gnash & Olivia O’Brien Perform Rising Hit “I Hate U, I Love U” On ‘Today’

Mike Wass | September 19, 2016 4:24 pm
gnash Talks "I Hate U, I Love U"
We speak to gnash about rising hit "I Hate U, I Love U" and his many collaborators.

gnash and Olivia O’Brien made their breakfast TV debut with a stirring performance of “I Hate U, I Love U” on The Today Show this morning (September 19). The pair showed off a new arrangement (love the strings) and brought the collaboration to a whole new audience. It’s the latest step in the song’s journey from Soundcloud smash to looming top 10 hit — a journey that started via an unassuming voice note. “It was the chords and the intro and the hook for ‘I Hate U, I Love U,'” gnash told Idolator in May. “[Olivia] had a second verse in there as well.”

“I was like, ‘Yo, this is amazing. I would love to help you with this and fine tune this and make this great.’ I made the beat out of the chords, sent that to her and we went back and forth a bunch of times.” The stripped-back track became an online phenomenon (racking up 30 million+ streams in a matter of months) and then proved its commercial chops by topping the charts in Australia. Don’t be surprised if it repeats that feat stateside. “I Hate U, I Love U” reached a new peak of number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week and there’s still a lot of life left in it.

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