John Martin has shared the story behind 'Don't You Worry Child', revisiting the writing process as the EDM-era anthem marks its 16th anniversary. The Swedish singer-songwriter posted a voice note on Instagram looking back on the song's quiet beginnings in 2010.
“The story behind ‘Don’t You Worry Child’ started with me and Michel. We were just getting to know each other and started to work together,” Martin said, referring to longtime collaborator Michel Zitron. “I had a day job at my dad’s tire company, so I was shifting tires on cars during the week. Then we were writing songs during the weekends. On Friday evenings me and Michel usually met up at his studio and made music together, talked about life and our experiences about our upbringings. ‘Don’t You Worry Child’ was the third song that we made together. And that song came out during two Sundays.”
The song started small. “It started with a guitar riff that I was playing on my guitar for him. And once the song was done I had a strong feeling about it. Every time I played it for friends I noticed that people got emotional when they heard it. Some of my friends were like texting me saying, ‘Hey, can you send me that song you played me? I need to hear it again.'”
Then everything changed. “The plan was to release it as an indie record but then we sent it to the Swedish House Mafia and they loved it. And asked us if they can have the song and put their magic on it. So when we had released it I started to notice that the song had something special. But I could never imagine how big it actually would become later.”
How big? ‘Don’t You Worry Child’ became the sixth single from Swedish House Mafia. Released in 2012, it hit number one in the UK with 135,000 first-week sales, sold 632,000 copies in 2012 in the UK alone, and reached number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, the trio’s only US top ten single. Globally it has moved over 5.5 million copies.
Beyond the chart stats, the song became a defining moment for the EDM era. It closed the Swedish House Mafia farewell run at Milton Keynes in 2012 and has soundtracked countless mainstage moments since. Now, 16 years on from those Friday studio nights, the song still lands like an emotional release every time it drops. Read more on the song’s history via Wikipedia.
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