The song comes off the British singer’s recent debut LP, Visitor
Sienna Spiro stopped by The Tonight Show to perform her song “Great Expectation,” taking the late-night show stage alongside a live band and two back-up singers. The British singer offered a sultry, impassioned rendition of the anthemic song.
“Great Expectation” comes off Spiro’s debut album, Visitor, which dropped earlier this month. She shared a music video for “Great Expectation” on the day of release, which shares its visuals with her live performance on The Tonight Show, including its red and white backdrop.
In a review, Rolling Stone wrote of the album, “She sings with an intensity that shows how emotionally invested she is in the stories she’s sharing. The anger and the sadness and the cynicism is what she uses to fuel these performances — the best of which appears on the standout ‘Great Expectations.’”
Spiro shared about the song, “‘Great Expectation’ is about a time when I was living in New York for a little while and talking to someone who kept saying they were gonna come see me. Every morning, I’d walk down the stairs of the apartment building and, for a second, genuinely believe he’d be outside waiting. Then I’d spend the next five minutes walking down the street imagining what I’d say, what it would feel like, what would happen if they were really there. He never came.”
She continued, “The song became less about that person, and more about expectation itself. Whether it’s beautiful or just a way of setting yourself up to be disappointed. I wrote this song about knowing deep down he would never be what I wanted and that living with the idea of him was safer than nothing at all.”
Spiro previously appeared on The Tonight Show in January to perform her song “Die on This Hill.” The song wowed host Jimmy Fallon, who declared on air, “You are fantastic!”
