"Pray for Me" is a song by the Canadian singer-songwriter

the Weeknd Abel Makkonen Tesfaye (; born February 16, 1990), known professionally as the Weeknd, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor. He is best known for adding Pop music, pop, electronic music, electronic and hip-hop stylings ...

and the American rapper

Kendrick Lamar Kendrick Lamar Duckworth (born June 17, 1987) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer. Regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time, he was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music, becoming the first music ...

from the soundtrack album of the

Marvel Studios Marvel Studios, LLC, formerly known as Marvel Films, is an American film and television production company. Marvel Studios is the creator of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), a media franchise and shared universe of films and television ser ...

superhero film ''

Black Panther A black panther is the Melanism, melanistic colour variant of the leopard (''Panthera pardus'') and the jaguar (''Panthera onca''). Black panthers of both species have excess black pigments, but their typical Rosette (zoology), rosettes are al ...

''. The song was released by

Top Dawg Entertainment Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) is an American independent record label. Specializing in hip hop and R&B artists, TDE is based in Carson, California. The label was founded in 2004 by record producer Anthony "Top Dawg" Tiffith, who is the chief exec ...

Aftermath Entertainment Aftermath Entertainment is an American record label founded by hip hop producer and rapper Dr. Dre in 1996. It operates as a subsidiary of Universal Music Group, and is distributed through Interscope Records. The label's roster includes artists ...

, and

Interscope Records Interscope Records is an American record label based in Santa Monica, California, owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture ...

on February 2, 2018, as the album's third and final single. It serves as the second overall collaboration between the two artists. The song appears in the movie during the scene where the titular hero along with his allies,

Nakia Nakia Daniel Reynoso (born February 20, 1975), known professionally as Nakia, is an American musician, singer-songwriter and actor living in Austin, Texas. He is a native of Fort Payne, Alabama. Professional background Nakia moved to Austin ...

and Okoye, enter a secret casino in

Busan Busan (), officially Busan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's second list of cities in South Korea by population, most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.3 million as of 2024. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economi ...

Background and release

The Weeknd first hinted at his involvement with the ''Black Panther'' soundtrack album with an

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

post that he made on January 19, 2018, which contained an illustration of the

Marvel Marvel may refer to: Business * Marvel Entertainment, an American entertainment company ** Marvel Comics, the primary imprint of Marvel Entertainment ** Marvel Universe, a fictional shared universe ** Marvel Music, an imprint of Marvel Comics ...

superhero

perched on a tree in front of the moon. On January 26, 2018, the Weeknd then further hinted at his involvement with the soundtrack when he uploaded an official trailer for the ''Black Panther'' film to his Instagram account. Then on January 31, 2018, Lamar confirmed the Weeknd's involvement with the soundtrack when he uploaded to his

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

account the complete tracklist of the soundtrack, which contained the song "Pray for Me". On February 1, 2018, the Weeknd uploaded to his Twitter account a video teasing the release date for "Pray for Me" as the soundtrack's third single.

Composition

"Pray for Me" is composed in the key of

E minor E minor is a minor scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has one sharp, on the F. Its relative major is G major and its parallel major is E major. The E natural minor scale is: Change ...

Reception

Alex Robert Ross of ''

Noisey ''Vice'' (stylized in all caps) is a Canadian-American magazine focused on lifestyle, arts, culture, and news/politics. It was founded in 1994 in Montreal as an alternative punk magazine, and its founders later launched the youth media company ...

'' praised the song, calling it "short, punchy, and self-lacerating."

Commercial performance

"Pray For Me" met a global success but less than the Weeknd's previous singles. It reached the top ten in Australia, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Lebanon, Norway, Portugal and Sweden, top twenty in Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland and United Kingdom, top thirty in Germany, Flemmish region on Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland, top forty in Austria, Hungary and Slovakia and top fifty in France. It peaked at number seven on US

Billboard Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), ...

Copyright infringement lawsuit

In February 2020, Tesfaye and Lamar were sued by now-split American

experimental rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments with the basic elements of the genre. Artists aim to liberate and innovate, wit ...

band

Yeasayer Yeasayer () was an American experimental rock band from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2006. The band consisted of Chris Keating, Ira Wolf Tuton, and Anand Wilder. They announced their split on December 19, 2019. History Formation The band's thr ...

for alleged plagiarism due to vocal similarities with their 2007 song "

Sunrise Sunrise (or sunup) is the moment when the upper rim of the Sun appears on the horizon in the morning, at the start of the Sun path. The term can also refer to the entire process of the solar disk crossing the horizon. Terminology Although the S ...

". According to the lawsuit, the part allegedly stolen from the song includes "the recording of a distinctive choral performance, which Plaintiffs easayercreated and recorded using their own voices". Furthermore, Yeasayer claims that "Defendants extracted Plaintiffs' choral performance from a recording of 'Sunrise,' slightly modified it, including, on information and belief, via postprocessing to alter its pitch, among other qualities" and then subsequently used the modified audio in their own song. Both Tesfaye and Lamar have denied the accusation. The lawsuit later reached its conclusion in July 2020, after Yeasayer dropped it.

Credits and personnel

Credits and personnel adapted from digital booklet. *

– songwriting, lead vocals *

The Weeknd Abel Makkonen Tesfaye (; born February 16, 1990), known professionally as the Weeknd, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor. He is best known for adding Pop music, pop, electronic music, electronic and hip-hop stylings ...

– songwriting, lead vocals *

Frank Dukes Adam King Feeney (born September 12, 1983), better known as Ging and by his former stage name Frank Dukes, is a Canadian musician, record producer, and songwriter. A prolific producer, he has worked with artists including Lorde for ''Melodrama'' ...

– songwriting, production *

Doc McKinney Martin "Doc" McKinney (born August 27, 1971) is a Canadian Americans, Canadian-American record producer and songwriter. He was formerly one half of the duo (now solo act) Esthero. McKinney is widely credited with developing The Weeknd's sound as ...

– songwriting, production, recording * Beatriz Artola – recording * Shin Kamiyama – recording * Mike Sonier – recording * Barry McCready – recording assistance *

Jaycen Joshua Jaycen Joshua is an American audio engineer based in California. He won three Grammy Awards: the first for mixing ''Growing Pains'' for Mary J. Blige in 2007, followed by '' El mal querer'' for Rosalía in 2018, and ''Hyperspace'' for Beck in ...

– mixing * David Nakaji – mixing assistance *

Mike Bozzi Mike Bozzi is an American mastering engineer at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Hollywood, California. He won a Grammy Award for Record of the Year for mastering Childish Gambino's " This Is America", and is a six-time nominee for the Grammy Award fo ...

– mastering * Chris Athens – mastering

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

External links

* * {{Marvel Cinematic Universe, selected=Music 2018 songs 2018 singles Black Panther (film series) Kendrick Lamar songs Marvel Cinematic Universe songs Songs involved in plagiarism controversies Songs written by Doc McKinney Songs written by Frank Dukes Songs written by Kendrick Lamar Songs written by the Weeknd The Weeknd songs Songs written by DaHeala Interscope Records singles Aftermath Entertainment singles Top Dawg Entertainment singles Song recordings produced by Frank Dukes Pop-rap songs Song recordings produced by Doc McKinney