"Believer" is a song by American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band Imagine Dragons. The song was released on February 1, 2017, through Interscope Records and Kidinakorner as the lead single from the band's third studio album, '' Evolve'' (2017). It was written by

Dan Reynolds Daniel Coulter Reynolds (born July 14, 1987) is an American singer and songwriter. He is the lead vocalist of the pop rock band Imagine Dragons. Reynolds also released an EP in 2011, titled ''Egyptian – EP,'' as a duo with his former wife A ...

Wayne Sermon Daniel Wayne Sermon (born June 15, 1984) is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He is the lead guitarist for the pop rock band Imagine Dragons. Early life Sermon was born on June 15, 1984 in American Fork, Utah to parents Jeff ...

Ben McKee Benjamin Arthur McKee (born April 7, 1985) is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He is the bassist for the pop rock band Imagine Dragons. Early life McKee was raised in Forestville, California, and graduated from El Molino ...

Daniel Platzman Daniel James Platzman (born September 28, 1986) is an American musician, songwriter, record producer and composer. He is the drummer for the pop rock band Imagine Dragons. Early life Platzman was born on September 28, 1986 in Atlanta, Georgia. ...

Justin Tranter Justin Drew Tranter (born June 16, 1980) is an American songwriter, singer, and activist. Frequently co-writing with Julia Michaels, Tranter has written songs for artists such as Britney Spears, Gwen Stefani, Linkin Park, Kelly Clarkson, Selena ...

and its producers

Mattman & Robin Mattman & Robin is a Swedish songwriting and production duo composed of Mattias Per Larsson and Robin Lennart Fredriksson. They are published by Wolf Cousins, a publishing company administered by Warner Chappell Music. In 2016, they won a Grammy A ...

. "Believer" peaked at number four on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, becoming the band's third top ten single after "

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" and " Demons". It also reached the top ten in Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Switzerland. The song received a notable boost in popularity after it was used in the season finale for the first season of the CW's Riverdale. The song was played heavily in advertisements, notably for the Nintendo Switch

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advertisement, and several movie and television trailers. It became the fifth best-selling song of 2017 in the United States and one of the best-selling singles of all time. As of November 2022, the song has amassed more than 2.2 billion streams on

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

. On January 8, 2019, another version of the song was released, featuring American rapper,

Lil Wayne Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. (born September 27, 1982), known professionally as Lil Wayne, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record executive. His career began in 1995, at the age of 12, when he was signed by rapper Birdman, joining ...

. A Halloween mix was released on October 31, 2022, a promo of the song appearing in the October 27, 2022 episode of ''

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert ''The Late Show with Stephen Colbert'' is an American late-night news and liberal political satire talk show hosted by Stephen Colbert, which premiered on September 8, 2015. Produced by Spartina Productions and CBS Studios, it is the second ...

''.

Background

In March 2017,

told ''

People A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of prope ...

'' that the song was inspired by his experiences with

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in 2015. He said that, "The meaning of the song is really reflecting on specific things in my life that were painful, whether it was anxiety and dealing with crowds, feeling overwhelmed by that or the success of the band, disease, going through depression—anything that was a source of pain in my life. And just rising above that, finding a place of perspective where I could be appreciative of the pain in my life and make it my greatest strength."

Composition

According to sheet music published at Sheetmusicdirect.com, "Believer" is an allegro tempo of 125

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. Written in the time signature of 12/8, the song is in the key of

B♭ minor B-flat minor is a minor scale based on B, consisting of the pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A. Its key signature has five flats. Its relative major is D-flat major and its parallel major is B-flat major. Its enharmonic equivalent, A-sharp mi ...

' vocal range spans from A₃ to D₅ during the song.

Music video

The official music video for the song was released on March 7, 2017, on the Imagine Dragons

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account, and was directed by

Matt Eastin Matt Eastin (born June 3, 1979) is a Utah-based music video, documentary, and commercial director and editor. He is perhaps best known for his work with Imagine Dragons, directing and editing the Wrecked, Follow You, Cutthroat, Believer, Wh ...

. It features a boxing match between Reynolds and

Dolph Lundgren Hans Lundgren (, ; born 3 November 1957), better known as Dolph Lundgren, is a Swedish actor, filmmaker and martial artist. His breakthrough came in 1985, when he starred in '' Rocky IV'' as the imposing Soviet boxer Ivan Drago. Since then, Lu ...

, with some scenes showing what seems to be a young Dan drawing on his notepad in scenes. Dan is losing, and he says that he wants to stop, but Dolph replies "We can't." It ends with Reynolds barely conscious, while Young Dan is revealed to have sketched a symbol identical to the one on Reynolds' chest, the "Evolve" symbol. As of 2022, the video has over 2 billion views and over 20 million likes. It is currently the most-viewed and most-liked video on the band's YouTube channel. It is also the 21st most-liked video on the platform.

Commercial performance

"Believer" reached number four on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, and topped the ''Billboard'' Hot Rock Songs (29 weeks), Alternative Songs (13 weeks), and Adult Pop Songs (6 weeks). Among component charts, it also topped Rock Airplay, Rock Streaming Songs, Rock Digital Sale Songs, and Top TV Commercials Charts. It also topped the Canada Alternative Rock Chart. "Believer" broke the 14-year-old record for the most spins on the

Mediabase Mediabase is a music industry service that monitors radio station airplay in 180 US and Canadian markets. Mediabase publishes music charts and data based on the most played songs on terrestrial and satellite radio, and provides in-depth analytic ...

Alternative chart. "Believer" has reached the top ten in Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Switzerland, and the United States. "Believer" was the number one song on several ''Billboard'' year-end charts, including the

Hot Rock Songs Hot Rock & Alternative Songs (formerly known as Rock Songs and Hot Rock Songs) is a record chart published by '' Billboard'' magazine. From its debut on June 20, 2009, through October 13, 2012, the chart ranked the airplay of songs across alterna ...

chart, the Rock Airplay chart, and the Alternative Songs chart. The song was the fifth best-selling song of 2017 in the United States, selling 1,598,000 copies in the year.

Live performances

The first televised performance of "Believer" was during the March 22, 2017 episode of

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

late-night talk show '' Jimmy Kimmel Live!''. They then performed the song at

BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend (R1BW) (previously known as One Big Weekend, for 2012 as Radio 1's Hackney Weekend, and for 2018 as BBC Music's Biggest Weekend) is a British music festival run by the BBC's radio station. It is held once a year, in a ...

. "Believer" was performed again during the

2019 College Football Playoff National Championship The 2019 College Football Playoff National Championship was a college football bowl game that determined a national champion in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision for the 2018 season. It was played at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, ...

halftime show. Grammy Award-winning singer Michelle Williams performed the song on the second US series of ''

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''.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications and sales

Notable usage in media

* The instrumental version of Believer used in the American film '' The 15:17 to Paris'' by Clint Eastwood. * The song was used in a Nintendo Switch commercial shown during

. * The song appeared in the trailer for the 2017 film ''

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'' where its usage was met with mixed response. *The song appeared on the CW series ''Riverdale''. *The song appeared on the Netflix series ''Lucifer'' in the opening scene of Season 05 Episode 11, " Resting Devil Face". *The song is in the dance rhythm game ''

Just Dance 2022 ''Just Dance 2022'' is a 2021 dance rhythm game developed and published by Ubisoft. It was unveiled on June 12, 2021, during the Ubisoft Forward E3 web presentation as the thirteenth main installment of the series, and was released on November 4, ...

''. *The song appears in a 2021 advert for the

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and Z Flip 3. *In 2022, the song appeared in commercials for 2K Sports'

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vari ...

brand video game,

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. * In 2022, the song’s Halloween remix is promoted during a skit on ''

''. *This song appears in a rhythm game ''

Rock Band 4 ''Rock Band 4'' is a 2015 music video game developed and published by Harmonix. ''Rock Band 4'' allows players to simulate the playing of music across many different decades and genres using instrument controllers that mimic playing lead and bas ...

''.

Notes

References

External links

* {{authority control 2016 songs 2017 singles American pop rock songs Imagine Dragons songs Songs written by Ben McKee Songs written by Daniel Platzman Songs written by Dan Reynolds (musician) Songs written by Justin Tranter Songs written by Mattias Larsson Songs written by Robin Fredriksson Songs written by Wayne Sermon Song recordings produced by Mattman & Robin Kidinakorner singles Interscope Records singles