LA Devotee
"LA Devotee" is a song by American rock solo project Panic! at the Disco. It was released as the first promotional single from the projec's fifth studio album, Death of a Bachelor, on November 26, 2015 (Thanksgiving Day) through Fueled by Ramen and DCD2. The song was written by Brendon Urie, White Sea and Jake Sinclair and was produced by Sinclair.
| "LA Devotee" | |
|---|---|
| Promotional single by Panic! at the Disco | |
| from the album Death of a Bachelor | |
| Published | Listen to This Shhhh, Songs Music Publishing, BMG Platinum Songs, Manes and Reins Publishing |
| Released | November 26, 2015 |
| Recorded | 2015 |
| Genre | |
| Length | 3:16 |
| Label | |
| Songwriters | |
| Producer | Jake Sinclair |
| Music video | |
| "LA Devotee" on YouTube | |
"LA Devotee" is a song by American rock solo project Panic! at the Disco. It was released as the first promotional single from the projec's fifth studio album, Death of a Bachelor, on November 26, 2015 (Thanksgiving Day) through Fueled by Ramen and DCD2. The song was written by Brendon Urie, White Sea and Jake Sinclair and was produced by Sinclair.
Background
[edit]The song's inspiration derives from Urie's passion for Los Angeles and is about someone who has fallen in love with L.A. and will stop at nothing to survive and succeed in the city.[4] A video of the audio for "LA Devotee" was uploaded to Fueled by Ramen's official YouTube channel on the day of its release, November 26, 2015.[5] It has been streamed over 55 million times on YouTube and over 262 million times on Spotify as of December 2022.
Music video
[edit]The song's official music video was released September 22, 2016, starring Noah Schnapp, a child actor known for his role as Will Byers in the Netflix series Stranger Things. The video starts with a young girl played by Anna Sachtleben nervously trying to cross a field with a dog barking in the background. The girl falls down and gets kidnapped by an unknown cloaked figure as the camera shows a shot of the mysterious "Join Us" logo cropped into the field. The next scene shows a young boy (Schnapp) being strapped to a chair singing the song while experiencing bizarre things, with Brendon also singing the song on a screen. The young girl also makes an appearance forcing the boy to drink a Eucharist. The last scene shows four cloaked figures strapping two mechanisms to the boy, causing him to be electrocuted and then suffer a seizure. Afterwards, the video ends with Brendon walking up to him with rubber gloves in a menacing manner. It is unknown what Brendon is to do next.
Between shots of Schnapp being tortured, several disturbing images can be seen, including men with animal heads, blood poured over a skull, children with black holes for their eyes, and a symbol of the Church of Satan (featuring Baphomet's head inside an inverted pentagon) projected over Urie's face.
Other references
[edit]The song references multiple places in the Great Los Angeles area, including:
Charts
[edit]
Weekly charts[edit]
|
Year-end charts[edit]
|
Certifications
[edit]| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Canada (Music Canada)[8] | Gold | 40,000‡ |
| New Zealand (RMNZ)[9] | Gold | 15,000‡ |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[10] | Silver | 200,000‡ |
| United States (RIAA)[11] | Platinum | 1,000,000‡ |
|
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
References
[edit]- ^ Ridler, Faith (December 8, 2015). "Panic! At The Disco: 'LA Devotee' Single Review". Ppcorn. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved January 16, 2016.
- ^ Lucy, Evan (January 15, 2016). "Death Of A Bachelor channels Brendon Urie's inner Sinatra and vocal versatility - Reviews". Alternative Press. Retrieved January 16, 2016.
- ^ Smith, Troy L. (January 14, 2016). "Panic! at the Disco feels more alive than ever on 'Death of a Bachelor'". cleveland.com. Retrieved January 16, 2016.
- ^ Stumme, Clifford (2015-11-27). "What does "LA Devotee" by Panic! at the Disco mean?". Cliffordstumme.com. Retrieved 2016-01-04.
- ^ "Panic! At The Disco: LA Devotee (Audio)". YouTube. 2015-11-26. Retrieved 2016-01-04.
- ^ "Panic! At the Disco – Awards". AllMusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 21, 2014.
- ^ "Hot Rock Songs – Year-End 2016". Billboard. Retrieved May 24, 2020.
- ^ "Canadian single certifications – Panic! at the Disco – LA Devotee". Music Canada. Retrieved July 25, 2018.
- ^ "New Zealand single certifications – Panic! at the Disco – LA Devotee". Radioscope. Retrieved July 20, 2025. Type LA Devotee in the "Search:" field and press Enter.
- ^ "British single certifications – Panic at the Disco – LA Devotee". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved October 25, 2019. Select singles in the Formats field. Type LA Devotee Panic at the Disco in the "Search:" field.
- ^ "American single certifications – Panic! at the Disco – LA Devotee". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved March 20, 2019.
