Ezra Williams talks viral ‘Heartstopper’ sync: “It’s nice to watch young queer kids relate to it”

Ezra Williams has discussed the use of their single ‘My Own Person’ in an episode of the smash-hit Netflix drama, Heartstopper.

• READ MORE: The radical evolution of Ezra Williams

The 2020 track soundtracked a scene where Nick Nelson (played by Kit Connor) questioned his identity, scrolling through online quizzes offering to determine his sexuality.

Thanks to its inclusion in the show, ‘My Own Person’ received a major streams uplift – currently standing at over 9 million plays on Spotify alone. You can find a guide to every single song played in the eight-part series here.

Speaking to NME about the sync in a new interview, Williams said: “When I was writing that song, I was watching [Norwegian drama] Skam and there’s a scene where one of the main characters is looking up ‘Am I gay?’ quizzes on his laptop. I wrote it around the time I was watching that, so it ending up on the soundtrack of another show where that was happening was cool.”

They added: “Heartstopper is the type of show I definitely would have watched in secret if I’d been 12 to 14 when it came out. It would have been an obsession. Watching young queer kids relate and react to it, or love it the way I would have at that age… it’s nice to be part of something that I know would have helped me when I was struggling.”

The series, which is based on Alice Oseman’s graphic novel of the same name, follows a budding high school romance between the aforementioned Nelson and his friend, Charlie Spring (Joe Locke).

A month after it debuted in April 2022, Heartstopper was renewed for a further two seasons. Netflix confirmed in September that production is underway on the second series, although it’s currently unclear when they’ll be released.

Williams, meanwhile, dropped their breakthrough EP ‘Stuck’ under their previous alias Smoothboi Ezra in 2021. The 20-year-old returned with a new single titled ‘Deep Routed’ last month, their first release under their real name. The track will appear on their forthcoming debut album, with details of the record to be confirmed soon.

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