Behind The Song: Hunter Hayes "Wanted"
Hunter Hayes' GRAMMY nominated song "Wanted" began simply as a way to tell a girl he was interested.
"'Wanted' is very much a love letter. It was written basically just to tell a girl how I felt about her," Hunter told Radio.com. "It didn't actually work but I'm okay with that. I got my single, I got my song and I'm okay with that."
He got much more than that. The song is nominated as Best Country Solo Performance at this year's GRAMMY Awards where 21-year-old Hunter stacked up a total of three nominations including Best New Artist and Best Country Album for his release Hunter Hayes.
Hunter further explained to us how "Wanted" came together.
"I went in to write this song and I was definitely just desperately trying to get the point across to this girl," he said. "Those are the songs that really write themselves very quickly. I didn't spend a whole lot of time thinking about this one or over-thinking it."
Hunter said he isn't exactly sure how "Wanted" happened as he just spoke the words "into outer space and we just typed everything we could think of." Later, he sat at the piano as the rest of the lyrics fell into place.
"It was something I really wanted to say and I was trying to figure out the best way to say it."
One of the youngest GRAMMY nominees, Hunter wrote, produced, and played every instrument on his GRAMMY nominated album Hunter Hayes. Hunter is also one of the few country artists to see crossover success on the pop charts as "Wanted" reached the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 and was the fourth highest-selling country single of last year with over 396,000 copies sold, Billboard reports.
His No. 1 record-breaking hit makes Hunter the youngest solo male act to top the Country Songs charts, surpassing Johnny Rodriguez's previous 1973 record when he topped the chart with "You Always Come Back to Hurting Me." Currently No. 3 on Billboard's Country Songs chart the song drops from it's No. 1 position preceded by Florida Georgia Line's "Cruise" and Taylor Swift's "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together."
Will Hunter Hayes win a GRAMMY for his love letter "Wanted?" Tune in February 10 on CBS to find out.
-Annie Reuter, Radio.com
