“Rooting for You” by Alessia Cara

In “Rooting for You”, Alessia Cara is singing about a close association she has or had with another person. That is to say that in the past they were good friends. However, as time progressed, the feelings between the two of them soured. The songstress attributes this to being pulled into the “issue” of the other person. What type of matter she is talking about is not specified. However, given how the rest of the song plays out, it seems as if this individual may be unscrupulous or untrustworthy.

For instance, while this person’s relationship with Alessia ended, she (presuming it’s a female) simultaneously befriended the same people whom she used to dog when she was cool with the singer.  It also seems that this person has a burdensome-emotional relationship with Alessia. So basically, Miss Cara finds herself in a situation where the same person she used to support has seemingly excommunicated her, as in ‘burning a bridge’. And apparently this person has a habit of behaving in such a manner.

So in response, Alessia is now damning their relationship once and for all. And at this point she feels little sentimental discomfort for doing such, even though she apparently vested a lot into making it work.  In other words, the title of this track, “rooting for you”, can be found in its chorus. This expression means that she used to encourage her ex-friend. And within the context of the song, it would specifically allude to the idea that the singer optimistically believed and even fostered the idea that things would turn out for the best between them. And she did so even though she noticed the aforementioned personality flaws since some time back.

 So on one hand, Alessia is logically disappointed that things did not evolve as she envisioned. But overall she is not in any type of deep emotional turmoil due to losing such a wishy-washy friend.

Release of “Rooting for You”

Alessia Cara used Instagram to tease the release of this song on August 7th, 2019. The track itself was eventually released by Def Jam Recordings two days later (9 August 2019). It was dropped as Alessia’s second single from her 2019 EP This Summer.

Did Alessia Cara write this song by herself?

Yes she did. As a matter of fact Alessia solely penned “Rooting for You” in its entirety. Regarding its production, producer Midi Jones produced it alongside Jon Levine.