album of the same name, it is the first-ever title track for the Nashville trio. The song explores some of the challenges Hayley has faced as the frontwoman of a world-famous band including constant pressure in the public eye and having personal issues broadcast publicly. The song also marks the end of a four-year-long “time off” the band took after completing the tour supporting “After Laughter“. It also marks the first time Paramore starts a new album cycle with the same members from the previous one. As the band announced throughout the first half of 2022 several festival appearances and tour dates for the end of year, anticipation for their comeback and new material started to increase. Hayley Williams had previously confirmed that Paramore had returned to the studio to “work on [new] music,” and hinted in a November 2021 newsletter a possible return for the band in 2022: "Paramore can’t be “on a break” forever now can we? I love y'all. See you sometime next year?" It wasn’t until the first week of September, 2022 when hints of their return were confirmed, when the three members changed their individual Instagram accounts' profile pictures on 9/7. The next day, the band’s website was cleared out to display a list of various September dates and cryptic messages next to each one. One of the dates included the link to Paramore’s official Discord server, in which later that same day, a snippet of what was thought to be their forthcoming single was posted, but turned out to be a different song. Two of the dates listed on were left in blank with no text attached. On September 12, a fan randomly discovered a TikTok video from an account under the name IsThisWhyIsThisIsWhy displaying a different piece of the same teaser from the song they shared on Discord. On September 15, a text was quietly added to the blank 9.16 date: “p.s. T.I.W.” This led to speculate that the imminent single would be titled “This Is Why” and could possibly drop the next day. On the 16th, however, the band announced the release date set for the 28th and confirmed the title for the track. “This Is Why” debuted on BBC Radio 1’s Future Sounds with Clara Amfo, followed by its music video, which premiered on YouTube shortly after. Talking to Amfo after the radio premiere, Williams shared that it had been the last song written for the album, after feeling “tired of writing lyrics,” but pushed by York and Farro to work on a “last idea” they had. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.