Pray for Me (The Weeknd and Kendrick Lamar song)

The Weeknd first hinted at his involvement with the Black Panther soundtrack album with an Instagram post that he made on January 19, 2018, which contained an illustration of the Marvel superhero Black Panther perched on a tree in front of the moon.^[5] 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.^[6] Then on January 31, 2018, Lamar confirmed the Weeknd's involvement with the soundtrack when he uploaded to his Twitter account the complete tracklist of the soundtrack, which contained the song "Pray for Me".^[7] 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.^[8]

"Pray for Me" is composed in the key of E minor.^[9]

Alex Robert Ross of Noisey praised the song, calling it "short, punchy, and self-lacerating."^[10]

"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, the Flemish region of 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.

In February 2020, Tesfaye and Lamar were sued by now-split American experimental rock band Yeasayer for alleged plagiarism due to vocal similarities with their 2007 song "Sunrise".^[11] According to the lawsuit, the part allegedly stolen from the song includes "the recording of a distinctive choral performance, which Plaintiffs [Yeasayer] created and recorded using their own voices".^[12][13] 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.^[12] Both Tesfaye and Lamar have denied the accusation. The lawsuit later reached its conclusion in July 2020, after Yeasayer dropped it.^[14]

Credits and personnel adapted from digital booklet.^[15]

• Kendrick Lamar – songwriting, lead vocals
• The Weeknd – songwriting, lead vocals
• Frank Dukes – songwriting, production
• Doc McKinney – songwriting, production, recording
• Beatriz Artola – recording
• Shin Kamiyama – recording
• Mike Sonier – recording
• Barry McCready – recording assistance
• Jaycen Joshua – mixing
• David Nakaji – mixing assistance
• Mike Bozzi – mastering
• Chris Athens – mastering

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