MULTIMEDIA-ENGLISH
Down (Jay Sean)
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Video page URL
https://multimedia-english.com/videos/music/down-jay-sean-1743
Description

"Down" is the American-debut single by British-Punjabi singer Jay Sean. The single features American rapper Lil Wayne, and began to be played on radio stations across the U.S. from May 31, 2009. The single was officially released on iTunes on June 30, 2009, and has since reached the Top 5 at the Billlboard Hot 100 Chart, peaking at number two on week date September 3, 2009.

Transcript

Baby are you down down down down down?
Down, down
Even if the sky is falling down
Down, down

You oughta know
Tonight is the night to let it go
Put on a show
I wanna see how you lose control

So leave it behind
Cause we have a night to get away
So come on and fly with me
As we make our great escape.

So baby don’t worry
You are my only
You won’t be lonely
Even if the sky is falling down
You’ll be my only
No need to worry

Baby are you down down down down down?
Down, Down
Baby are you down down down down down?
Down, Down
Even if the sky is falling down

Just let it be
Come on and bring your body next to me
I’ll take you away, hey
Turn this place into our private getaway

So leave it behind
Cause we have a night to get away
So come on and fly with me
As we make our great escape
So why don’t we run away?

Baby don’t worry
You are my only
You won’t be lonely
Even if the sky is falling down
You’ll be my only
No need to worry

Baby are you down down down down down?
Down, Down
Baby are you down down down down down?
Down, Down
Even if the sky is falling down...

..down like she ‘posed to be
She gets down ** for me
Down like her temperature
Cause to me she’s zero degree

She cold, overfreeze
I got that girl from overseas
Now she my miss America
now, can I be her soldier please?

I’m fighting for this girl
On the battlefield of love
Don’t it look like baby cupid
Sending arrows from above?

Don’t you ever leave the side of me
Indefinitely, not probably
and honestly I’m down like the economy

Baby don’t worry
You are my only
You won’t be lonely
Even if the sky is falling down
You’ll be my only
No need to worry

Baby are you down down down down down?
Down, Down
Baby are you down down down down down?
Down, Down
Even if the sky is falling down
And the sky is falling down

Explanations

ARE YOU DOWN?= Are you sad? Are you depressed?

THE SKY IS FALLING DOWN= Everything around you is a disaster, everything’s going wrong.

YOU OUGHTA KNOW= You ought to know, you should know.

TO LET IT GO= To forget about all your problems and relax.

PUT ON A SHOW= Produce a show. Here it means: get wild, dance like crazy, let everybody watch you and think “wow” (like on a show).

WANNA= (coll.) Want to.

LEAVE IT BEHIND= Forget about all your problems. Get over it.

CAUSE= (coll.) because.

GET AWAY= Escape.

YOU ARE MY ONLY= You are my only one (my only love).

WORRY= /wʌrɪ/


LET IT BE= Relax and don’t worry about it.

GETAWAY= A place for holidays/vacation.

RUN AWAY= Escape.

WHY DON’T WE RUN AWAY?= One of the common ways of expressing suggestions is using the question “why don’t we...?”

SHE ‘POSED TO BE= She is supposed to be. The sentence “down like she is supposed to be” means “people think she is down” (so it’s probably true, but not sure).

GET DOWN LOW= Come close to the ground. But here, “she gets down low for me” probably has some sexual connotations that you can guess, that’s why they censored the word “low” on this video and we get “she gets down for me”, and “to get down” simply means to dance.

SHE COLD= She’s cold. In very colloquial English you can sometimes drop the verb “to be”.

OVERFREEZE= To make extremely cold.


OVERSEAS= (esp. BrE) Abroad. The UK is an island, so the adverb “overseas” (= farther than the sea) is the same as “abroad” (= from/in a foreign country). In America, part of the foreign countries are overseas, but many are not (Canada and most South American countries are abroad but not overseas).

SHE MY MISS AMERICA= She is my Miss America (again he drops the verb “to be”). This means that she is the most beautiful girl he knows (it’s the American rapper singing this).

NOW, CAN I BE…= In the previous line he said “now she’s my Miss America”, and here he repeats the word NOW, but with a different meaning. In fact, it has no meaning this time, it’s simply a common way to start a sentence, especially after a pause.

BATTLEFIELD= The place where a battle takes place.

BABY CUPID= Cupid is the Greek god of love, but in modern culture we usually represent it as a little boy or baby shooting arrows to make people fall in love (if you’re hit, you fall in love).

DON’T YOU EVER LEAVE THE SIDE OF ME= Never leave my side. “The side of me” is a twisted way of simply saying “my side” (and not very correct either). If we use “don’t” we can’t use “never”, because we would have a double negative, so we say “ever”. This is an imperative form, so we shouldn’t use the subject YOU, but we can use it to emphasize the imperative (to make it stronger).

I’M DOWN LIKE THE ECONOMY= At the moment of writing this song (end of 2008) the whole world was at deep recession, so the economy is down. He is also down, but for a person it has a different meaning, it means “sad”.

Meaning

This song basically means “baby, you don’t need to be depressed because I love you. And if you are depressed anyway, I love you all the same”. And he’s got a recipe to cheer  her up: let’s go out together and have a wild night.