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Nick Jonas Explains How Ex Olivia Culpo Inspired His New Record

The 'Close' singer opens up about 'closing that chapter of our life'

Fans can expect to get even more "close" to Nick Jonas with his third solo venture, Last Year Was Complicated, due out June 10. In his new cover story for Entertainment Weekly, the singer opened up about "one of the most personal songs on the record."

"It's funny. It sounds like a party jam, but in reality, it's about something pretty sad," he said about "Champagne Problems," the album's second single.

"We had this bottle of champagne that we were saving for our anniversary," Jonas explained. In June 2015, he and Olivia Culpo, who reportedly inspired his hit "Jealous," broke up after two years together. They lived together and had to divide up all their possessions following the split.

"We decided that we were going to celebrate the years we had together and the time that we spent together by sharing this bottle of champagne and closing that chapter of our life," Jonas continued. "Although it was really a sad moment, it was a nice way to kind of close things up."

The next day, Jonas "work[ed] through some of the things [he] was going through" by writing much of the music for Last Year Was Complicated.

"I'm sure she's [Culpo's] heard ‘Champagne Problems' at this point," he said. "The concept of the song, which maybe doesn't stand out on first listen, is ‘You're amazing, you're all the things I hope to find with somebody, but timing, circumstances, all these things play into it not being right.' Champagne is amazing; it tastes delicious but gives you a really bad hangover."

Damn. That's pretty poetic, dude.

In the video below, he further breaks down the writing process for "Champagne Problems," "Close" (feat. Tove Lo), "Avalanche" (feat. Demi Lovato), and more.

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