Songfacts®:

• This is the opening track of the soundtrack to The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1. The song is manned by Stromae. The Belgian singer-songwriter and producer first came to wide public attention with his song "Alors On Danse," which was one of the biggest hits of 2010 in continental Europe.
• The song also features Lorde, the album's overall curator, holding down the hook. She's joined by Pusha T and Q-Tip, both of whom toss out quick-fire verses after the initial chorus. The Haim sisters also have a brief cameo at the end of the track.
  
  Lorde told Fader: "Something like 'Meltdown' was pretty far outside my comfort zone. I contacted Stromae early on asking if he had anything, and he had this amazing instrumental from his record. I was, like, 'Oh my god, when I listened to your album the first thing I thought was that someone should do something over this awesome instrumental.' I thought, 'Wouldn't it be cool to get a bunch of rappers on it?' And once you say that, nothing can dissuade you. It ended up being one of my favorites on the album."
• Asked by Fader if all the artists joined her in the studio, Lorde replied: "I wish. It was me and Haim. I'd been in the studio for 20 hours doing everything that needed to be finished, with me and my producer scarfing burgers."
  
  "It was this big Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur, and Haim couldn't eat all day," she continued. "Before they came to the studio, we were like, 'Put everything away! Light a candle! No one can know this happened' When the girls showed up, we did awesome gang vocals for an hour. You feel so much cooler around them than you are. When they leave, I'm like, 'The light just got turned off and all of a sudden I'm a loser again.'"
• Speaking about her curating of the soundtrack to Rolling Stone, Lorde said "Everyone my age read the books and saw the films. I got a call: 'You've been asked to write the end-credit song.' But I wanted ownership in the process. They came back: 'Would you like to do the soundtrack?' I was like, 'Uh, that would work.'"