Katy Perry’s new single for the 2016 Olympics is EXACTLY what we needed

There’s been an unfortunate lack of Katy Perry in our lives for the past few years. Her last studio album Prism was released back in 2013, and her Prismatic tour ended last October. The last single off of that album was “This Is How We Do,” and the music video for that song was released on July 31, 2014. That’s nearly two full years of zero new Katy, aside from her one-off Christmas single “Every Day Is A Holiday,” which dropped last November as part of H&M’s holiday campaign. I’m honestly not sure how we made it this long! Luckily, the Katy Perry drought has finally lifted with the brand-spanking-new release of “Rise,” her AMAZING anthem for the 2016 Olympics.

The new single is a soaring and inspirational, electronic dance anthem, paired perfectly with the footage of Olympic athletes training and competing that accompanies it in the official video. Give it a listen:

So good, right? This one is definitely being added to my workout playlist whenever I need an extra boost to finish off that last rep. Plus, it’s so catch — a definite ear worm. Good luck getting this out of your head for the next few days!

Naturally, Katy’s fan base is flipping out in excitement over this surprise new single. false false

The song is, essentially, all about overcoming challenges and continuing to rise up when everybody thinks you’re toast. Katy’s beautiful chorus summarizes it a lot better than I can: “When the fire’s at my feet again, and the vultures all start circling/They’re whispering, ‘You’re out of time,’ but still I rise,” she sings.

Katy also recorded a video for the Today Show, explaining why she felt the need to release “Rise” now. false

Katy explained that she’s been hard at work in the studio on her next album (yes, please!) but that “Rise,” which “has been brewing inside [her] for years” was inspired by “the overall mood of the world today” and she felt the need to release it ahead of time rather than save it for her upcoming album. “Let’s be inspired, let’s heal, let’s unite, let’s rise,” Katy says, looking towards the 2016 Olympics as a perfect example of the world coming together and unifying in times of trouble.

This song is catchy as heck, but more importantly, it has such a timely and inspiring message behind it. Like Katy, we’re so glad that the 2016 Rio Olympic Games chose this song as their anthem.