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"King" is a song by British synth-pop trio Years & Years from their debut studio album Communion. It was originally released as a single on 3 February 2015. The song was released in the United Kingdom as a digital download on 1 March 2015 through Polydor Records.
The song entered at the top of the UK Singles Chart with a combined sales-streaming figure of 101,000 copies, making it Years & Years' first number-one single. Internationally, "King" peaked within the top ten of the charts in Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the Republic of Ireland and Switzerland.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, frontman Olly Alexander said: "When we recorded (the song), no one felt good about it. It sounds lame! And we could never fix it. We shelved it for awhile. When we came back to it, we just took a different approach: 'Let's try to make it an Eighties dance-pop track.' And we just started out with that, cut it all up, arranged it. Used that balearic flute vibe, like a bird in the forest." Synth player Mikey Goldsworthy revealed that the backing track "(is) actually Olly's voice sampled and fucked up."
"King" was released as the album's fourth single on 27 February 2015. The song debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart, with a combined sales-streaming figure of 101,000 copies, and reached number three on the Irish Singles Chart. Alexander has stated many times that the song has a much darker meaning: "I was going out with a guy that was kind of a douche bag, but I still really liked him". He further stated "I know lots of people can related to this. It's a song about how it feels good to be treated badly by someone".
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