🦋 This week in June 2003 Darius released his beautiful song "Girl In The Moon".
"Girl In The Moon" was the fourth and final single to be released from "Dive In". The Sunday Times called the song 'a highlight of the album'.
It was released on 9th June 2003 and peaked at number 21 in the UK charts and number 13 in Scotland. The track was written by Darius and was his favourite track from the album, he previously said he was inspired by The Beatles when he wrote it.
The single featured a collection of B Sides which were recorded live during Darius' "Dive In Tour" just a few weeks prior to release.
Speaking at Birmingham's Box Live gig in June 2003 he told CBBC's Newsround that "Girl In The Moon" is "about the idea that we have all got a guardian angel".
"People always ask me why I came back and what got me through - this song is about that. I turned my life around because the public gave me the support to pursue my dream."
In July 2003, Darius appeared as himself in an episode of the Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks, and performed "Girl in the Moon" at the graduation ball. He also appeared on a special episode of Blue Peter where he showcased the track from a young fan's back garden as well as performing the song on CD:UK.
The lyrics to the song were printed in Smash Hits in June 2003.
Darius performed the song live on his 'Dive In Tour' and on a summer radio tour across the UK where he would choose a fan out of the crowd to sing it to.
You can watch a clip of Darius talking about the song and his belief in guardian angels below:
The single was released on 2 CDs and as a cassette:
The B Sides were all live tracks and were Sliding Doors, Gotta Know Tonight, Bootylicious / Faith and I Got You Under My Skin. An exclusive video interview with Darius was also included as well a poster.
Darius spoke about changes made to the song in an interview that was published in the Daily Mail's Weekend magazine in November 2005.
Whilst discussing his record contract with Mercury he said:
"When he (Steve Lillywhite) left the company, the captain of my ship had gone, so there was no reason for me to be with Mercury, although I am still signed to the label 19 Recordings. They insisted on changing my fourth single. The song, which I wanted to be a thoughtful ballad, became a mid-tempo tune. I felt in my gut that it shouldn't have happened, but it did. I felt pressurised. That wasn't why I went with that record company.
I could have gone with Simon Cowell but he didn't want me to write my own songs. Now I felt compromised, bowing to the wills of others against my own creative judgement."
"Girl In The Moon" is Darius' fourth most popular song on Spotify and as of 2024 has been streamed almost 145,000 times on the platform.
You can see a photoshoot from the set of the video of "Girl In The Moon" below:
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