Songfacts®:

• Raye offers comfort in "I Know You're Hurting," a song from her 2026 album This Music May Contain Hope. The album is largely personal, with the characters in the songs relating to Raye, but in this case it was someone else she was writing about. Still, it ended up coming back around.
  
  "I wrote it about someone I care about a lot, and due to life being very hectic, I couldn't be there for them," she told Vogue. "I created it at a time when I didn't need it, but fast-forward some months and I'm on the plane bawling to it, because that's life."
• Running 6:18, this is the longest song on the album and perhaps the most ambitious musically. It features the London Symphony Orchestra and the Flames Collective choir, which is a group of young singers (mostly teenager) who sometimes perform with Raye - they backed her at the BRIT Awards in 2024.
• Ten different writers are credited on this track, as it passed through many hands on its journey. One of the writers, Chris Hill, told Songfacts how it came together. "It came out of a 23-minute jam session on an emotional day in Madeira," he said. "I think Raye asked the whole room, 'how is everybody feeling?' and we all kind of reflected for a moment. I suddenly felt deeply moved, very connected to each other and grateful to be there, but also I suppose we were missing our families and homes, so all these emotions somehow channeled themselves into this song."
• Raye released a live version of this song and another track from the album, "Nightingale Lane," on YouTube and social media. These performances took place at Abbey Road studios with full orchestration from the London Symphony Orchestra. Raye sang seated in a flowing white dress, clearly absorbed in the music.
• The This Music May Contain Hope album has a "seasons" concept. The 17 tracks take up four sides on the vinyl version, where each side is assigned a season. "I Know You're Hurting," as you can probably guess, is part of winter.