Songfacts®:

• This piano-led ballad finds Adele singing of persevering through difficult times.
  
  Let time be patient, let pain be gracious
  Just hold on
  
  In January 2021, Adele divorced her husband, Simon Konecki. The breakdown of their marriage grieved the singer, but thanks to the support and encouragement of friends, she gradually rebuilt her heart.
• The gospel-inspired ballad features an amateur choir of Adele's friends singing the words "just hold on, just hold on," over and over. "The thing that they're all singing is what my friends used to say to me," she explained to British Vogue. "That's why I wanted them to sing it, rather than an actual choir."
• The song soundtracked an Amazon Christmas ad, which started airing on November 8, 2021. The commercial tells the story of an older woman sending an anxious college student a thoughtful gift to brighten her day. It ends with the tagline, "Kindness. The greatest gift."
• Adele wrote the song with Inflo, who is known for his work with Little Simz and Michael Kiwanuka. The British producer is also a member of the anonymous British neo-soul Sault collective.
• Adele debuted the song live on November 14, 2021 during CBS' Adele: One Night Only. Her performance, alongside a full orchestra, was part of a two-hour special that also included a sit-down interview with Oprah Winfrey.
• Adele told Winfrey how during her divorce her friends would tell her to "hold on."
  
  "It was just exhausting trying to keep going with it," she said. "It's a process - the process of a divorce, the process of being a single parent, the process of not seeing your child every single day. [It] wasn't really a plan that I had when I became a mum."
  
  "Hold On," and much of 30, Adele added, is also about moving forward with purpose.
  
  "I never questioned whether I'd made a bad decision," she said. "I never ever did, which I'm very grateful for. I never asked myself those questions. But it was just like, maybe it would've been better if I had just kept my mouth shut and carried on. Just in terms of hurting two people that I love most in the world."
• Guilt crippled Adele following her divorce, and she lost hope she'd ever be happy again. After writing this tune, the British songstress realized she'd made it through the worst. "I remember I didn't barely laugh for about a year," Adele told Apple Music. "But I didn't realize I was making progress until I wrote 'Hold On' and listened to it back. Later, I was like, 'Oh, f--k, I've really learned a lot. I've really come a long way.'"