"In adding a pre-verse, the way the scene ends the whole series, it made sense to add it to the beginning," Perri continued. I wrote the song from Bella's and Edward's perspective like a duet, and then we didn't have the time or the person when we first released it to make it a duet and it didn't make sense. "I added a pre-verse, because they wanted something special and new, and I found adding a verse in the middle didn't make sense with the story. In the film, it's about six minutes, but on the soundtrack, it's shorter," she explained. American singer/songwriter and musician Christina Judith Perri hails from Philadelphia, USA.
Because it was a perfect fit for that moment, they asked Perri if they could use an extended version in the film, and she was immediately onboard. The A Thousand Years Songfacts says that Perri wrote this song based on the emotions that she felt reading about the star-crossed love affair between Edward and Bella throughout Stephenie Meyers series of books. Perri said Kallman called after seeing an early cut of "Breaking Dawn - Part 2," in which the editors had used "A Thousand Years" as a temporary track for one of the film's most moving and final scenes. I thought I did something terrible," she recalled. "I found out while on tour and got a phone call from the head of Atlantic Records, Craig Kallman, who never called me before. As it turns out, Perri - who penned "A Thousand Years" for "Breaking Dawn - Part 1" - was surprised to find out the studio and her record label wanted a new version of the song, especially because the singer had to pass on writing another original song for the soundtrack due to her busy tour schedule.