The 2010s File Feature
What About Us
Creation, Recording, and Chart History of "What About Us" "What About Us" by P!nk was released on July 28, 2017, through RCA Records. It was written by Pink …
01 The Story
Creation, Recording, and Chart History of "What About Us"
"What About Us" by P!nk was released on July 28, 2017, through RCA Records. It was written by Pink (Alecia Moore), Steve Mac, and Johnny McDaid, and produced by Steve Mac. The song served as the lead single from Pink's seventh studio album, "Beautiful Trauma," which was released in October 2017. "What About Us" was announced as a powerful opening statement for a new album cycle that would become one of the most commercially successful periods in Pink's career, confirming her enduring relevance in mainstream pop more than fifteen years after her debut.
Pink, born Alecia Beth Moore in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, had established herself as one of the most consistent commercial artists in American pop music since her debut in 2000. Known for her distinctive combination of rock-influenced production, emotionally direct lyrics, and remarkable live performing abilities, she had survived multiple cycles of pop trend shifts by maintaining a committed and loyal fanbase and continuing to evolve her sound without abandoning its core characteristics. "What About Us" represented a refinement of her signature approach: anthemic, emotionally charged pop-rock with a lyrical focus on accountability and collective disappointment.
The song was written collaboratively with Steve Mac, one of the most accomplished record producers and songwriters in contemporary British pop, known for his work across multiple decades and multiple artists, and Johnny McDaid, the Northern Irish singer-songwriter who is also a member of Snow Patrol. The writing sessions that produced the song took place in London, and the result was a mid-tempo anthem built around a driving piano figure, powerful percussion, and Pink's characteristically forceful vocal delivery. The production balanced intimacy in the verses with a sweeping, stadium-scale chorus.
"What About Us" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 on August 26, 2017, entering at a notable number 82. It demonstrated strong initial momentum with a jump to number 29 in its second week on the chart, reflecting the size and immediacy of Pink's existing fanbase as well as the song's radio-friendliness. The track climbed steadily through the autumn of 2017, reaching its peak position of number 13 on the chart dated November 4, 2017. It spent 22 weeks on the Hot 100 in total.
The song achieved broader international success beyond the United States. In the United Kingdom it reached number two on the UK Singles Chart and subsequently won the Brit Award for International Song of the Year in 2018, representing one of the most significant award recognitions of Pink's career. It also reached the top five in Australia, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, Germany, and several other European markets, making it one of the most globally successful singles of her discography.
The music video, directed by Sophie Muller, presented a stark and politically charged visual interpretation of the song's themes. It was filmed at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah and featured crowds of diverse people moving together across a vast, otherworldly landscape. The video's imagery was widely interpreted as a commentary on collective political and social alienation, aligning with a broader cultural conversation about political representation and responsibility that was particularly acute in the United States and United Kingdom during 2017. Its release generated significant discussion and contributed to the song's perception as more than a conventional pop single.
On pop radio, "What About Us" became one of the most-played songs of the autumn 2017 season, performing strongly on adult pop and mainstream pop stations. Pink's vocal performance on the record was praised by critics as among the finest of her career, with specific attention paid to her command of dynamic range and her ability to convey genuine emotional urgency within a polished commercial production. The song received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Solo Performance at the 2018 ceremony.
"Beautiful Trauma," the album it launched, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, confirming the single's success as a commercial lead. The tour supporting the album, also titled "Beautiful Trauma," became one of the highest-grossing concert tours globally in 2018 and 2019, with "What About Us" serving as one of its signature moments. The song was certified multi-platinum in multiple territories, adding to an already extensive catalog of certified singles in Pink's two-decade career.
02 Song Meaning
Meaning and Themes of "What About Us"
"What About Us" is a song of collective grievance and political disappointment. Its central question, directed at an unspecified authority or governing power, concerns the welfare of ordinary people who have been promised representation and protection but feel abandoned, forgotten, or deliberately disregarded. The song's recurring interrogative refrain functions as a demand for accountability directed at those who hold power over the lives of those they are supposed to serve.
The song operates on multiple registers simultaneously. At its most immediate level, it can be read as a personal song about a relationship in which one partner feels neglected or disrespected by the other. The language of promises made and broken, of individuals left behind while those in power pursue their own interests, translates readily into the vocabulary of romantic disappointment. Pink has spoken publicly about the song's origins in personal as well as political feeling, suggesting that the two registers were genuinely intertwined in its composition rather than one being a metaphor for the other.
At its broader cultural level, "What About Us" resonated particularly strongly in 2017 because of the specific political environment in the United States and United Kingdom. Released in the aftermath of the 2016 American presidential election and in the ongoing turmoil of the Brexit process in Britain, the song was widely interpreted as an expression of the sense of political abandonment felt by large segments of both countries' populations. The song does not name specific political figures or parties, which gave it a universality that allowed listeners across the political spectrum to identify with its expression of institutional disappointment.
The phrase "what about us" itself carries a specific rhetorical force. It positions the speaker as part of a collective, a "we" or "us" who has been excluded from consideration or benefit, and directs this complaint at an unnamed "you" who holds power and responsibility. This structure encodes a relationship of unequal power in which the narrator represents the interests of the many against the indifference of the few, giving the song its anthemic, crowd-unifying quality in live performance contexts.
Pink's artistic identity has long been associated with advocacy for the marginalized and dispossessed. Her career is marked by songs that challenge conventional social expectations, push back against hypocrisy in authority, and express solidarity with those who feel outside the mainstream. "What About Us" fits naturally within this artistic lineage, adding a politically specific dimension to a body of work that had consistently engaged with themes of social justice and individual dignity.
The song's music video reinforced this reading through its visual imagery of diverse crowds moving in solidarity across a barren landscape. This imagery was understood as a comment on democratic representation and the gap between the rhetoric of inclusion and the reality of policy, giving the video an explicitly civic and political dimension that distinguished it from conventional pop video productions of the period. The combination of musical urgency and visual clarity made the song one of the more politically engaged mainstream pop singles of the year, contributing to its awards recognition and its long-term cultural standing.
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