Los Angeles Times

SoCal R&B songwriter Joelle James is 'Boo'd Up' for her song's two big Grammy nominations

From "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" and "Ooh-Ee-Ooh-Ahh-Ahh" to "Rama-Lama-Ding-Dong and "Doo Wah Diddy Diddy," pop songwriters have periodically long struck gold with nonsense syllables incorporated into their songs.

Sometimes it's been by design. Other times the result of belated inspiration, as was the case for Joelle James when she settled on keeping the now-ubiquitous phrase "ba-dum, boo'd up/Biddy-da-dum, boo'd up" in a song she came up with to express the feeling of nascent love.

"The whole song was written in about 30 minutes" James said recently of "Boo'd Up," which was transformed into one of the biggest pop hits of 2018

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