The 2010s File Feature
Issues
History of "Issues" by Julia Michaels "Issues" is the debut solo single by Julia Michaels, an American songwriter who had spent years writing major hits for …
01 The Story
History of "Issues" by Julia Michaels
"Issues" is the debut solo single by Julia Michaels, an American songwriter who had spent years writing major hits for other artists before stepping out as a recording artist in her own right. Released on January 13, 2017, through Republic Records, the song introduced a wide public audience to a voice they had been hearing indirectly through the work of numerous pop stars for whom Michaels had crafted material. Its success marked a significant moment in the broader narrative of professional songwriters crossing into performance.
Julia Michaels had built one of the most impressive behind-the-scenes resumes in contemporary pop songwriting prior to "Issues." She co-wrote major hits including "Sorry" and "Love Yourself" for Justin Bieber, "Good for You" for Selena Gomez, "Stitches" for Shawn Mendes, and tracks for artists including Demi Lovato, Britney Spears, Jason Derulo, and Hailee Steinfeld. That body of work gave her an unusually strong professional platform from which to launch a solo career, and Republic Records provided the institutional support to translate that credibility into commercial visibility.
"Issues" was co-written by Michaels and Justin Tranter, a regular collaborator who had worked alongside her on many of the chart hits she had written for other performers. The song was produced by Mattias Larsson and Robin Fredriksson, the Swedish production duo known professionally as Mattman & Robin, who brought a restrained, acoustic-leaning pop sensibility to the track. The production deliberately stripped away the more elaborate production hallmarks common to mainstream pop, allowing Michaels's vocal performance and lyrical directness to occupy the center of the listening experience.
The track entered the Billboard Hot 100 on February 11, 2017, debuting at number 87. Its ascent was one of the more remarkable chart climbs of the year, moving steadily through the upper regions of the chart over multiple weeks of accumulated streaming. By June 10, 2017, "Issues" had climbed to its peak position of number 11, spending 29 weeks on the chart in total. That extended run placed it among the more resilient hits of the 2017 pop calendar and demonstrated the depth of listener engagement the song had generated.
The song's Grammy performance was notable. It earned Julia Michaels a Grammy nomination for Song of the Year at the 60th Grammy Awards in 2018, one of the most prestigious categories in the recording industry. The nomination acknowledged the songwriting achievement behind the track and, by extension, recognized Michaels's broader contributions to the pop genre as one of its most skilled craftspeople. Being recognized as both a performer and a songwriter in that context was an unusual dual distinction.
The music video for "Issues" presented Michaels in a casual, unadorned visual context that matched the stripped-down quality of the recording. Its straightforward approach helped reinforce the authenticity and directness that the song communicated musically. The video accumulated substantial viewership and contributed to the track's streaming footprint, which included strong performance on Spotify and Apple Music over an extended period following its release.
The commercial success of "Issues" was accompanied by significant critical praise, with reviewers noting both the quality of the songwriting and the surprising effectiveness of Michaels as a performer. Many commentators observed that her years of professional songwriting experience gave her an unusually clear-eyed relationship with the material, allowing her to interpret her own work with precision and emotional intelligence rather than the more self-conscious energy that sometimes characterized debut singles from songwriter-turned-performers.
In the years following its release, "Issues" has been recognized as a significant moment in the late-2010s pop landscape, a song that demonstrated the commercial viability of stripped-back, emotionally honest pop at a time when production maximalism was dominant. It launched a successful recording career for Michaels alongside her continued work as a songwriter, confirming that her skills extended fully from behind the scenes into the public spotlight, with the track's 295 million YouTube views standing as lasting testament to its reach.
02 Song Meaning
Meaning of "Issues" by Julia Michaels
"Issues" by Julia Michaels is a song about the acceptance of mutual imperfection within a romantic relationship. Rather than presenting a conventional narrative of idealized love, the track describes two people who openly acknowledge that they each carry emotional baggage, personal flaws, and complicated inner lives, and who choose to be together precisely because they recognize and accept those realities in each other. It is a song about love as a choice made with full knowledge of difficulty rather than in ignorance of it.
The central message is one of mutual acceptance and emotional reciprocity. The narrator admits directly that she has issues, a deliberate, self-aware statement that refuses to present herself as a perfect romantic partner. Crucially, however, she pairs that acknowledgment with the observation that her partner has his own issues, and that this symmetry of imperfection is what makes them compatible. The song reframes the conventional romantic logic in which partners are celebrated for being ideal into one where partners are valued for being honestly themselves, including the difficult parts.
There is a psychological dimension to the track's appeal that goes beyond its surface romantic narrative. The willingness to name one's own flaws openly in the context of a love song was relatively unusual in mainstream pop, where idealization is more common than frank admission of difficulty. Michaels's decision to center this acknowledgment gave the song a quality of emotional maturity that resonated with listeners who found the more conventional pop romance formula alienating or unrepresentative of their own experiences.
The lyrical directness of "Issues" reflects Michaels's professional background as a songwriter who had spent years learning how to communicate complex emotional realities in compact, memorable language. The song demonstrates a particular skill for identifying the universal within the specific, translating a very particular emotional situation into terms that feel immediately recognizable to a wide range of listeners. The specificity of the admission, the plainness of the declaration, creates intimacy rather than distance.
Cultural reception of the song reinforced the reading that its themes of honest, non-idealized love filled a meaningful gap in the contemporary pop landscape. Critics and listeners alike noted that the track's refusal to romanticize or dramatize its subject matter was a meaningful stylistic and substantive choice. In an era when many pop love songs presented either uncomplicated celebration or exaggerated heartbreak, "Issues" occupied a more nuanced middle ground that felt closer to the actual texture of many people's romantic lives.
The song also carries an implicit argument about the nature of commitment. By framing the relationship as a conscious choice made in the face of acknowledged imperfection, Michaels suggests that genuine love involves a kind of eyes-open acceptance rather than the temporary blindness of infatuation. This is a more durable foundation for a relationship, and the song communicates that durability through its calm, assured emotional register. The result is a track that has maintained its resonance with listeners well beyond its initial chart success, speaking to something fundamental about how real relationships actually function and what it means to truly accept another person.
→ More from the 2010s File
View all 2010s hits →
Keep digging