Songfacts®:

• "Heavy Is The Crown" is a track from Linkin Park's eighth album, From Zero. The song is also the 2024 League of Legends World Championship Anthem, marking the band's first collaboration with Riot Games.
  
  The League of Legends World Championship is an annual esports tournament for the multiplayer online battle arena video game League of Legends, developed by Riot Games. You might remember the previous years' anthems; Lil Nas X's "Star Walkin'" in 2022 and NewJeans' "Gods" in 2023.
• Mike Shinoda handles the verses with his usual rapped intensity, while new member Emily Armstrong delivers a scream-laden chorus that could probably be heard from space. The title itself is telling - it suggests the burdens and responsibility of leadership. In this song, "Heavy is the Crown" is a reference to the responsibility of being the League of Legends Worlds Champion and the constant pressure to stay on top.
• For those curious about the title, "Heavy is the Crown" is a nod to Shakespeare - sort of. The line most people think of, "Heavy is the head that wears the crown," isn't quite right. It's actually, "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown," from Henry IV, Part II. In this scene, poor King Henry is pacing around his palace in the middle of the night, worrying about wars and rebellion while his subjects snore blissfully in their beds. The takeaway? Having power doesn't always bring peace of mind, and those at the top often carry the heaviest burdens.
• Linkin Park penned this track alongside California writer and producer Mike Elizondo. Starting out in the late '90s with rappers like Eminem and Dr. Dre, Elizondo has gone on to work with a wide spectrum of artists ranging from Avenged Sevenfold to Carrie Underwood. This is his first team-up with Linkin Park.
• The band debuted "Heavy Is the Crown" live on September 22, 2024, in Hamburg during the encore.
• The animated video shows the band rendered in the same painterly style as the Netflix series Arcane, which also comes from the League of Legends universe.