Jesse Butterworth

“Can’t Hold Us” is out now.
It started with a phone call with Andrew Joslyn — BEN ‘s violinist, the guy who has played this song approximately as many times as it’s been streamed (over a billion). He had ideas for an arrangement. I had a problem.
I’m not a rapper. Never have been. Trying to perform “Can’t Hold Us” as written would’ve felt like borrowing someone else’s thrift shop sweater and pretending it fits. So I made a different choice: take the essence of those lyrics and distill them into a melody. Let the music carry what the words were always saying underneath.
Then we handed it to the Czech Symphony Orchestra to absolutely crush.
We walked into the studio and found 60+ world-class musicians already tuning up — and when they came crashing in, I don’t have a word for it. Just: go hear it.
Then Chad Reisser got hold of the mix and gave it his cinematic masterclass treatment — and next thing you know, we have a banger.
Huge gratitude to the people who made this real:
∙ Andrew Joslyn for the breathtaking arrangements (calling in from Seattle at 4am 🙌)
∙ for her masterful conducting
∙ Lenka Mrázková for assembling this extraordinary orchestra
∙ Chad Reisser for the mix and sweetening that brought it all to life
Available anywhere you stream music. Go turn it up.

I’ve loved “What A Feeling” since I was a kid.
There was something about it—the optimism, the lift, that sense that anything was possible—that always stuck with me.

For my Symphonic project with the I wanted to chase that feeling… and take it even further.

To turn it into the kind of full, cinematic, goosebumps moment it always felt like in my head—this time with an entire orchestra behind it. Chills, swells, and all the emotion that made me fall in love with the song in the first place.

It’s out now—would love for you to hear it wherever you stream music.

Huge thanks to the team who brought this to life:
• for the breathtaking arrangements
• for her masterful conducting
• Lenka Mrázková for assembling this extraordinary orchestra
• Aaron Sternke for the instruments and mix that brought it all to life