Labrinth wrote "Jealous" in Nashville, Tennessee with Josh Kear and Natalie Hemby.

The song, described as a "heart-breaking ballad" by MTV, is addressed to one of Labrinth's parents, who left the family when he was four years old.

[1][2] Speaking about the lyrical content of the song, Labrinth has offered the following explanation: A lot of people have been through that experience.

It’s kind of written from the perspective of how my family felt at the time, but I wanted to write it so anyone could dig into the song and relate to it to their own situation.

[1][2] The song re-entered the charts at number 25 in September 2015, following a performance from contestant Josh Daniel on The X Factor.