"Hurts 2B Human" is a strumming ballad which finds Pink linking up with Khalid to sing about the pains of everyday life.
God, it hurts to be human
Without you, I'd be losin'
Pink and Khalid take on two different roles during this track. Pink's character is plagued by negative thoughts. She is feeling fed up with life but shields herself from the pain with the help of a loved one.
Sometimes, I get so tired of getting tied up in my thoughts
You're the only one that ever makes it stop
Khalid is more optimistic and offers some words of encouragement. He assures Pink that she can count on him and he "has her back."
Pink and Khalid wrote the song along with:
New York songwriter Teddy Geiger. He is best known for his collaborations with Shawn Mendes, including the 2017 BMI Song of the Year "
Stitches."
Alexander Izquierdo from the Miami production and songwriting team Monsters & Strangerz. His other credits include Fifth Harmony's "
Work from Home."
Miami-born, Paris-based electro artist Anna-Catherine Hartley, who is known professionally as Uffie. She is best known for her 2010 collaboration with Pharrell Williams "
ADD SUV."
The song was helmed by pop producer Jorgen Odegard, who also collaborated with Imagine Dragons on their hit single "
Bad Liar."
This is the title track to Pink's eighth studio album, which was released in 2019 - two decades after she started her career as a rebellious teenager. When younger folks started approaching her exclaiming how much their moms loved her music, the 40-year-old singer realized she was entering mom-fan territory. But it worked to her advantage when it came to landing Khalid as a collaborator. "He said yes because his mom likes me," Pink told Entertainment Weekly. "I've crossed over. Someone I think is my age will walk up to me in an airport and be like, 'Hey! My mom loves you!' And I'm like, 'F---! I mean thank you!'"
Pink told Entertainment Weekly why she named the album after this tune: "When this song happened, it hit a string in me that just resonates. I feel like in 2019 if you're present and not totally escaping your feelings and you're looking around at what's going on in the world, especially this country, it hurts. It f---ing hurts your heart. If you choose to remain open-hearted, then it's just going to hurt for a while. I think that's a good thing because that's what creates change and I think we're starting to see change and see people show up and fight back. Also, being a woman and Khalid being an African American male in America, it f---ing hurts.
I also think it's a really hopeful song. If you watch the news you think everybody hates each other, everybody's an a--hole, everybody's a douchebag - but that's not true. A lot of us out there are not like that and a lotta people out there do have each other's backs and that's what it's gonna take to usurp the bullsh-- that's happening. So that's why I especially wanted Khalid to be on that record with me aside from I love his voice. I love who he is. He's young and awesome and the sweetest person in the world. I always name the album after a song title and this one felt the most true to what's going on right now."
This was used in the 2019 movie Charlie's Angels, starring Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, and Ella Balinska.
The music video, directed by Alissa Torvinen, follows the ups and downs of life in a New York City apartment building as Pink and Khalid perform in their dwellings nearby. The clip offers hope to those struggling as a couple fighting over bills makes up, a busy mom makes time for her daughter, and a lonely young woman is cheered up by a friend.
An animated lyric video was also made featuring Pink and Khalid floating up to the starry skies on parachutes.
