Also released under the titles "Christine" and "Cripple", the song is by Héloïse Letissier who records under the name Christine and the Queens. "Christine" is the French version from 2014. "Cripple" and "Tilted" are English versions from 2012 and 2015. It was named one of the 10 best songs of 2015 by Time magazine. "Christine" was a number one hit in Belgium and a number 3 in France, while "Tilted" became a top 20 hit in the UK and in Ireland.
Letissier first wrote the song in English with the title "Cripple" but the chorus "I actually do enjoy being a cripple" did not go down well at a concert in Brighton. She reworked the lyrics in French as "Christine" for her 2014 debut album, and from this made another English version, "Tilted". The English and French versions are not translations and have significant differences, eg the English begins "I will die before Methuselah / So I'll fight sleep with ammonia," while the French may be translated "I start books at the end / And I hold my chin high for nothing " (Je commence les livres par la fin / Et j'ai le menton haut pour un rien).
Letissier says the song is "an easy song with an uneasy subject. It's about feeling out of place, not finding your balance, or being depressed even, but with playful images, with a song you can dance on." It is about "embracing the fact that you can't really find your balance", which in her case is embracing her own awkwardness and the feeling of being imperfect. It is about "embracing who you are", and "being proud of who you are and where you stand". She explained the English title of the song: "The French song is talking about the same difficulty of turning on your feet. I was searching for lots of images or words that could fit, and I just stumbled upon this word, to tilt or be tilted, and I was exactly trying to find this image. It's literally talking about not finding your balance with a playful image."
Theologically, of course, it is incorrect to suppose that I am actually good and that it is the world that is tilted. The world is tilted but so am I. Hence the awkwardness and a whole lot more that is often quite unpleasant.
