Story Behind the Song: Callista Clark, ‘It’s ‘Cause I Am’

Callista Clark may be young, but she knows just who she is and is confident in it. "If I seem too complicated for you / It's 'cause I am," she sings in her debut major-label single, "It's 'Cause I Am."

The 17-year-old is finding country radio success with the song, too: For the chart week dated Aug. 14, "It's 'Cause I Am" is in the Top 30, and per a press release, the single's success makes her the most successful debut artist of 2021.

Below, Clark shares the story behind "It's 'Cause I Am" — from her Real to Me EP — with The Boot.

There were a lot of moments in my career where I felt like I wasn't being taken seriously, so I wanted to write something that was very confident and, like, almost sarcastic — that's where the "Don't beat yourself up about it, baby"s came in.

I was writing it with Cameron James and Laura Veltz — two amazing people, two amazing songwriters; I love them — and Laura just was kind of writing down everything I was saying, and a lot of it came from that, honestly. We just wrote the most sassy thing that we could have gotten, and there's my single!

I love the "one-dimensional woman" line, 'cause I don't think anyone's that easy to figure out. I don't think anyone is that simple or one-note or whatever; I think that everybody always has a story, and I think that line's very important.

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