Tracks Citizen Soldier - Thank You for Hating Me (2021) - Dork
Critics in the industry told him he was "too chubby" to ever make it as a professional musician. Citizen Soldier - Thank You for Hating Me
The story behind "Thank You for Hating Me" is a literal "revenge is a dish best served cold" success tale. It serves as a defiant anthem for anyone who has been told they aren't enough, rooted in the personal betrayals and criticisms faced by lead singer Jake Segura . The Real-Life Catalyst Tracks Citizen Soldier - Thank You for Hating
He was actually kicked out of his very first band because they didn't like his voice. The Real-Life Catalyst He was actually kicked out
This defiance is central to Citizen Soldier’s identity. The band was famously born in a psychiatric hospital in 2016, where Segura wrote their first lyrics on a napkin while recovering from a suicide attempt. Now a practicing clinical therapist, Segura uses songs like "Thank You for Hating Me" to provide a "group therapy dynamic" for fans battling trauma, abuse, and mental illness stigma.
Before the song became a viral hit, Segura faced a series of discouraging setbacks that he eventually used as fuel:
Instead of letting these experiences break his spirit, Segura wrote the track as a "reframe" of those memories. The core philosophy of the song is that —turning the "knives in his back" into lessons that made him a "lion" instead of a "sheep". A Full-Circle Moment