7 Years doesn’t rush to declare itself. It opens with a quiet line: “Once I was seven years old, my mama told me / Go make yourself some friends or you’ll be lonely.”
It’s less a lyric than a moment overheard, a memory Lukas Forchhammer lets slip out rather than sing.
Released on 18 September 2015, the song landed on Lukas’s 27th birthday, part of the band’s second self-titled album.
It carries the shape of a timeline more than a pop anthem, a song counting forward into years Lukas hasn’t lived yet, sketching milestones he hopes or fears might come, leaving spaces for his father, Eugene Graham, who died at 61.
A looping piano figure anchors the track, with a beat that stays soft beneath it.
There’s no need for it to grow bigger. Lukas’s voice takes up the space, steady and clear, moving from age to age: seven, eleven, twenty, thirty, sixty.
Each verse holds a snapshot before it moves to the next, as if he’s flipping through photos too quickly to settle on one.
“Smoking herb and drinking burning liquor” at eleven reads more jarring than rebellious. “My woman brought children for me” at thirty feels off, like it skips over life’s messier details to land at a trophy ending.
Reddit threads latched onto those lines, picking them apart. “Why have a wife at 11?” someone asked, half-joking but curious.
Others called it self-mythologising dressed up as sincerity. Todd in the Shadows called it “Lukas Graham giving himself a blowjob,” a sharp, biting take that stuck.
The pushback wasn’t only about awkward phrasing. Listeners questioned how much of the song reflected reality.
Christiania, the freetown in Copenhagen where Lukas grew up, has its own reputation—equal parts idealised and misunderstood. It’s known for its artists, its openness, its defiance of rules.
Lukas’s childhood there, combined with his history as a child actor, made some wonder if the song’s struggles were being staged or softened, storytelling blurring with self-curation.
But the song keeps moving forward. “Once I was twenty years old, my story got told” doesn’t circle back. It keeps naming years, ticking past them like checkpoints.
There’s no return to seven, no reflection on eleven. Each line steps into a future Lukas hasn’t yet reached, listing hopes as though willing them closer.
The music video, directed by René Sascha Johannsen, follows Lukas through Copenhagen’s streets, across quiet fields, along empty stretches of road.
The images don’t tie themselves to specific memories but feel familiar, like places passed every day but rarely noticed. There’s no single story here, just the feeling of a life in motion.
Later verses turn softer. “Soon I’ll be sixty years old, my daddy got sixty-one” lands without decoration, the lyric carrying its own quiet ache.
His father’s death lingers underneath the verse, unspoken but present.
“I hope my children come and visit once or twice a month” reads less like confidence, more like a wish spoken into the air, uncertain if it will catch.
Lukas said in interviews that 7 Years wasn’t written to chase a hit. It came together quickly, in an afternoon, the kind of song that unfolds before you realise it’s finished.
Maybe that’s why it feels more like a list than a full narrative—each verse another name, another goal, another door opening onto an unknown.
But the song didn’t stay small. It climbed charts across Europe and Australia, reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100, earned Grammy nominations for Song of the Year, Record of the Year, Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.
It became a song played at graduations, weddings, funerals—moments that mark time as surely as birthdays.
Some listeners loved its simplicity. Others found it cloying, too direct.
Reddit compared it to Five for Fighting’s 100 Years, debating whether it borrowed too much or borrowed too little. It wasn’t a song that slipped quietly into the background. It stuck.
7 Years doesn’t lay everything out neatly. It leaves gaps, skips explanations, counts forward even when the future feels unreachable. Some lines pause. Others move ahead. Nothing sits still for long.
The song keeps listing, keeps adding years, keeps asking what comes next.
Whether those years arrive as imagined—or not at all—isn’t something it tries to answer.
It’s a song that keeps moving, waiting for whoever’s listening to decide what to carry forward, and what to leave behind.
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Lukas Graham 7 Years Lyrics
Chorus
Once, I was seven years old, my mama told me
“Go make yourself some friends or you’ll be lonely”
Once, I was seven years old
Verse 1
It was a big, big world, but we thought we were bigger
Pushing each other to the limits, we were learnin’ quicker
By eleven, smokin’ herb and drinkin’ burnin’ liquor
Never rich, so we were out to make that steady figure
Chorus
Once, I was eleven years old, my daddy told me
“Go get yourself a wife or you’ll be lonely”
Once, I was eleven years old
Verse 2
I always had that dream like my daddy before me
So I started writin’ songs, I started writin’ stories
Something about that glory just always seemed to bore me
‘Cause only those I really love will ever really know me
Chorus
Once, I was twenty years old, my story got told
Before the mornin’ sun, when life was lonely
Once, I was twenty years old(Lukas Graham!)
Verse 3
I only see my goals, I don’t believe in failure
‘Cause I know the smallest voices, they can make it major
I got my boys with me, at least those in favor
And if we don’t meet before I leave, I hope I’ll see you later
Chorus
Once, I was twenty years old, my story got told
I was writin’ ’bout everything I saw before me
Once, I was twenty years old
Bridge
Soon, we’ll be thirty years old, our songs have been sold
We’ve traveled around the world and we’re still roamin’
Soon, we’ll be thirty years old
Verse 4
I’m still learnin’ about life, my woman brought children for me
So I can sing them all my songs, and I can tell them stories
Most of my boys are with me, some are still out seekin’ glory
And some I had to leave behind, my brother, I’m still sorry
Chorus
Soon, I’ll be sixty years old, my daddy got sixty-one
Remember life and then your life becomes a better one
I made a man so happy when I wrote a letter once
I hope my children come and visit once or twice a month
Breakdown
Soon, I’ll be sixty years old, will I think the world is cold?
Or will I have a lot of children who can warm me?
Soon, I’ll be sixty years old
Soon, I’ll be sixty years old, will I think the world is cold?
Or will I have a lot of children who can warm me?
Soon, I’ll be sixty years old
Chorus
Once, I was seven years old, my mama told me
“Go make yourself some friends or you’ll be lonely”
Once, I was seven years old
Once, I was seven years old
