Songfacts®:

• "Hold On" is a song of comfort and assurance where Justin Bieber gets alongside somebody who is struggling.
  
  Take my hand and hold on
  Tell me everything that you need to say
  'Cause I know how it feels to be someone
  Feels to be someone who loses their way
  
  The Canadian pop star has admitted to making mistakes as he struggled with growing up in the public eye, including several run-ins with the law. Bieber can relate to this person's problems as he knows what it's like to lose his way. "The song is just a hopeful record of just holding on, because a lot of us want to give up at times," he said in a live chat. "There's a lot to look forward to. There's a lot we can't control sometimes, but there's always hope."
• Justin Bieber wrote the song with:
  
  Jon Bellion, who also co-penned Bieber's "Holy" single. His other credits include Maroon 5's "Memories."
  
  Ali Tamposi, Andrew Watt and Louis Bell, who often work together. Their previous collaborations include Camila Cabello's "Havana," 5 Seconds of Summer's "Youngblood," and Miley Cyrus' "Midnight Sky."
  
  The Australian singer-songwriter Gotye gets credited because "Hold On" interpolates the melody of his 2011 hit "Somebody That I Used To Know."
  
  Brazilian musician Luiz Bonfá is listed for the same reason because "STIUTK" samples the guitar break from his "Seville" track.
• Andrew Watt and Louis Bell produced the song. Watt also played the guitar and bass.
• Colin Tilley directed the cinematic video, which opens with Bieber on his motorbike trying to escape the police. We later learn in a flashback of the "mistakes" the singer made, which explain why he's on the run from the cops.
  
  Actress Christine Ko plays Bieber's love interest; she is also known as Emma in Lil Dicky's FX series Dave.
• Justin Bieber and Colin Tilley developed the clip's concept of the singer robbing a bank in order to pay his dying girlfriend's medical bills. "Justin called me and said he wanted to do something action-packed with motorcycles, but also pull on the heart strings," Tilley said in a Vevo Footnotes video.
  
  The director added, "My grandmother just got diagnosed with very bad cancer and only has so much longer to live. It's been on my mind and affecting me heavy, so of course this storyline came up."
  
  "It kinda just shows a story of humanity and of empathy... It's kind of a learning lesson all around," said Bieber about the visual. "Although it may seem like there's these last resorts, let's not cave into those things and let's trust God that he's going to handle the situation."
• Justin Bieber performed the song live for the first time while appearing as a guest on the March 18, 2021 episode of The Late Late Show with James Corden.
• Tilley shot the video over a three-day period in Long Beach, California. When they did the bank robbery scene, the stunt double flies out the window with the glass breaking, and the cinematographer, Elias Talbot, follows him out. Tilley told Billboard Talbot slipped on some glass and cut his leg open. "So when you watch that take," Tilley added, "and it gets blurry at the end of the sequence when Justin lands on the ground, you're like, 'Oh, snap! How did that look so real?' Well, it was."
• This was the 17th song titled "Hold On" to chart on the Hot 100. According to a Billboard survey dated July 28, 2021, this earned "Hold On" the honor of being the most common title for a Hot 100 hit.