Songfacts®:

• "I Dare You" is a plea from Kelly Clarkson for global love, compassion and understanding. Backed by a driving beat and echoing vocals, Clarkson implores.
  
  I dare you to love
  Even if you're hurt and you can only see the worst
  Even if you think it's not enough
  I dare you to love
  
  Clarkson is daring the listener to put aside their emotional wounds and instead be a positive influence to all those around us.
• Said Clarkson to Today regarding the song's message: "It's basically like, 'I dare you to love instead of fear, instead of hate, instead of wonder about something, and actually just engage with people and engage with yourself again and remember that we're all a human race, At the end of the day, we're all the same human race."
• Jesse Shatkin, Natalie Hemby, Laura Veltz, Ben West, and Jeff "Gitty" Gitelman wrote the song with Shatkin also producing the track. Between them, Hemby, Veltz and West have worked with likes of Pink, Kacey Musgraves and Maren Morris; Shatkin has produced many of Clarkson's songs including the hit single "Love So Soft."
• Clarkson intended to release the single on March 24, 2020, and to film its debut live performance during her self-titled talk show the same day, but the coronavirus pandemic halted her plans. Instead, she dropped the track on April 16, 2020, accompanied by a special episode of her talk show. "I thought, 'Maybe people need this kind of message right now,'" Clarkson explained of that decision.
• To illustrate the song's message of global unity, Clarkson recorded five "multi-language duet versions" featuring singers from around the world, For the French version, Clarkson is joined by singer Zaz, while she teams up with Blas Canto for the Spanish "Te Reto A Amar." Canadian-Moroccan singer Faouzia offers an Arabic interpretation; Maya Buskila sings a Hebrew rendition, and the German duo Galsperlenspiel recorded a German take.
• Clarkson grew up singing opera in different languages, which gave her the idea for the multi-language single. "I got to sing in French and Italian, the Latin-based languages," she told host Jimmy Fallon. "I mean, when you're a kid you want to sing Whitney Houston, right? So it wasn't like I was like, 'Yeah opera!' But now I think it's beautiful, and I thought it'd be cool one day if in my career, there was a song that kind of lent itself to that."
• Trisha Yearwood also recorded the song for the 2021 deluxe edition of her Every Girl album. Her version, titled "I Dare You To Love," is more of a moody ballad than Clarkson's upbeat rendition.