A new study has found Logic’s hit song “1-800-273-8255,” released in April 2017, actually prevented suicides during its run.
As reported by CNN, a study published Monday by the medical journalthe BMJ shows that during the course of three time periods in particular, there were 10,000 more calls to the suicide lifeline and a 5.5 percent reduction in suicides among 10- to 19-year-olds. Those three time periods were 34 days after the release of “1-800-273-8255,” after Logic’s performance of the song at the 2017 VMAs, and after his performance of it at the 2018 Grammys. That reduction equated to 245 less deaths by suicide during those periods.
“Celebrities but also noncelebrities can have an important role in suicide prevention if they communicate about how they have coped with crisis situations and suicidal ideation,” the study’s author Thomas Niederkrotenthaler told CNN.
The Suicide Prevention Hotline says it experienced a 50 percent increase in calls following the release of the single in 2017.
“To know that my music was actually affecting people’s lives, truly, that’s what inspired me to make the song,” Logic said to CNN. “We did it from a really warm place in our hearts to try to help people. And the fact that it actually did, that blows my mind.”
When “1-800-273-8255” was released in 2017 it was a massive success, peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and receiving multiple Grammy nominations. As impactful as the song was, Logic wrote in his 2021 memoir The Bright Future that he also received a lot of hate over his VMA performance.
“The blowback and abuse I’d experienced in the wake of the VMAs was like nothing I’d ever experienced,” he wrote in an excerpt of the book shared by GQ. “Everything I’d seen up to that point was mild in comparison. It was a tsunami of hate, and I couldn’t turn it off.”
Logic also wrote a lot of the hate was coming from former fans. “The same fans who had heard ‘1-800’ and been like, ‘This is amazing. This is so special. This is needed,’ now were the ones going, ‘This sucks’ and ‘He’s too mainstream.’ The most popular thing I’d ever done, the song that was going seven times platinum, suddenly became ‘the worst song Logic ever made.’”
Revisit the song below.
