About the meaning of the song
“This song is romantic, but it’s also empowering — it can be directed at anything or anyone,” Grace explained. “’Beautiful’ is always used in feminine terms, but when I wrote this song, it was originally about a guy…but it’s also kind of a note to self… a song to boost your confidence. Like, I know I’m beautiful… don’t I know that? I always try to hide it but then when I’m alone and am looking in my bathroom mirror, I know I’m beautiful. I’m good enough. I hope everyone feels that.” For some reason, things like “beautiful” and “pretty,” I feel, have been so directed towards females, which I don’t understand because it’s not just hot [?]. I have seen so many very pretty boys and we have always thought about incorporating that in a song.
It was kind of the perfect moment to finally make that idea we had had for years really come alive. I try my best to keep it as spontaneous as possible. I have noticed that the more inspired I am to do something, the more quickly it flows out, probably the more I like that piece. I don’t know why; I literally just kept it on a loop, and I just wrote lines., and I think that’s what keeps it so magical because I keep the first thing that popped into my mind. I think that keeps that like weird spark still in there. It’s like perfume. You know how they say, if you don’t smell anymore, don’t keep spraying it on, just ‘cause your nose is getting used to it. It’s kind of like that, like, you don’t want to get it used to it and then have people like uhh!
Honestly, I am very proud of the one line: “If you want it to say something, you would say you’d promise me.” [I remember we really stuck on that, and that was like a spur-of-the-moment adlib that, for some reason like, worked so perfectly, and we like both freaked out. “ (Grace Vanderwaal Breaks Down Her song 'Ur So Beautiful', Rolling Stone Oct. 3, 2019)
Grace continued to be proud of this song. In an
interview with Travis Mills on Apple Music) on Oct 16, 2024, focusing on her latest music, Grace was asked to name a song from her older music catalog that she was really proud of]
”It’s hard because I have been doing this for so long, and there is a lot I am embarrassed at. But a song that I always loved and still do, Ur So Beautifull. I never stopped liking that song. Because you know, sometimes when you are as young as I am, four or five years ago is much different to me than like an average grown adult. I was a kid, cringey, and figuring things out, pretending to be other people, and not confident in myself. But Ur So Beautiful is one that always aged right for me.”
Other credist on this song
Sophie B. Hawkins and Brittany Amaradio and Sophie Hawkins share credits for this song because it contains an interpolation of their song
"Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover"
About the music video
”The whole project is really, really personal, which is scary but at the same time I feel it adds so much to the song. The music video wasn’t a music video, I just got a camcorder and was like, oh, I am going to make like a documentary or something, I don’t know, so I just started recording everything. And we were watching it, and I was tearing up; it was like clipping to the beat. And we were like – this is the video; it was so magical, and it just happened." (Grace Vanderwaal Breaks Down Her song 'Ur So Beautiful', Rolling Stone Oct. 3, 2019)
