"Kill Em with Kindness" | ||||||||
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Single by Selena Gomez | ||||||||
from the album Revival | ||||||||
Released | May 3, 2016 | |||||||
Format | Digital download | |||||||
Recorded | 2015 | |||||||
Genre | Dance | |||||||
Length | 3:37 | |||||||
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Selena Gomez singles chronology | ||||||||
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"Kill Em with Kindness" is a song by American singer Selena Gomez from her second studio album Revival (2015). The song was written by Gomez with Antonina Armato, Tim James, Benjamin Levin and Dave Audé. It was produced by Rock Mafia and Benny Blanco, with additional production by R3drum. The song was serviced to contemporary hit radio on May 3, 2016, as the fourth and final single from the album. It is a dance song with a tropical house breeze, having an airy synth, added bells and a whistle hook. The song was conceived after Gomez faced criticism over her weight during a trip to Mexico.
The song's lyrics talk about being kind to mean people and has a positive message of kindly ignoring instead of responding to them. The accompanying music video for the song was directed by Emil Nava and released on June 6, 2016. The black-and-white video shows the singer in a photoshoot set with dancers doing interpretive dance and shots of bullets and blood-dripped flowers. The song is part of the setlist of her Revival Tour. The song reached the top 40 in a number of countries, including Australia, Germany, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. It attained a top 20 peak in Canada and Finland.
"Ultimately people just want me to be this evil person that I’m not. It's the whole 'build you up and knock you down' thing. I’m not any of those things. I work hard, and anyone that you ever talk to that's worked with me knows I’m professional, kind and that I care about people. I’ve been frustrated and pissed off before, but my mom has always taught me, every single time, turn my cheek the other way. It is always the best feeling waking up the next day going, 'They gave me their worst, I gave them my best, and that's all I can do.'"
While working on the album, Selena Gomez enlisted her longtime collaborators Antonina Armato and Tim James, known as the production duo Rock Mafia. They helped Gomez on the creation of six tracks on the album, including "Revival" and "Kill Em with Kindness", one of her most personal tracks that the duo produced for the album. According to Gomez, one of the main inspirations behind the track was the "body-shaming" she received after a photo of herself in a bikini during her trip to Mexico was leaked online, and media claimed she gained weight, while she also received hurtful comments. She commented: "I was getting a lot of hate for my body and ‘you’re gaining weight,’ and so I was in Mexico and I was just feeling all of this stuff and I would be lying to you if I said it didn’t kind of hurt my feelings, but I kind of channeled that into my music." Later, she told the producers that the track was important, but the lyrics were more important.