Rachel Platten's "Fight Song" had been on the Billboard charts for weeks before it made its way to the front of Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. But by the time that Clinton adopted it as a "campaign anthem" of sorts in February 2016, Platten had become used to her deeply personal song about resilience being used in other deeply personal ways—a WWE partnership with the Susan G. Komen foundation, the women's ice hockey finals, a series of Ford commercials. But neither she nor anyone else knew how synonymous it would become with the landslide election that wasn't.
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"The song was written not at all about politics or cancer, despite what people thought," Platten says over the phone, on the way to pick up her daughter. "Although I'm so proud of all the things that it became associated with." Most of the time, artists don't have much of a say in political candidates snatching up singles as makeshift anthems (unless, of course, they deeply disagree). In the months leading up the election, Clinton's campaign wrung the song dry, playing it through primary season. It was co-opted for an all-celebrity cover, too, and by the time November came, it seemed to be a universal sentiment: We get it. It's her fight song.
And then the loss happened. After years of waiting for a hit single, Platten's "Fight Song" was co-opted, overplayed, and now laden with a tinge of political failure. Four years later, Platten has recovered, taking space to evaluate that moment in the sun against who she wanted to be as an artist. Even though her voice was heard every day during the 2016 presidential campaign, Rachel Platten wishes she had used it better. As she tells me, "I have empathy for the girl that I was, who was scared, but now if I had been in that situation I would take the fucking mic and be like, 'I'm glad I have your ears. This is what we need to do.'"
Four years later, with a new single, "Soldiers," during another grueling election year, Platten's life looks different. She's a mother and a children's book author on top of her musical career. Platten hopped on the phone with Esquire to discuss what the past four years have looked like, what's changed from one election to the next, and what 2020 Rachel might have done differently than 2016 Rachel.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Esquire: How have you been having to adjust still to all the craziness going on in the world right now?
Rachel Platten: Like everyone, I'm trying to balance how much I'm taking in versus putting out from what is in my heart. If I get too involved and take in too much of what's going on, I'm not good for anyone. I'm not good as a mother; I'm not going as a songwriter. But at the same time, I want to be informed, so I'm still trying to strike that balance, especially right now, because I want to know what's going on but then again, I'm not my best self. I'm not my best for anyone. So it's been hard, It's a hard balance.
At the height of "Fight Song," you were thrust into a political role, like it or not. How did you handle that experience?
I have trouble even figuring out the right line to walk when I'm speaking out, because I don't ever want to make someone reading it, who believes something very different than I, feel like a bad person in their core just because of their belief, even though I don't agree at all in their beliefs and I think their beliefs might be dangerous right now for our world. It's a confusing line to walk, and I think that it sucks because also, no one wants to hear from artists politically. No one wants their creators to be talking to them and shoving information about voting down their throat. But we're human and we're living in this world right now and I have a following. What am I supposed to do?
Noam GalaiPlatten performing in 2016.
I think four years ago, when I was thrust into this place, I was terrified to speak up and say anything. I have a lot of thoughts on this and I'm glad I'm having the chance to talk about it because I got asked by almost every publication and TV show to comment on “Fight Song” being used in the [2016] election. I literally said to my publicist, "Turn them all down. I'm too afraid. I don't know what to say. This election is too emotional and I'm scared and I don't want to be hated or blamed." It was very cowardly of me. I don't know what to say other than... I have empathy for the girl that I was, who was scared, but now if I had been in that situation I would take the fucking mic and be like, "I'm glad I have your ears. This is what we need to do."
I didn't then and I think that part of that choice made it so that people don't even know who sings “Fight Song.” A lot of them think that Kelly Clarkson sang it or that Taylor Swift sang it, because I was so afraid to stand up and be known, that I almost made myself a little bit more invisible than I had to be. It's an emotional question for me, and it was heavy back then. I was being thrust, exactly you said, I hadn't chosen to. They chose my song and I did not choose that. Fame was so new to me, the little fame that I had was so new to me after 15 years of trying, but I was so terrified it could be taken away.
I had been hustling as an indie artist for literally 15 years, and I had finally, finally reached this point where my dreams were starting to come true and I didn't feel like I had to look to my left and right every second to make sure I was okay. I was just so afraid that that would all be taken away from me. Honestly, I think it was a selfish decision because I don't know if I could have made an impact, but who knows who would have been reading an article and heard from me? You never know, that butterfly effect is real.
I've read that the actual meaning of the song is an encapsulation of your long battle to break through in the music industry?
Yeah, the song was written not at all about politics or cancer, despite what people thought, although I'm so proud of all the things that it became associated with. But it was about my own journey and my own fire that would not die, that was regardless of how much rejections I was getting, and how impossible it seemed for me to keep trying to make this dream happen, that I just wouldn't give up. The song was written at a moment of really needing to decide, "Dude, I'm 32 or 31, this is a little pathetic. I need to figure this out and get on with my life." Then I wrote "Fight Song" in this moment of just sheer desperation. I will not give up on myself. That's where it came from.
Did you remember facing much backlash at the time? Were there people that thought, "Oh, well this has to just be connected to this moment," and pigeonholed you in that way?
I don't know about backlash. I'm not unaware that there was a lot of disdain from the left of just being, "This freaking song has been played every second. We're so over it." There was a lot of eye rolls and, "Oh my God, this white girl standing for us all is horrible." I would read them and be like, "Dude, I wasn't trying to do this. I'm sorry." It did hurt my feelings back then, now I can laugh and get it and see just how annoying that might've been.
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Credit: EsquireJust as much as it probably would have been for the second graders teachers who forced them to do a school project on "Fight Song." Man, it was a little overplayed, so I have awareness around it. I think that there probably was some of that. But I was raised that humor is always the answer, and if I can laugh at myself, then I'm good.
The other thing I was going to ask you about is over the past four years, you've done so much, and of course, become a parent and you've written a children's book as well. What do you feel like you've really learned since the big breakout to this moment?
Oh my God. I have so much to say about this. I could literally talk for hours. I have talked about it for hours in therapy. I've learned so, so much. I went on this journey that seems pretty cliché of having all my dreams coming true and going from being a pretty self-aware humble person to believing the hype and feeling like I was special in some way. And then not being connected to who I really am inside and making choices that I wouldn't otherwise. Then some things fell away, I lost my record label, and I got pregnant all in the same month and changed managers and things really changed. It was a big reckoning, humbling in a way.
That left me, when the dust settled, looking around like, Wait a second, how did I just treat people? Who did I become? What just happened? I didn't get here by being this person that thinks I'm more important than anyone else just because I'm the one on the stage. This is bullshit. That's not who I am. I'm the one who's played coffee bars and bars and pubs and hustled and carried my piano and thanked every single person I ever met. I don't like who I became. I had a big reckoning and then had to build it back up slowly. Go into a cocoon and rebuild the wings and reconnect to who I am.
I also wanted to say congratulations on "Soldiers." I heard it for the first time last week and it's an incredible single.
Oh my God. Thank you so much. I haven't really talked to anyone besides my parents and friends, so I appreciate that. Thank you.
There's a humanity to to your music. It was nice to hear that continuing on in your singles that are coming out.
Thank you so much for hearing that and seeing that. It means so much to me, I don't know that everyone always necessarily gets that to that depth, and that is exactly what it is. You really put your finger on it. It is a love of humanity and an ultimate wanting to literally shelter the world with my heart and explode light all over the world and heal. It's such a grandiose thing to say, but it is where I write from, this feeling of just wanting to expand love and it isn't just romantic love, you're absolutely right. Thank you for hearing that.
And yet, I still don't think that we're hearing a lot of music in that arena of faith and persevering and humanity. Why do you think that is?
I don't know, but I have been feeling the same way and I almost want to do some kind of a call to action to my friends and artists and creators. Why aren't more people speaking up, why aren't there more songs right now helping us? I know there are beautiful songs and there are inspirational songs, but nothing's really addressing this moment.
I'm just curious. I'm hungry for it. I want to see it, and I don't know why there hasn't been a mass uprising a la Woodstock where all the artists are contributing to this one message and it's one purpose. We need to use our art right now, because I truly believe beauty can save the world. Art can save the world. I know it sounds like a Pollyanna-ish thing to say, but it's true on a chemical level. It's true on a quantum physics level that beauty is what we need.
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