“The Hanging Tree” is a song by Suzanne Collins, James Newton Howard, and Wesley Schultz from the band the Lumineers, featuring vocals from American actress Jennifer Lawrence. The song was released by Republic Records on December 9, 2014, as the second single from the soundtrack for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014). It was first included in the film’s score album but was later added to the digital extended edition of the film’s soundtrack. “The Hanging Tree” is a folk ballad that features orchestral strings and a choir.
Schultz revealed that director Francis Lawrence instructed him to create a melody that could be “hummed or sung by one person” or “by a thousand people”; he also informed Schultz not to make the song “overly complicated”. To Schultz, the song felt like an innocent nursery rhyme despite its dark undertones. Schultz and Fraites then submitted a “couple melodies in about a day and a half or two days” during the month of September 2013. Lawrence later contacted both Schultz and Fraites via text message that the melody was chosen for the film, saying, “It worked out great in the movie. We just shot the scene. [Jennifer] was really nervous but it went great.”
“The Hanging Tree” received mostly positive reviews from music critics with some praising Lawrence’s vocals, its elements of Appalachian music, and its effectiveness as a murder ballad. Commercially, the song garnered success on charts internationally, peaking atop record charts in several markets, including Austria, Hungary, and Germany. It debuted and peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and at number 20 in the United Kingdom’s Official Charts Company. “The Hanging Tree” was eventually certified platinum in Canada and Germany as well as double platinum in the United States. To promote the song, a remix by producer Michael Gazzo was released.
“The Hanging Tree” was performed live for the first time at “Hollywood in Vienna”, a gala honouring excellence in music. James Newton Howard performed with Edita Malovčić as a substitute for Lawrence; it was conducted by Keith Lockhart of the Boston Pops Orchestra. Howard was reportedly in tears after the performance and rose to his feet to give a standing ovation.To promote the song, Howard embarked on a European tour called “3 Decades of Music for Hollywood” and held a contest in search for a female vocalist, one for each tour date, that would sing Lawrence’s verses.
“The Hanging Tree” was also featured in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023), the film adaptation of the 2020 prequel novel to The Hunger Games. This version was performed by Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray Baird, and was released as the first single from the film’s accompanying soundtrack album. “The Hanging Tree” is played by producers to contestants in the hit British reality television series The Traitors prior to the ‘Roundtable’ section of the format, with the eeriness of the song used to add tension to the game.
