"Sweet About Me" is a song by Australian singer-songwriter Gabriella Cilmi from her debut album, Lessons to Be Learned (2008). The song was released as the album's second single on 10 March 2008 in the United Kingdom and on 24 March 2008 in Australia. One month later, it topped the Australian ARIA Singles Chart and stayed there for five non-consecutive weeks.
"Sweet About Me" also became a hit in Europe, reaching number one in the Netherlands and Norway and becoming a top-five hit in eight other countries. In the UK, the song reached number six and was the most-played track of 2009 according to PRS for Music. The song won the Grand Prix during the 46th Sopot International Song Festival in 2009. A 2010 mix of "Sweet About Me" was included on Cilmi's second album, Ten, released in March 2010.
Background
Recording of Lessons to Be Learned, the parent album of "Sweet About Me," began in Melbourne, Australia, when Gabriella Cilmi was thirteen years-old. Cilmi then re-located to London, England in 2007 to launch her musical career and complete the recording of "Sweet About Me". The song was co-written by Cilmi in collaboration with its producers Xenomania, who are critically acclaimed for their work with Girls Aloud, Sugababes and Kylie Minogue. "Sweet About Me" was written after Cilmi was pillaging a Parisian record store for inspiration. Cilmi was listening to early psychedelic music around the time when she wrote the song. Lyrically, Cilmi said that the song is saying, "We're all going to make mistakes, so we might as well have fun while we're making them." Cilmi explained "Sweet About Me" to Bob Henderson of Gay Times, "['Sweet About Me' is about] nothing being what it seems. This might sound cheesy as well, but just because I'm young doesn't mean I don't understand what's going on."
Described as a "soulful pop song" by contemporary critics, Cilmi revealed to Pete Lewis of Blues & Soul that the "fun" inspiration in "Sweet About Me" originated from her mother's love for 1970s British glam-rock bands, Sweet and T. Rex. During the recording of "Sweet About Me", Cilmi thought there was something "amazing" about the song. Speaking to WalesOnline she said, "I thought it was like a nursery rhyme, the way it got stuck in your head." Cilmi, who is influenced by rock bands Led Zeppelin and Kings of Leon, said she had to make a pop-sounding record to appeal to as many people as possible. Speaking to music website, The Digital Fix, Cilmi explained how she worked together with Brian Higgins on "Sweet About Me":
Even though we came from two totally different backgrounds, when we worked together it just gelled. When it came to our differences I guess we both kind of compromised and came to a decision in the middle.
Composition
"Sweet About Me" is a pop and swing jazz song. It utilizes a subtle electro beat, derived from rocksteady grooves interspersed with layered pop production, and "retro-sounding" contemporary themes. The song has received different lyrical interpretations from critics. A writer from Contactmusic.com felt the song refers to making trouble and getting away with it, Nick Levine of Digital Spy noted that the song sounds lyrically bitter, namely in the line. "When you're playing with desire, don't come running to my place when it burns like fire boy'. According to Cilmi the lyrics are representative of having fun while making your mistakes, and learning from them along the way. "Sweet About Me" is written in the time signature of common time, with a beat rate of 132 beats per minute. The song is written in the key of C-sharp major.
Cilmi uses a sweet and coarse vocal delivery which has been deemed as a misleading contrast between her mature sound and young age. Her vocal performance on the song is similar to that of a group act rather than that of a solo artist. She claims that the track's sound was a product of Xenomania's pop music experience and her lyrical ideas. While the song was being crafted she was influenced by rock bands Kings of Leon and Jet, "I wrote with [Xenomania] who are totally different to me and came from a totally different musical background, they had worked with a lot of pop acts before and at the time I was listening to a lot of Jet and Kings of Leon, so when both our ideas met we came up with something pretty good." Musically, the song has been compared to Amy Winehouse's 2007 single, "Rehab", for their similar composition, soul and swing musical influences.