Steinfeld released an album cover, as well as dropping the name for the song on Instagram on March 24, 2020, with the caption "i love you's • march 26th".[4][5] According to Rolling Stone, the song was inspired by Annie Lennox's "No More 'I Love You's" (1995).[6] Steinfeld spoke to EW about what inspired the song:[7]
"I went through a breakup and did not give myself enough time to heal from that before getting into another relationship. When that second relationship ended it became clear that I needed time and space to heal — I hadn't given myself that to begin with that first time around. I didn't realize the importance of that."
Composition
The song features "floaty synths" and "peppy beats".[8] Lyrically, it is about self-love and hope and is composed in the key of E♭major with a tempo of 107 beats per minute.[8]
Music video
A lyric video, created by Katia Temkin, accompanied the song's release.[9] Steinfeld co-directed the song's official music video with Sarah McColgan,[7] which premiered via YouTube on March 31, 2020.[10] The music video shot in black-and-white featuring Steinfeld wearing see-through clothing while embedded with white background in studio.