Dear Future Husband

"Dear Future Husband" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Meghan Trainor. It was included on Title, her 2014 extended play, and later on her 2015 studio album of the same name. Trainor wrote the song with its producer, Kevin Kadish. Epic Records released "Dear Future Husband" as the album's third single on March 17, 2015. A doo-wop and pop song, it has lyrics about chivalry and dating. In the song, Trainor lists things a potential romantic suitor needs to do to win her affection.

Some music critics praised the playful nature of "Dear Future Husband" and compared its lyrics to different Trainor songs, while others were negative about the portrayal of gender roles in its lyrics. In the United States, the song reached number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified 3× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. It reached the top 10 in Australia, the Netherlands, Poland, South Africa, and Venezuela and received multi-platinum certifications in Australia and Canada.

Fatima Robinson directed the music video for "Dear Future Husband", which depicts Trainor baking pies in the kitchen and scrubbing floors while various men audition to be her partner. It garnered controversy and online criticism over allegations of antifeminism and sexism. Trainor performed the song on television shows such as the iHeartRadio Music Awards, The Voice, and Today and included it on the set lists of her concert tours That Bass Tour (2015), MTrain Tour (2015), the Untouchable Tour (2016), and the Timeless Tour (2024).

American songwriter Kevin Kadish met Meghan Trainor in June 2013 at the request of Carla Wallace, the co-owner of Trainor's publishing firm Big Yellow Dog Music. Kadish liked Trainor's voice and felt a strong song-writing affinity with her due to their mutual love of pop music from the 1950s and 1960s. They wrote the song "All About That Bass", which led to Trainor signing with Epic Records after she performed it for the label's chairman, L.A. Reid. Kadish and Trainor began working on more songs immediately as the label wanted her to record an entire album. Upon its release as Trainor's debut single in June 2014, the song reached number one in 58 countries and sold 11 million units worldwide. Trainor followed it up with "Lips Are Movin", which reached number four on the US Billboard Hot 100.

Kadish and Trainor wrote "Dear Future Husband" as the third track for Trainor's debut extended play, the 1950s-influenced Title, which they created "just for fun". Trainor was inspired by old-school doo-wop standards like Dion's "Runaround Sue" (1961), and Beach Boys songs that possessed "big choruses that weren't like, melodically up very high" so every listener could chant along to them. She recounted being ill-treated by her romantic partners in high school, and wrote the song's lyrics as a corrective for issues with contemporary dating and hookup culture, like women basing their self-worth on social media likes and whether their partner replied to their texts: "I hope people can hear my songs and know I'm a badass girl and I deserve a good guy to take me out on a date."

"Dear Future Husband" was included as a B-side on the digital release of "All About That Bass" in some European countries, and Trainor's debut major-label studio album, Title (2015). The song began gaining popularity and entered the Billboard Hot 100 in September 2014, attaining a Gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on January 7, 2015. Epic Records chose "Dear Future Husband" as the third single from the album, and sent it to contemporary hit radio stations in the United States on March 17, 2015, and for radio airplay in Italy on May 8, 2015. On June 26, 2015, Sony Music released the song as a CD single in Germany.

"Dear Future Husband" is three minutes and four seconds long. Kadish produced, recorded, engineered, and mixed the song at the Carriage House studio in Nolensville, Tennessee. He handled drum programming, sound design, and plays the acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass, and synthesizer, David Baron plays the piano and Hammond organ, and Jim Hoke plays the baritone and tenor saxophone. Dave Kutch mastered it at The Mastering Palace in New York City.

"Dear Future Husband" is a doo-wop and pop song, with influences of jazz. The song opens with the sound of a stylus on a damaged vinyl which transitions into retro ukulele instrumentation. It incorporates brisk piano, buoyant brass, and a drum track that "kicks harder than many 2014 rock bands" according to Stereogum's Chris DeVille. Alexandra Petri of The Washington Post described "Dear Future Husband" as a "playful pop throwback to the 1950s", while Chuck Arnold of Rolling Stone called it "girl-group bounce". Critics compared the song's melody to that of "Runaround Sue", and The Columbus Dispatch's Glenn Gamboa likened it to Gary U.S. Bonds's 1961 single "Quarter to Three".