American Boy

In an interview with Blues & Soul, Estelle explained to Pete Lewis how the song came about, she said: “We were just messing about in the studio, joking around, and John (Legend) just said to me ‘Why don’t you write a song about meeting an American boy?’. So I was like ‘Well, that’s pretty easy’ because I have a lot of male friends out there in New York. And I unwittingly ended up creating a new ladies’ anthem!”
When Estelle was asked about Kanye’s on the track, she added: “Kanye basically just brought his own cheeky self to the track, his own sense of humor. At first he was like ‘How can you rap over a dance beat?’ and now he’s done it!”

Release Date: March 31, 2008

Songwriter/s: William Adams – Estelle Swaray – John Stephens – Kanye West – Josh Lopez – Caleb Speir – Keith Harris

Label: Atlantic – HomeSchool

Chart Rankings:
UK – 1
US – 9
Germany – 5
In the UK, it was Estelle’s first number 1 single, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) certified it Platinum for sales over 600.000 copies. In the US, the song peaked at number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified it Double Platinum for sales over 2 million copies. The song also topped the charts in Belgium, Slovakia and on the European Hot 100 charts. Around the world it reached the top 10 charts in Australia, Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey. In Australia it was certified Platinum.

Artist’s age on Release Date: Estelle Fanta Swaray was 28 years old and Kanye Omari West was 31 when this song was released.

Cover Versions: Busta Rhymes & Estelle (remix) – Kid Mac BMK – Casey Donovan – Fall Out Boy – Sam Sparro – Howard University’s Afro Blue (A Capella) – Hamish & Andy (Armenian Boy) – Only Won & Larissa Lam (Cantonese Boy) – Bost & Bim (Jamaican Boy) – Chris Moyles (Somerset Boy) – James Corden & Sheridan Smith – Glee (Darren Chris & Chris Colfer) – Jess Greenberg – Yuuwii & Weiwen – Katbadar with Chris Caaway – other amateur artists covered this song on Youtube.