A 29-song tracklist with only one artist’s name on it is a bold way to start a rollout, and it works as a tease. That name is Noah Kahan, whose Draw You Out has been streaming since 2 October 2026 as the lead single from The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping (The Album).
For readers in Singapore, the two dates that follow sit a week apart. The full album is set for 13 November 2026 with pre-orders already open, and Lionsgate has the film down for cinemas everywhere on 20 November 2026.
Kahan and Dessner, Round Two
Kahan co-wrote and co-produced Draw You Out with Grammy-winning producer Aaron Dessner.
The pair recorded at Long Pond Studio in New York and at Gold Pacific Studios and East Iris Studios in Nashville. It’s a reunion, because Dessner was one of the two producers on Kahan’s latest album, The Great Divide.
Kahan sounds fully aware of the size of the assignment. “Music is such a massive part of the Hunger Games in a lot of ways. To be able to speak to what the director sees in these characters, what Suzanne Collins wrote these characters for, and to try to match that is a big task – but a really fun challenge. I just can’t believe that I get to be a part of it,” he told Billboard.
Who Is Noah Kahan, Anyway?
If the name is new, start with Stick Season, the 2022 album that took him from New England singer-songwriter to arena headliner. It went to number one across North America, the United Kingdom, and Europe, and it finished as the sixth best-selling album of 2024, two years after it came out.
The numbers since then are huge: nearly 20 billion global streams, two Grammy nominations, and more than two million tickets sold worldwide. In 2023, he launched a mental health non-profit, The Busyhead Project, which has raised US$13 million to date.
The Great Divide, his fourth studio album, debuted at number one in the United States and stayed there for three consecutive weeks. His label describes its themes as success, identity, family, and distance, and that’s the reason this pairing makes sense. A writer who is at his best on distance and the things people can’t say to each other is a natural fit for a story about a teenager taken from home.
29 Tracks, 28 Blanks
Now for the fun part, because the tracklist is public even though the line-up isn’t. The album brings together 29 cross-genre artists, and for now the song titles are the only clues.
Three of them are worth a closer look. The Raven appears in three parts at tracks 1, 6, and 12, which suggests a thread running through the first half of the record. Dove Song at track 7 is hard to read without thinking of Lenore Dove, the character fans of the novel have been discussing since the single was announced. Then there’s the closer, Alone (Live in Berlin 2022), a live recording sitting at track 29 on an album otherwise sold on previously unreleased music.
Kahan’s own song is at track 27, far from the top, so the lead single is being saved for the album’s final stretch. Three tracks carry an Arena Mix tag too, at 10, 17, and 19.
The person steering all of this is executive producer Dave Cobb, the Grammy winner known for his work with Chris Stapleton and Sturgill Simpson. He’s Chief Creative Officer at MCA, the Universal Music Group division releasing the album, which describes itself as a home for country music. That points towards guitars and grit over glossy pop, and it’s the more interesting choice!
Meet 16-Year-Old Haymitch
The film is the reason any of this exists, so here’s the short version for anyone who skipped the book. Directed by Francis Lawrence, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is set 24 years before the original story and follows 16-year-old Haymitch Abernathy, played by Joseph Zada, from District 12.
It opens on the morning of the reaping for the 50th Hunger Games, the Second Quarter Quell, which has twice as many tributes as usual. Mckenna Grace plays fellow tribute Maysilee Donner and Ralph Fiennes is President Snow, with Jesse Plemons, Glenn Close, Kieran Culkin, Elle Fanning, and Maya Hawke in the cast.
The five films so far have grossed over US$3.3 billion worldwide, so the soundtrack has a huge audience waiting. The cinema date is still some way off, and the list of things to do in Singapore this October can fill the wait.
Is It a Hunger Games Anthem?
Early fan reaction online has leaned thrilled, with comments calling Kahan “the perfect choice” and the pairing “my favorite artist and my favorite book”. The cooler takes are worth hearing as well. One early review praised Dessner’s production while questioning whether the song has the instant hook of the biggest Stick Season tracks, and a Reddit thread rated it solid but short of a definitive franchise anthem.
That criticism is fair, and it’s early. A song written for specific characters is best judged once it’s heard in the film, and nobody can do that until November.
The honest advice splits two ways. If Kahan is the draw, the song is out and you can listen to it now. If the purchase depends on who else is on the record, 28 of the 29 slots are still unnamed, and waiting for the announcements is the sensible move.
Either way, the first step is easy: listen to Draw You Out now, then pre-order The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping (The Album) ahead of its 13 November release. Keep an eye on Noah Kahan’s TikTok for more from the singer before the film reaches cinemas on 20 November. Haymitch’s story finally has its first song, and there are 28 more to come!
Press photo by Patrick McCormack, visuals courtesy of MCA.
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