You know the phrase your mates send when a situationship gets murky. If he wanted to, he would.
On If He Wanted To, He Would Perrie turns that viral mantra into a brisk pop pep talk, a friend pulling you into the kitchen at 1 a.m. and telling you the truth softly, then loudly.
It creeps in at the sweet spot of her 2024–25 solo run, the kind of single that keeps momentum humming for a debut album that arrives on 26 September.
The single was released 22 August 2025 in the UK , issued via Perrie Louise Ltd under exclusive licence to Sony Music UK, and sits on Columbia at track level.
On credits, the song was written by Perrie with Nina Nesbitt, Charlie Martin, and Joe Housley, produced by Steve Solomon and The Nocturns.
If you follow modern British pop, you’ll clock Solomon’s melodic fingerprints, but the voice driving the thing is unmistakably Perrie’s.
What is she actually saying here? Not a lecture, more a firm hug. The verses lay out the pattern, then the chorus swings the hammer with a line destined for captions: “He’ll buy you flowers, but he won’t call you back.”
Later, she strips away the excuse loop with “Not being funny, but if he wanted to, he would.”
And in one of the song’s sharpest little eye rolls: “Ruin your life and then tell you, ‘Relax.’”
Each line is familiar to anyone who has ever talked a friend out of the loop.
Perrie has been upfront about the intent. “The music I love the most is that anthemic pop where it sounds live and it’s got a band behind it,” she told Rolling Stone UK, which lines up with the song’s punchy guitars and drum feel.
She has also framed the track as “about not applauding your partner for doing the bare minimum,” a clear pivot from wallow to standards.
The video gives the message its most playful form. Directed by Dora Paphides, it’s a rom-com scrapbook that winks at Mean Girls, The Holiday, Pretty Woman, and Love Actually, complete with a Nina Nesbitt cameo that doubles down on the best-friend energy.
You can feel the delight of two pop writers jumping into the frame together, staging a cinema daydream where the girls choose each other first.
The shoot’s gleam matches the track’s smile-through-it attitude.
A quick pulse check on early performance. Over on YouTube, the official video captured around 894k views in week one and trended at number 7 on Music, strong engagement for a fresh cut in late August.
Debuted at #14 on The Big Top 40 site on 24 Aug 2025, a useful sign of UK airplay and streams clicking at pace. None of this is a coronation; it’s a healthy signal.
Under the bonnet, the songwriting does something smart. It reframes a loaded slogan into a friend-to-friend conversation, where the messenger has done the messy work already.
The pre-chorus sketches the rut, “Same thing, different day,” then slips into a chorus that feels like a group chat intervention sung out loud.
Notice how the melody keeps rising on the word “good,” a tiny tug of temptation, before the hook slams the door with that shrug of a line. You can hear a stadium in it, but it still plays in a kitchen at 1 a.m.
Community reaction backs that read, with the usual split that makes pop culture fun.
In early Reddit threads, plenty of listeners celebrate the humour of the video, the cameo, and the bright, bubbly lane that feels true to Perrie.
Others, often fans who grew up on Little Mix and now want a darker palette, argue she should push into edgier textures or carve a stronger identity outside the group’s DNA.
A smaller cluster compared the shout-along rush to G.R.L.’s Ugly Heart or Little Mix’s Shout Out To My Ex.
Even framed as a critique, those are telling comparisons, because they place this single squarely in the lineage of big-voiced pop kiss-offs that stick.
In 2024, Perrie introduced her solo world with Forget About Us and the one-take sprint of You Go Your Way, then dotted in seasonal and live pieces through 2024, rolled out Rollercoaster early 2025, and now drops a friend-first anthem weeks before album day.
In that arc, If He Wanted To He Would functions like a clean thesis statement, a confident reintroduction to the exact thing she said she wanted to make: anthemic pop that feels live.
It also lines up neatly with how the phrase lives online. The title has swirled on TikTok for years as a blunt dating rule, sometimes criticised for simplifying real relationships.
Here, the tone softens, landing closer to sisterly care than scorched-earth advice.
That shift matters because it turns a slogan into a story and gives the hook a human face.
The rom-com collage in the video amplifies that warmth without letting the guy off the hook.
If the song leaves you wanting more from Perrie’s pen, that’s almost the point. She has said she loves big, live-feeling pop, and this is the cleanest expression of that preference so far.
The microscopic quibble, the one some fans raise, is that the chorus leans on a familiar chord lift and chanty cadence.
Fair. It’s also the reason it works instantly on first play, which is exactly what a late-August single should do when you are four weeks from a debut LP.
If he wanted to, he would. If she wanted to, she did. The only question left is whether you hear a friend’s tough love in it, or your own.
Forget About Us set the tone in April 2024, You Go Your Way arrived that autumn with a one-take visual flex, Rollercoaster kept 2025 ticking, and If He Wanted To He Would tees up the self-titled album due 26 September. That’s a tidy arc for a solo reset.
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Full If He Wanted To He Would Lyrics from Perrie
Verse 1
Come round to mine and tell me what’s been happenin’
You say it’s him, that’s not very surprisin’
Your eyes are red, I can tell you’ve been cryin’
You say you’re fine, but you’re lyin’
Pre-Chorus
It’s the same thing, different day
Runnin’ out of words to say
And we’ve all been that girl, fallin’ for potential
But he can’t do the basics and that shit’s essential
Chorus
He’ll buy you flowers, but he won’t call you back
Ruin your life and then tell you, “Relax”
And, look, I get it if the sex is kinda good (So good)
But guess what, honey? If he wanted to, he would
I hate to tеll you, but he ain’t gonna change
I know it hurts and I know it’s such a shame
You’rе only blinded ’cause the sex is kinda good
Not being funny, but if he wanted to, he would
Verse 2
His sense of vanity got you out here doing charity
He thinks he needs a lover, what he really needs is therapy
Don’t forget your worth, he never puts you first
I wanna see you with the love I know that you deserve
Pre-Chorus
Same thing, different day
Runnin’ out of words to say
And we’ve all been that girl, fallin’ for potential
But he can’t do the basics and that shit’s essential
Chorus
He’ll buy you flowers, but he won’t call you back
Ruin your life and then tell you, “Relax” (Relax)
And, look, I get it if the sex is kinda good (So good)
But guess what, honey? If he wanted to, he would
I hate to tell you, but he ain’t gonna change (Oh)
I know it hurts and I know it’s such a shame
You’re only blinded ’cause the sex is kinda good
Not being funny, but if he wanted to, he would
Bridge
If he wanted to, he would
(If he wanted to, he would)
Girl, if you love him, I love that for you
But I’d fuck him up if you wanted me to
Breakdown
He’ll buy you flowers, but he won’t call you back
Ruin your life and then tell you, “Relax”
And, look, I get it if the sex is kinda good
But guess what, honey? If he wanted to, he would
Chorus
He’ll buy you flowers, but he won’t call you back (Oh)
Ruin your life and then tell you, “Relax”
And, look, I get it if the sex is kinda good (So good)
But guess what, honey? If he wanted to, he would
I hate to tell you, but he ain’t gonna change (He ain’t gonna change)
I know it hurts and I know it’s such a shame (Such a shame)
You’re only blinded ’cause the sex is kinda good
Not being funny, but if he wanted to, he would
