Songful Style | “A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri

It is time for September’s Songful Style song choice to inspire an outfit for anyone who wants to play along! After binge watching The Twilight Saga, Suzy chose the second single from the soundtrack of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1, the 2011 tune “A Thousand Years” by American singer/songwriter Christina Perri.

About Songful Style

Songful Style is an ageless style challenge series hosted by Suzy of The Grey Brunette, Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge, and Marsha of Marsha in the Middle. 

Each month we will share a song with the lyrics and video and we invite you to use whatever aspect of the song that inspires you to create an outfit. 

It is similar to Style Imitating Art where we use artwork to inspire our outfit creations. Except Songful Style gives you lyrics, music, video, and album artwork to inspire your fashion creativity. You may even find inspiration in a memory triggered by the selected song. It is all open to your own personal interpretation and just a fun way to discover new music and get a little bit more creative with your wardrobe.

Anyone is welcome to join us on a permanent basis or you can just play along without any obligation to do anything other than feel inspired. We are flexible and fun and just want to find more ways to play dress up because it’s what we enjoy doing! 

We will be posting on the last Monday of each month and will announce our song choice for the following month at the end of each post. Then about a week or two later, I will share a detailed post like this one about the chosen song.

Video Inspiration

The Lyrics

“A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri

The day we met
Frozen I held my breath
Right from the start
I knew that I'd found a home for my heart
Beats fast
Colors and promises
How to be brave?
How can I love when I'm afraid to fall?
But watching you stand alone
All of my doubt suddenly goes away somehow
One step closer

I have died everyday waiting for you
Darling, don't be afraid, I have loved you for a thousand years
I'll love you for a thousand more

Time stands still
Beauty in all she is
I will be brave
I will not let anything take away
What's standing in front of me
Every breath, every hour has come to this
One step closer

I have died everyday waiting for you
Darling, don't be afraid, I have loved you for a thousand years
I'll love you for a thousand more

And all along I believed I would find you
Time has brought your heart to me
I have loved you for a thousand years
I'll love you for a thousand more

Ooh-ooh
Ooh-ooh
I love you for a thousand more
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh
One step closer

I have died everyday waiting for you
Darling, don't be afraid, I have loved you for a thousand years
I'll love you for a thousand more

And all along I believed I would find you
Time has brought your heart to me
I have loved you for a thousand years
I'll love you for a thousand more

About the Artist and the Song

Born on August 19, 1986, in Bensalem, Pennsylvania (which is only 70 miles from my hometown of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania), Christina Perri exhibited musical talent from an early age, frequently singing and acting in various roles in children’s musical theater. At the age of 16, she taught herself how to play the guitar by repeatedly watching a VH1 video of Shannon Hoon from Blind Melon performing. She also learned to play piano because she missed the sound of music that had filled her home prior to moving away. She graduated in 2004 from Archbishop Ryan High School, a Catholic school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and later attended The University of the Arts in Philadelphia but dropped out after her first year.

On her 21st birthday, she moved 3,000 miles away from her home in Pennsylvania, settling in Los Angeles, California, to pursue her music career. She says she was terrified being so far from home and cried daily when she first arrived. Later that year, she got married, began producing music videos for a living, and then divorced 18 months later. After about 2 more years, she returned to Philadelphia where she released her debut single “Jar of Hearts” in 2010. She eventually moved back to Los Angeles where she worked at the Melrose Cafe during the day so she could record at night. In July 2010, following the success of “Jar of Hearts”, Perri signed with Atlantic Records, releasing her debut album, Lovestrong, on May 10, 2011, which debuted at number 4 on the Billboard 200.

In July of that year, she embarked on the Lovestong Tour, her first world tour that consisted of 71 dates over the course of nearly a year. On October 18, 2011, Perri released her single “A Thousand Years” which was written for the first film in the Twilight Saga, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1. The song was the second single from the film and was originally released in digital download format. For The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, Perri re-recorded the song with vocals by Steve Kazee.

The song was written by Perri and David Hodges and originally recorded by Perri in the key of B-flat major with a vocal range of F₃ to C₅. The lyrics tell the love story of The Twilight Saga‘s main characters Bella and Edward. The official music video was released on October 26, 2011, on Perri’s YouTube channel. The video begins with Perri holding a candle while clips from the film are interspersed between scenes of Perri singing in a candle filled room. With over 2 billion views, it is one of the top 100 most viewed videos on YouTube.

“A Thousand Years” debuted at number 63 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 70 on the Canadian Hot 100. It peaked at number 31 on the Billboard charts, giving Perri her second top 40 hit. On March 3, 2022, the song was certified diamond for selling 10 million units in the United States. “A Thousand Years” garnered worldwide success, reaching its highest chart positions at number 3 in the Czech Republic, number 7 in Ireland, and number 11 in the United Kingdom.

Perri is of Italian and Polish descent but she has referred to her family as “very Italian”. Unless you are yourself “very Italian”, you may not know what that means. I also come from a “very Italian” family and to me it means loud, hungry, and animated!

In June 2017, Perri got engaged to Paul Costabile whom she married on December 12 of that year. She gave birth to the couple’s first daughter, Carmella, on January 17, 2018. On Carmella’s first birthday, Perri released her first lullaby album, Songs for Carmella: Lullabies & Sing-a-Longs. Two years later in January 2020, Perri announced that she had miscarried their second child after 11 weeks of pregnancy. She became pregnant a third time that July and following pregnancy complications, her second daughter, Rosie, was stillborn. On November 24, 2021, the first anniversary of Rosie’s death, Perri released her album Songs for Rosie. She announced that she was pregnant with her fourth child in May 2022 and gave birth to her third daughter, Pixie Rose, on October 22, 2022.

Album Covers and Other Photo Inspiration

Hopefully, you are inspired to join us with your own outfit creation. You are welcome to do your own research if you need more inspiration or if you are interested in learning more. If you want to join us with your own outfit inspired by Christina Perri’s “A Thousand Years”, we will be hosting a link party on our blogs on Monday, September 25, 2023, where you can share your post. We would love to see your Songful Styles.

Happy styling, my friends. May the music move you! 

Keeping it on the edge,

Shelbee

Joining these Fabulous Link Parties.