Songfacts®:

• Scottish singer-songwriter Emeli Sandé crossed the Atlantic to link up with New Yorker Alicia Keys to pen this song. She told The Sun its about, "hoping that the world changes as people are very removed from their feelings now."
• Sandé wrote the song with Keys in New York. The Scottish songstress told Q magazine about collaborating with the American singer-songwriter star: "We were in her studio and we wanted to make a really honest song because when I first met her and we got to know each other we were talking about things we wanted for the industry and things we wanted to change. We were upstairs, and thought, What do we actually hope for the world? And then put it down. She's really awesome, very down to earth but very focused. Knows how to get a good song done."
• The pair penned the song after the British riots of summer 2011. "It was raining and we came up with the first line, 'I hope that the whole world stops raining'," Sandé smiled to Q magazine. "It was like a prayer: 'I hope people hope again.'"