“Party in the U.S.A.” Writer Claude Kelly on “Fan-Charged Success” of Miley Cyrus’ Hit

In its original form, Miley Cyrus‘ “Party in the U.S.A.” was a different story. Originally written for British singer Jessie J, it followed the journey of a girl moving from London to Los Angeles, soaking in the vastly different sights of her new home in America. But after her label rejected it, Jessie J and co-writers Claude Kelly and Dr. Luke revived it and turned it into a megahit for Cyrus. Below Kelly tells American Songwriter about the song’s transformation and how it became an accidental success.

The Origin Story

“[The original lyrics] actually makes more sense,” Kelly says. “Hopped off the plane at LAX / With my tea and my cardigan / Welcome to the land of fame and sex / Will I ever fit in? / Jumped in the cab and the driver’s on the left side and I see the Hollywood sign / Oh my god there’s Macy’s / Everybody seems so famous. It was all about these culture shock things from a London girl, so when it didn’t work out, they made us change all those lyrics to a girl from Nashville to LA, which is so ironic because here I am in Nashville now … but had no clue I’d end up living here.

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“I think a lot of times those stories probably seem sexier than it is, but these songs kind of trip into their success, and ‘Party in the U.S.A.’ is no different,” he continues. “It was for Jessie J first. It was about a girl from London and then as it happens very often, labels are brainless and spineless when it comes to taking risks on amazing things, and so it floated for a while. I thought it would just go away. A lot of songs, you have to let them go even though they don’t deserve to be let go sometimes. Miley was doing a one-off for Walmart, this was in the Hannah Montana days. Now that I understand the world better, I definitely credit social media.

“I remember I had just joined Twitter and I was getting a gauge of that stuff and that was one of the first songs that I saw people really talking about this before we knew viral was a thing because it wasn’t expected to be a hit,” Kelly says. “Had no clue that it would do what it did. It was just a song that came out through Walmart for the summer. But People started talking about it and then Billboard jumped on it and then all the press jumped on it. So shout out to the people for making that song the national anthem. That’s definitely a fan-charged success.”

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