Music critics praised Rodrigo's ability to make folk-influenced music and her vocal performance on "Can't Catch Me Now", comparing its sound to the ballads on her own albums. The song received several awards and nominations, including winning Hollywood Music in Media and Gold List awards. It is nominated for Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards and was shortlisted for Best Original Song at the 96th Academy Awards. In the United States, the song debuted at number 56 on the Billboard Hot 100. It reached the top 30 in Australia, Ireland, Lithuania, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
Leonn Ward directed the music video for "Can't Catch Me Now", which intersperses scenes from The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes with clips of Rodrigo singing the song in a cabin and a grass field. She performed the song at the KIIS-FM Jingle Ball and on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Rodrigo included it on the set list for some dates of her 2024 concert tour, the Guts World Tour. Kelly Clarkson performed a cover version of the song for The Kelly Clarkson Show in April 2024.
Background and release
"Can't Catch Me Now" is written from the perspective of Lucy Gray Baird, portrayed by Rachel Zegler (pictured in 2023).
Dan Nigro – the sole producer of Olivia Rodrigo's debut studio album, Sour (2021)[1][2] – returned as her principal collaborator on the follow-up album, Guts (2023).[3][4][5] It included some indie folk songs, with lyrical themes like heartbreak, body image, and social and adolescent anxieties.[3] The album was released to critical acclaim in September2023.[6][7][8] The songs on the albums were autobiographical, reflecting Rodrigo's approach to songwriting like a diary entry.[9][10]
In 2022, Rodrigo was approached to preview the American dystopian action film The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes and potentially write music inspired by it. A fan of the books and the soundtracks from the franchise, she considered it "such an honor".[9][11] Rodrigo was stimulated by one of the final scenes in the movie, an aerial view of birds weaving in and out among trees, which she kept thinking about repeatedly and believed was the "climax".[12][13] She felt a connection to the character Lucy Gray Baird, portrayed by Rachel Zegler; Rodrigo and Nigro wrote the song "Can't Catch Me Now" from her perspective, with the intention of capturing the scene.[11][12] Rodrigo enjoyed the challenge of writing from a movie character's point of view, describing it as "sort of acting" and "character work",[10] but she also believed parts of the song were about herself: "I think I injected parts of myself into it too. I saw bits of myself in her; I admired her resilience, so I tried to embody all that and put it into the song."[9] Nigro nudged her to experiment with new musical styles on it as well.[14]
On November 1, 2023, Rodrigo's hotline began playing a short clip of "Can't Catch Me Now" on repeat.[15] The same day, Lionsgate announced that the track would serve as the official song for the film, at a promotional event in Times Square which was attended by its actors Zegler, Tom Blyth, and Josh Andrés Rivera.[16][17] Alongside a 60-second trailer of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, which featured the song, Rodrigo revealed it would be released two days later and expressed her excitement about the opportunity to write for the film.[18][19][20]Geffen Records made "Can't Catch Me Now" available for pre-order as the opening track on the film's accompanying 2023 soundtrack album,[21][22][23] from which it served as the second single.[24] The song was also released on the 7-inch vinyl format on November 3.[25]
"Can't Catch Me Now" is a folk rock and chamber-folk song with acoustic guitar instrumentation, strings, and harmonies. Its intensity escalates during the titular line (sampled).
"Can't Catch Me Now" is 3 minutes and 25 seconds long. Nigro produced and mixed the song, and he engineered it with Dylan Waterhouse. Nigro played guitar, keyboards, bass, and Mellotron; Paul Cartwright conducted the string arrangement and played viola and violin; and Chappell Roan provided the background vocals. Randy Merrillmastered the song.[26]
"Can't Catch Me Now" is a folk rock and chamber-folkballad[14][27][28] driven by acoustic guitar instrumentation.[29] The song opens with that instrument as the sole accompaniment to Rodrigo's voice and subsequently includes strings.[30] She harmonizes with herself on it, which Stereogum's Chris DeVille described as "piercing".[27] "Can't Catch Me Now" employs a melody which gradually rises to a slow crescendo,[31] and the intensity escalates when Rodrigo belts the titular line over orchestral instrumentation: "You can't, you can't catch me now."[30] Her voice ascends while singing the line "Coming like a storm into your town."[28][a] The song ramps up and reaches an intense climax, after which Rodrigo sings the final line with "an open, unresolved cadence", according to Consequence's Carys Anderson and Jo Vito.[27][30]
The lyrics of "Can't Catch Me Now" are written from Lucy Gray Baird's perspective, inspired by the plot of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.[12][33] They are about vengeance and the narrator's inescapable presence in the subject's life.[31][34][35] The first verse describes scenes like snowfall and mountains, as the narrator wonders that the subject probably expected them to become less furious over time.[36] In the chorus, they taunt the subject that, despite being everywhere, the latter would not be able to capture them: "But I'm in the trees, I'm in the breeze / My footsteps on the ground / You'll see my face in every place / But you can't catch me now."[34][35] Rodrigo then sings "Coming like a storm into your town",[a] which Steffanee Wang of Nylon interpreted as a reference to Lucy Gray Baird.[28] During the song's conclusion, Rodrigo alludes to the film again: "Yeah, sometimes the fire you founded / Don't burn the way you'd expect / Yeah, you thought that this was the end."[30]
Critical reception
Music critics were positive about "Can't Catch Me Now" and believed its folk-influenced production suited Rodrigo.[9][37][38]Vanity Fair's Rob Ledonne described the song as emotional and compelling, noting that it showcased her talent in folk music and marked "one more step towards Rodrigo's world domination".[9] Alex Hopper of American Songwriter believed it was alluring, shocking, and "one of her most interesting songs to date".[38] Though he thought "Can't Catch Me Now" represented a change in Rodrigo's sound, it also felt natural of her and Nigro.[38]
Critics believed "Can't Catch Me Now" resembled the ballads on her own albums, and Billboard's Jason Lipshutz opined it formed an earnest addition to the soundtrack and her discography.[27][39] Some reviewers, like Anderso, Vito, and The New Zealand Herald's Alana Rae, praised Rodrigo's vocal performance.[30][40] Liberty Dunworth of NME called her voice "haunting",[8] and Wang believed it "soars into the treetops".[28] Ledonne, Anderson, and Vito thought the melodies were luxurious,[9][30] and others described the acoustic instrumentation as intense.[27][29]
In Australia, "Can't Catch Me Now" charted at number 23 and was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for selling 70,000 equivalent units.[56][57] The song entered at number 15 in New Zealand.[58] It peaked at number 43 on the Billboard Global 200.[59] "Can't Catch Me Now" also reached the top 50 at number 5 in Ireland,[60] number 25 in Lithuania,[61] number 37 in Norway,[62] number 44 in the Czech Republic,[63] number 45 in the Netherlands,[64] and number 50 in Slovakia.[65] The song received gold certifications in Belgium,[66] Brazil,[67] and Poland.[68]
Music video
Leonn Ward directed the music video for "Can't Catch Me Now", which was released on November 13, 2023.[69][34] The cinematic video intersperses clips of Rodrigo with scenes from The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.[35][37] It begins with a camera tracking shot being guided inside an isolated cabin, where she performs the song on a guitar while perched on a bed.[7][35] After strolling through the cabin, Rodrigo leaves it and runs through a field of grass in a white dress during the bridge. She also sings the chorus during this sequence: "You'll see my face in every place / But you can't catch me now."[34][37] Scenes depicting Blyth and Zegler portraying their characters play out simultaneously. In the final scene, sunlight falls upon Rodrigo.[7][37]
Rodrigo performed "Can't Catch Me Now" live for the first time at the KIIS-FM Jingle Ball on December 1, 2023.[70][71][72]USA Today's KiMi Robinson remarked that even though the song was only a month old at the time, the fans sang along as if it had been out for much longer, and iHeartRadio's Sarah Tate thought it "continued to build energy and defiance" during her set.[73][74] Ten days later, Rodrigo reprised the song on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.[75][76] Clad in a white slip dress, she initially sat on a stool amidst bare trees and a fog-covered set before standing to deliver the chorus with a backing band of four musicians and singers in the shadows.[77][78] Gil Kaufman of Billboard believed the theater was filled with electrifying pop energy.[77] Rodrigo included the song on the set list for some dates of her 2024 concert tour, the Guts World Tour.[79][80]Miami New Times's Celia Almeida considered it a highlight of the show.[81]
Kelly Clarkson covered "Can't Catch Me Now" on The Kelly Clarkson Show on April 25, 2024, in an olive green cargo dress with her hair styled in soft waves.[82][83] She was supported by a vocalist providing harmonies and a team of instrumentalists. Writing for Billboard, Rania Aniftos described it as "flawlessly delivered".[82]
^ ab"ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Digital Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Select 47. týden 2023 in the date selector. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
^ ab"ČNS IFPI" (in Slovak). Hitparáda – Singles Digital Top 100 Oficiálna. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Select 48. týden 2023 in the date selector. Retrieved December 4, 2023.
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