"Simple" is a song by American country music duo Florida Georgia Line. It is their fifteenth solo single release, and the first from their fourth studio album Can't Say I Ain't Country. Written by duo members Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley along with Michael Hardy and Mark Holman, the song expresses romantic love as a "simple" concept. The song has been promoted through the use of black-and-white photography on the duo's Instagram account, along with a music video directed by Justin Clough.
Hubbard and Kelley both discussed the song in an interview with Nash Country Daily. Hubbard said that "Majority of the time, I just find that for us it’s just easy to keep it simple. There's no need to complicate it, especially when it comes to love and [our] relationships with our wives and our families. Just a little reminder to simplify things every now and then and have a good time while you do it", while Kelley stated that it was "the next step for FGL" and a "fresh sound".[2] The two also stated in an interview on iHeartRadio's website that the two drew lyrical inspiration from their relationships with their own wives and families.[3] Thematically, the song is about keeping a relationship "simple" and expressing the emotion of romantic love in simple fashions.[4]
The duo promoted the song on Instagram by erasing all other pictures from the account and replacing them with captioned black-and-white photos.[4]
Commercial performance
Simple debuted at No. 24 on the Country Airplay chart on its release on June 1, 2018.[5] It peaked at No. 1 on Country Airplay in October 2018, which is Florida Georgia Line's 14th No. 1 on the chart, making them a duo or group with the second-most No. 1s on the chart, tying with Rascal Flatts behind Brooks & Dunn.[6] The song was certified double platinum on September 13, 2019.[7] The song has sold 367,000 copies in the United States as of January 2019.[8] As of May 2024, the song had 388,804,313 streams on Spotify.[9]
Music video
Directed by Justin Clough, the music video features a grandfather recalling a romantic story to his grandchildren, interspersed with scenes from his wife and his younger self crashing a party in the 1930s.[10]