Noah Kahan Delivers Heartache and Hope on New ‘Hunger Games’ Single ‘The Great Divide’

Vermont-born singer-songwriter Noah Kahan has added a new single, “The Great Divide,” to the official soundtrack for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, expanding the folk-pop artist’s reach into one of Hollywood’s most popular film franchises.

Noah Kahan Drops “The Great Divide” For The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes Official Soundtrack. The track blends Kahan’s signature folk-pop style with themes of separation, loss, and resilience that mirror the prequel’s plot. Geffen Records released the soundtrack alongside the film’s November 2023 theatrical release.

Noah Kahan on a star-studded soundtrack: Kahan features on “The Great Divide” with a cast of contemporary heavyweights assembled for the prequel’s musical companion. The full soundtrack, out on Geffen Records, includes Olivia Rodrigo, who performed the lead single “Can’t Catch Me Now,” along with Rachel Zegler, Billy Strings, Gracie Abram,s and more.

The soundtrack was produced and curated by Grammy Award-winning producer Dave Cobb, who has worked in country, folk and Americana music. Cobb’s participation marked a deliberate pivot for the franchise toward a more organic, roots-oriented sonic palette than the pop-heavy soundtracks of previous Hunger Games films.

Kahan’s addition to the lineup shows how quickly he’s ascended in the music world. The 27-year-old Strafford, Vermont, native exploded into the mainstream with his 2022 album “Stick Season,” which produced multiple charting singles and gained him a passionate worldwide fanbase. His emotionally direct songwriting style—confessional lyrics, acoustic instrumentation, raw vocal delivery—fitted him naturally into a franchise built on themes of survival, sacrifice, and emotional endurance.

Thematic Links to the Franchise: “The Great Divide” taps into the emotional terrain of Suzanne Collins’s prequel novel, which takes place decades before Coriolanus Snow becomes the tyrannical president of Panem. The story recounts the history of the Hunger Games, set against a backdrop of poverty and moral corruption in the post-war era.

Kahan’s song channels these themes through a carefully chosen lyrical vocabulary. The title evokes the fractures—geographic, social, and personal—that characterize both the world of Panem and the inner struggles of its characters. The bittersweet mix of heartbreak and hope in the song’s early descriptions matches the prequel’s larger emotional arc, which explores how idealism can unravel when confronted with hardship.

Its folk-y arrangement makes the tune stand out from the rest of the soundtrack, blending in with the more cinematic and pop-leaning offerings from other artists, while still keeping the acoustic intimacy that has become Kahan’s hallmark.

The soundtrack was an important part of the film’s marketing blitz by Lionsgate and Geffen Records, which focused on the diversity of the artists and the collection’s thematic consistency under Cobb’s guidance.

The soundtrack was conceived as a companion piece to the film rather than as a conventional pop compilation, with each track intended to reflect certain emotional or narrative elements of the story. In promotional material, Kahan’s contribution was described as one of the soundtrack’s more introspective songs.

Kahan has discussed his love of storytelling through music and his openness to trying different creative directions in previous interviews, but for quotes about his work on The Hunger Games, source them from his official social media channels or verified press interviews for accuracy.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, based on the 2020 novel of the same title by Suzanne Collins. The film stars Tom Blyth as young Coriolanus Snow and Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray Baird, a tribute from District 12.

The Hunger Games franchise has a history of high-profile soundtrack collaborations. The original movie from 2012 featured Taylor Swift, Arcade Fire, and The Civil Wars. The soundtrack of Catching Fire (2013) featured songs from Coldplay, Lorde and Sia. The prequel’s soundtrack took a tonal shift, leaning more heavily into folk, Americana, and acoustic-driven arrangements to match the story’s earlier historical setting.

Noah Kahan’s path to the collaboration has been significant. Stick Season became a commercial breakthrough after years of building a fan base through independent releases and touring, with the title track and subsequent singles accumulating hundreds of millions of streams across platforms. He sold out arena dates on his 2023-2024 tour, securing his place as one of the most prominent singer-songwriters of his generation.

Kahan’s presence on the Hunger Games soundtrack marks a major crossover between the folk-pop singer-songwriter world and big-budget franchise filmmaking. Kahan’s demographics fit the Hunger Games franchise well and make him a strong candidate for the soundtrack’s commercial success and cultural cachet, especially among younger listeners who drive streaming numbers.

Placement, as Kahan says, lets his music reach the franchise’s huge global audience, many of whom probably haven’t heard his catalog before. Traditionally, such placements have been career-defining moments for artists, expanding their reach beyond their core fanbase.

The partnership also reflects a wider industry trend of pairing emotionally driven, genre-specific artists with franchise material to create more singular, thematically connected soundtrack experiences, moving away from the compilation-style approaches more common in previous decades.

The full Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes soundtrack is available on all major streaming platforms. Following the commercial success of Stick Season and its expanded versions, fans are eagerly awaiting new original material, and Kahan is expected to resume touring and recording.

Lionsgate has not revealed any other soundtrack releases or expanded musical content related to the prequel. However, the franchise’s future direction — including potential adaptations of other works by Collins — may create further opportunities for musical collaborations.