Singer Keith Urban had no idea the writers behind his new track Female had drawn inspiration for the song from the sex scandal surrounding disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.
The country singer debuted the tune onstage at Wednesday's (08Nov17) Country Music Association Awards in Nashville, Tennessee, but when he first recorded it, he was unaware of the real motivation which drove Shane McAnally, Nicolle Galyon, and Ross Copperman to pen the track.
Instead, he just thought Female was a beautiful, empowering piece of music - and that's how he prefers to view it.
"When I heard the song I knew nothing about its back story, and I don't think that is needed for the song," Keith explained to U.S. breakfast show Good Morning America. "The song for me was far more celebratory than anything else, so that's what really moved me."
Lyrics from the song include the lines: "When somebody laughs and implies that she asked for it/Just cause she was wearing a skirt/Oh is that how that works?"
Revealing the track's inspiration at the BMI Country Awards on Tuesday, songwriter Ross explained he and his collaborators came up with the idea for Female after reading about the sexual harassment and assault accusations made against Hollywood producer Weinstein in a New York Times expose last month.
"It's from the Weinstein announcement," he said on the red carpet. "We're in a room and we're like, 'What can we do about this?' And that's the one thing we can do, is write songs."
Keith's actress wife Nicole Kidman also spoke out in support of the alleged victims after the allegations were made public.
"As I've stated before publicly, I support and applaud all women and these women who speak out against any abuse and misuse of power - be it domestic violence or sexual harassment in the workforce," Nicole declared in a statement issued to People.com. "We need to eradicate this behaviour."
