38 BILLBOARD | AUGUST 10 , 2 019
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.At the top of 2019, the emerging alt-
pop singer Evie Irie flew from Sydney
to Los Angeles with her dad for what
was meant to be a one-week writing
trip. But within five days, the 16-year-
old, who had been creating music
since she was a preteen, wrote and
recorded an entire EP. Irie wanted to
do something with the completed
project before returning to Australia.
First, her dad hired a lawyer. They then
spent the next three weeks taking
meetings with labels, managers and
publishers. By week five, Irie had signed
a recording contract with Republic
and found a management company in
Troy Carter’s new Q&A. “It has been
such a crazy ride,” says Irie. “I really
have to pinch myself. I’m surrounded
by such inspiring people.” On June 28,
she made her major-label debut with
the EP, 5 Weeks in LA, co-written with
Casey Smith (Jonas Brothers, Bülow)
and co-produced by Zach Skelton
(Paul McCartney, Shawn Mendes). At
the end of July, she signed a deal with
Downtown Music Publishing. Creative
senior manager Dylan Silbermann
had heard a demo Irie had worked on
with a client several months before and
played it for Downtown senior vp global
creative Andrew Gould. After hearing
the opening line in “Stupid Things” —
“My lips have never touched a cigarette,
and my tongue has never felt the burn
of whiskey yet” — Gould immediately
thought Irie had “such comfort in her
own skin and an understanding of her
self-identity. I don’t recall seeing this
gift at such a young age in my career.”
Downtown has been rapidly expanding
of late. In April, Downtown Music
Holdings acquired AVL Digital Group
and its subsidiaries, including AdRev,
CD Baby, DashGo and Soundrop. And
in May, it announced the purchase of
European independent label Strictly
Confidential and its 10,000-song
catalog. —LYNDSEY HAVENS
O
N JULY 1, “SEÑORITA”
by Shawn Mendes
and Camila Cabello
debuted on the
Billboard Hot 100 at No. 2 — 18
spots ahead of where their 2015
duet, “I Know What You Did Last
Summer,” peaked. But it took 15
months and eight songwriters
(including Mendes and Cabello)
to get there. In spring 2018, Ali
Tamposi and Andrew Watt —
who together have co-written
hits for 5 Seconds of Summer,
Selena Gomez and Little Mix —
had the initial idea for “Señorita”
during a writing session with
Charli XCX and Clean Bandit’s
Jack Patterson. Watt later
recruited Benny Blanco and
Cashmere Cat, and the song
was released this June. Since its
Hot 100 debut, the sultry, Latin-
inspired pop track has remained
in the chart’s top five. Says Watt:
“This was a labor of love.” His
fellow writers explain.
ANATOMY OF A HIT
It Takes
A Village
Six songwriters spent over a
year helping Shawn Mendes
and Camila Cabello land a
summer smash with “Señorita”
BY TAYLOR WEATHERBY
Aperciis quisimin
essusda velibus, sent
officipsa doluptio.
the beat
Mendes (left) and Cabello in
the music video for “Señorita.”
NAME EVIE IRIE
PUBLISHER DOWNTOWN MUSIC
SIGNED
- CHARLI XCX
“I had been working
with Ali and Andrew
at his studio a few
days a week for
around a month. In
that time, we wrote
a song for my album,
‘White Mercedes.’ A
few weeks later, we
were riffing off a beat
Andrew played when
[Ali had] the initial
idea for ‘Señorita.’
A vintage T-shirt
dealer came mid-
writing session, but
otherwise we were
super focused.”
- ANDREW WATT
“I made this fingerpicking loop somewhere between
Fleetwood Mac and José Feliciano. I sent the rough chorus
to Shawn and was like, ‘This would be an amazing duet,’ and
he said, ‘The only person I could do the song with is Camila.’
Camila came to my house with Ali and once she put her spin
on it I flew to Birmingham, England, with her files to see Shawn because we
had changed the key of the song. He went from recording the bulk of ‘Señorita’
in his dressing room to rocking Manchester Arena. The first time [he and
Camila] were in the studio together was a couple of weeks before it came out.”
- CASHMERE CAT
“I went over to the studio one day when Watt and Benny
were finishing the song, and they let me sprinkle a tiny bit of
truffle salt on it. They did all of the heavy lifting. I Postmated
us coffee. That’s really all I did.”
- JACK
PATTERSON
“We wrote it in
the first session I
had with Andrew
and Ali. Watt
arranged pedicures for everyone
halfway through. I was jet-lagged
out of my mind, and the whole
thing was surreal.”
- BENNY BLANCO
“Watt came by my house with a demo, and me, him and
Cashmere played around for a few hours and made a beat.
[Months later] at Watt’s studio, Camila and Shawn were
there together and I was like, ‘Holy fuck, it’s actually going
to happen.’ You could just feel the energy in the room.”
- ALI
TAMPOSI
“Shawn and
Camila had a lot
to do with the
lyrics and melody
changes to make it tailor-fit their
story. We latched on to the emotion
of the phrase ‘I love it when you call
me señorita.’ These are hard songs
to get across the finish line. It went
through so many changes, but it
couldn’t be more perfect.”