page_title: Pretty Hurts
section_title: Live performances and other versions
hierarchical_section_title: Pretty Hurts / Live performances and other versions
caption_attribution_description: English: Beyoncé performing at Safeco Field in Seattle, Washington during her co-headlining "On the Run Tour" with Jay-Z, on July 31, 2014.
context_page_description: "Pretty Hurts" is a song recorded by American singer Beyoncé for her eponymous fifth studio album. It impacted mainstream radio in the United States on June 10, 2014, as the fourth single from the album. The song was written by Sia, Ammo and Beyoncé and its production was handled by Beyoncé and Ammo. "Pretty Hurts" was initially written for Katy Perry and then offered to Rihanna; both artists failed to record the track and as a result it was sent to Beyoncé instead. It is a power pop and soul ballad, instrumentally complete with a sparse background honed with the use of synths, minor chords and a "booming" drum beat. The track's lyrical content deals with subjects of third-wave feminism, self-empowerment and body image. Additionally, the song's lyrics deal with the consequences of society's high standards of beauty, and in "Pretty Hurts" eating disorders are depicted as one of the subjected results.
  "Pretty Hurts" won in the category for Best Video with a Social Message at the 2014 MTV Europe Music Awards and was named the best track of 2014 by the Associated Press. Following the release of Beyoncé, the track charted in the lower regions internationally.
context_section_description: "Pretty Hurts" was part of the set list for Beyoncé and Jay-Z's co-headlining On the Run Tour (2014). For the performances of the song, Beyoncé sports a leather-studded jacket with the word "Texas" emblazoned in capital letters across its back, along with denim short pants. The outfits were designed by Nicola Formichetti who took inspiration from Beyoncé's music video for "'03 Bonnie & Clyde", outlaw motorcycle clubs, and included references to her daughter Blue Ivy. Billboard editor Leila Cobo felt that the inclusion of the song in the set list served as a "stab" at feminism for her audience. In a review of one of the tour's concerts, Houston Chronicle writer Joey Guerra opined the song was oddly placed in the set list, but wrote that it "somehow worked perfectly as a late-set crescendo". The Times-Picayune editor, Keith Spera, felt that the singer "lofted" the song in its live renditions.
  On January 14, 2014 American singer Sam Tsui released an acoustic cover version of "Pretty Hurts" on the iTunes Store. An early instrumental of "Pretty Hurts" was used for Gucci's Chime for Change campaign in 2013, before the song's official release. At the time, it served as an audio accompaniment for the campaign's films. On June 3, Dutch disc jockey R3hab released an uptempo electro house remix of the song during a concert for Gucci's Chime for Change, in honor of the one-year anniversary of its launching. Idolator's Mike Wass praised the remix's "killer drop" and called it "on-point from beginning to end".
caption: Beyoncé performing the song in Seattle during the On the Run Tour (2014).
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