On June 15, 2016, the song was leaked through a Reddit post.[3] Later that same day, Twenty One Pilots tweeted a message in Morse code which read "takeitslow",[4] a lyric taken from the song "Heathens".[5] The following day, June 16, the song was revealed to be featured on the motion picture soundtrack for the 2016 American superhero film based on the DC Comics antihero team Suicide Squad. The soundtrack was released on August 5.[6]
As I was writing the song I was like, I want this song to be a Twenty One Pilots song first. And I want it to resonate with our fans and make sense at our show. Even though the themes in the movie inspired the beginning of it, as the lyrics came together, and as the song came together, I realized, this was our song.
– Tyler Joseph[7]
Sam Law of Kerrang! named it the band's sixth best song in April 2020, describing it as a "deliciously insidious single" and "largely unlike anything else they'd done". He further said that it was "the best thing to come out of 2016's otherwise almost-entirely abortive Suicide Squad adaptation".[12]
The song peaked in the runner-up position for four consecutive weeks on the US Billboard Hot 100,[13] but was kept out of the top spot by The Chainsmokers' "Closer", becoming the duo's second top five single on the Hot 100. It is the band's highest-peaking single, tied with "Stressed Out". It spent 18 consecutive weeks in the top 10 of the Hot 100 before dropping out on December 31, 2016.
With "Ride" charting at number five and "Heathens" at four in the same week, Twenty One Pilots became the third rock act with simultaneous top five Hot 100 singles in the chart's 58-year history, following only the Beatles and Elvis Presley, as well as the first duo in three years.[14][15] "Heathens" reached number one on the Hot Rock Songs chart, and holds the record for second longest running single at number one, spending 30 weeks at the summit. The song also peaked at number one on the Alternative Songs chart, and reached the top 20 in a variety of other charts. By September 2017, "Heathens" had sold over 2.1 million copies in the US.[16] The song is the second by the band to be certified Diamond, indicating sales of over 10 million copies.[17]
The song also reached number five on the UK Singles Chart. "Heathens" also made it into the top 10 in more than 15 different countries, including Australia, Belgium, Canada and Switzerland.
The music video for "Heathens", directed by Andrew Donoho, was uploaded to the Fueled by RamenYouTube channel in June 2016.[18] It shows Joseph singing the song in Belle Reve, a fictional prison in the DC Universe, with Dun appearing while playing drums during the course of the video. Joseph makes his way to a small stage in the middle of a room, where Dun is already on the stage playing the drums. Joseph then picks up a floating bass guitar and begins playing it while the prisoners leave their cells and watch the duo perform the remainder of the song. At the end of the video, Joseph is sitting in the room alone as the prison security guards surround him. Throughout the music video, various clips from Suicide Squad are played.
The band performed "Heathens" for the first time in concert at The Uptown Amphitheatre at the Music Factory in Charlotte, North Carolina on June 28, 2016, as part of their Emotional Roadshow World Tour.[20] The song was later performed as part of the band's appearance on episode two of Saturday Night Live's forty-second season.[21]
Chicago-based rapper Vic Mensa performed a freestyle over the instrumental of the track.[22] Opening with the band's chorus, the "heathens freestyle" features Mensa rapping for two minutes straight.[23] His verse touches on real-life violence, providing insight into what he experienced first-hand growing up on the South Side of Chicago.[22][23] The song's lyrics contain self-referential jokes regarding his sampling of Twenty One Pilots as well as a reference to the film Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century.[23] Vic Mensa appeared in a cover art inspired by The Joker to accompany the freestyle.[22] "Heathens" was covered by heavy metal band Halestorm, for their cover album, Reanimate 3.0, released on January 6, 2017.[24] The song was covered by the American indie pop band Blondfire.[25] "Heathens" was featured in the Twenty One Pilots Mashup by Kurt Hugo Schneider, featuring VoicePlay.[26] American metalcore band Wolves at the Gate released a cover of the song, as part of their cover album Lost in Translation, which was released on September 22, 2023.[27]
Seven days after the song's release, it was used to accompany television advertisements for the American TV show Chicago P.D. on RTÉ2,[28] and was used to accompany the first half of a Problem Gambling documentary created by Davy Glennon, aired on Claire Byrne Live on November 22, 2016.[29][30] "Heathens" was also performed live on July 15, 2022 at Electric Castle in Romania, as part of a collaboration with the Netflix series Stranger Things.[31]
^"ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Radio Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Select 46. týden 2016 in the date selector. Retrieved November 22, 2016.
^"ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Digital Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Select 31. týden 2016 in the date selector. Retrieved August 9, 2016.
^Arvunescu, Victor (December 6, 2016). "Top Airplay 100 - Piesa tuesday intra in top!" [Top Airplay 100 – The song tuesday enters in the top!] (in Romanian). Un site de muzică. Retrieved December 7, 2016.
^"ČNS IFPI" (in Slovak). Hitparáda – Radio Top 100 Oficiálna. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: insert 201642 into search. Retrieved October 24, 2016.
^"ČNS IFPI" (in Slovak). Hitparáda – Singles Digital Top 100 Oficiálna. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Select SINGLES DIGITAL - TOP 100 and insert 201634 into search. Retrieved August 29, 2016.
