The Real Meaning Behind The Weeknd's 'Pray For Me'

Like many of The Weeknd's trademark songs, "Pray For Me" is moody and brooding, with intense lyrics. But rather than alluding to personal experiences (as the "Hills" singer tends to do), the track reflects the gritty tone of the superhero film it accompanies, as well as its larger themes of loss, loyalty, sacrifice and redemption.

Like many of The Weeknd's trademark songs, "Pray For Me" is moody and brooding, with intense lyrics. But rather than alluding to personal experiences (as the "Hills" singer tends to do), the track reflects the gritty tone of the superhero film it accompanies, as well as its larger themes of loss, loyalty, sacrifice and redemption. With The Weeknd promising, "If I'm gon' die for you / Then I'll spill this blood for you," and Kendrick Lamar rapping about how, "I fight the world, I fight you, I fight myself," it is implied that both singers are taking up the mantle of a hero in battle. 

But it's lonely out there on the front lines of the battlefield. Even as The Weeknd vows that he is "ready for a war again" and "always ready to take a life again," he wonders if anyone out there is praying for him. That's because a hero must be willing to sacrifice himself and his own needs for the greater good — a theme that is prevalent in Black Panther and the entire Marvel universe. "It's all prophecy and if I gotta be sacrificed for the greater good / Then that's what it's gotta be," Lamar sings in the second verse. Of course, whether listeners prefer to attribute the lyrics to King T'Challa or Black Panther's anti-hero, Erik Killmonger, is totally up to them.

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