| The Girl That Never Was | |
| Type: | single |
| Album: | Who We Used to Be |
| Released: | 4 October 2023 |
| Genre: | Pop |
| Length: | 3:13 |
| Producer: | Red Triangle |
| Label: | Atlantic Records UK |
| Prev Title: | All The Love That I Ever Needed |
| Prev Year: | 2023 |
"The Girl That Never Was" is a song by English singer-songwriter James Blunt. It was released by Atlantic Records UK on 4 October 2023 as the third single from Blunt's seventh studio album, Who We Used to Be.[1]
"The Girl That Never Was" was written by Blunt, George Tizzard and Rick Parkhouse. It was written about Blunt and his wife losing a child through miscarriage.[2] [3] [4]
On 27 October 2023, Blunt performed the song on the BBC's The One Show. On writing the song, Blunt shared "I'm married. We had aspirations to start a family and...people in my situation have gone through that, you win some battles and you lose some [...] the ones that we have lost we struggle with a bit."[5]
A lyric video was released on the day of the single's official release,[6] with the official music video, directed by Vaughan Arnell released on 12 October 2023.[7] On 20 October 2023, Blunt released a video showing an acoustic performance of "The Girl That Never Was".[8]
The single peaked at number 7 on the UK Singles Downloads Chart Top 100 on 3 November 2023.[9] It appeared on that chart for seven consecutive weeks.[10]