Heathens by Twenty One Pilots

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Heathens is a song written and recorded by American musical duo Twenty One Pilots, released as the lead single for the motion picture soundtrack for the film Suicide Squad (2016) on June 16, 2016. The song was written by Tyler Joseph and produced by him along with Mike Elizondo. “Heathens” peaked at number two on the US Billboard Hot 100, tying with “Stressed Out” for the duo’s highest ranking single to date.

On June 15, 2016, Twenty One Pilots tweeted a message in Morse code which read “takeitslow”, a lyric taken from the song “Heathens”.^[4] On the same day, the song leaked onto the Internet. The following day, June 16, it was revealed that the song would be featured on the motion picture soundtrack for the 2016 American superhero film based on the DC Comics antihero team Suicide Squad. The soundtrack was released on August 5, 2016.

The song has so far peaked at number two on the US Billboard Hot 100,^[7] behind The Chainsmokers‘ “Closer“, becoming the duo’s second top 5 single on the Hot 100. Is it the band’s highest peaking single, tied with “Stressed Out“.

With “Ride” charting at number five and “Heathens” at four in the same week, Twenty One Pilots became the third rock act with simultaneous top five Hot 100 singles in the chart’s 58-year history, following only The Beatles and Elvis Presley, as well as the first act in 47 years.^[8][9] It reached number one the Hot Rock Songs and Alternative Songs charts.

The song has reached number five on the UK Singles Chart. “Heathens” also cracked into the top 10 in more than 15 countries, including Australia, Belgium, Canada and Switzerland.