Pop-singer Camila Cabello, with the vocal help of Ed Sheeran, opens up about the highs and lows of moving on from an ex-boyfriend in her latest single, “Bam Bam.”
Cabello recognizes that both she and her ex are changing in ways they never thought they would (“You said you hated the ocean, but you’re surfin’ now”) and that is largely due to the fact that they’ve grown up and grown apart (“We were kids at the start, I guess we’re grown-ups now/Couldn’t ever imagine havin’ doubts/But not everything works out”).
This reality sometimes hits in weird ways: When she’s out “dancing with strangers,” she realizes he “could be casually datin’” now. Yet she says that although “love came around and it knocked me down” she’s “back on [her] feet.”
On the flip side, Sheeran shares that although he and his wife had a hard year, she is the one who helped him to work through it all (“My world, baby, you hold me down”).
There are some sensual references in this song, such as Cabello selling the home she shared with her ex-boyfriend (“I said I’d love you for life, but I just sold our house”) as well as dancing with a random man at, presumably, a club, where she says, “He’s all over me”. We also hear two profanities: “d–n” and “h—.”
And the music video for this track is unnecessarily sensual. Cabello dances at a club, pouring wine down her dress, which makes it possible to see a bit of what’s underneath. She also goes to a laundromat with a bunch of other women and dances around in a t-shirt and underwear (others wear bras and thongs). At one point she dances topless (although we can only see the very top of her chest).
This track tells listeners that difficult things may happen in life, but that is both common and to be expected. The only thing you can do is pick yourself up and keep moving forward. But, unfortunately, there’s both profanity and unnecessary sensuality in the song and accompanying video.
Kristin Smith joined the Plugged In team in 2017. Formerly a Spanish and English teacher, Kristin loves reading literature and eating authentic Mexican tacos. She and her husband, Eddy, love raising their children Judah and Selah. Kristin also has a deep affection for coffee, music, her dog (Cali) and cat (Aslan).
