“Rise Up” is just a song about any type of relationship. I look at everyone, as we all are brothers and sisters, and we are all a body working together. “Rise Up” is saying one piece isn’t better than the other—when this part is struggling, I’m gonna help you.

In 2018, NPR ranked this as the #126 greatest song by a female or nonbinary artist in the 21st century, saying:

Andra Day’s ‘Rise Up’ wasn’t intended to be an anthem. The San Diego soul singer says she originally wrote the song, from her debut album Cheers to the Fall, as a prayer for herself during a difficult time. But the rousing song resonated widely with activist communities after its 2015 release — the Black Lives Matter movement in particular. Day performed the song at the 2016 Democratic National Convention just after the mothers of Sandra Bland, Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis addressed the crowd; by then, ‘Rise Up’ had become an anthem not just for personal perseverance, but for the wider struggle for social justice in our era.