"Let It Go" is a song by English singer-songwriter

James Bay James Bay (, ; ) is a large body of water located on the southern end of Hudson Bay in Canada. It borders the provinces of Quebec and Ontario, and is politically part of Nunavut. Its largest island is Akimiski Island. Numerous waterways of the ...

. It was released in Europe on 15 September 2014 through

Republic Records Republic Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). Based in New York City, it was founded by Avery Lipman and Monte Lipman as an independent label in 1995, and was acquired by UMG in 2000. Republic was initially ...

as the first single from Bay's second extended play of the same name. It was included on Bay's debut studio album '' Chaos and the Calm'' (2014). The song was written by Bay with

Paul Barry Paul James Barry (born 24 February 1952) is an English-born, Australia-based journalist, newsreader and television presenter, known to Australian and British audiences for his television reports and his semi-serious comments on current news, w ...

and produced by

Jacquire King Jacquire King (born January 11, 1967) is an American record producer, recording engineer and mixer. King has worked with such notable artists as Zach Bryan, Kings of Leon, Tom Waits, James Bay, Kaleo, Modest Mouse, Shania Twain, Buddy Guy, ...

. The ''Let It Go'' EP was released prior on 3 May 2014. The song was re-released in March 2015 after "Hold Back the River" and peaked at number 10 on the UK Singles Chart in July 2015, beating its previous peak of 62 on 27 September 2014. In May 2015, "Let It Go" peaked at number 8 in Australia, whilst in

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, the song debuted on June 15, 2015, at number 31, before climbing to number 24 the following week. A week after that, the song entered the top 10 of the chart, peaking at number 10. "Let It Go" is Bay's first song to chart on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, reaching number 16. A remix by Jack Steadman was released in 2015.

Music video

A music video to accompany the release of "Let It Go" was first released onto

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

on 23 March 2015.

Critical reception

Gregory Robson of ''

AbsolutePunk ''AbsolutePunk'' was a website, online community, and alternative music news source founded by Jason Tate (the most recent CEO). The website mainly focused on artists who are relatively unknown to mainstream audiences, but it was known to featu ...

'' called "Let It Go" a "rising current of despondency, heartache and powerhouse vocals" and "the clearest example of who exactly Bay is, that is, supple instrumentation, gauzy textures and that ageless croon".

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{authority control 2014 songs 2014 debut singles 2010s ballads Republic Records singles Song recordings produced by Jacquire King Songs written by Paul Barry (songwriter) Songs written by James Bay (singer) Rock ballads James Bay (singer) songs