General · EdgepediaSeptember 17, 20266 min read

Beautiful Trauma

Beautiful Trauma is the seventh studio album by the American singer and songwriter P!nk, released on October 13, 2017 through RCA Records. It contains 13 tracks running about 51 minutes, all co-written by P!nk, and includes a guest appearance by Eminem on the song "Revenge".¹^•² The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 and topped charts in the United Kingdom, Australia, and other markets, and it became her highest-selling debut week in the United States.³

Key fact	Detail
Artist and album	Seventh studio album by P!nk, her first since The Truth About Love (2012)⁴
Release	October 13, 2017, RCA Records; 13 songs, 51 minutes¹
Featured artist	Eminem on "Revenge"²
First-week sales	408,000 equivalent album units in the US, at the time the year's biggest debut from a female artist; #1 on the Billboard 200⁵^•³
International reach	Debuted at #1 in ten additional markets including the UK, Australia, France, New Zealand, and Ireland³
Certifications	RIAA platinum in the US; 4x platinum in Australia; triple platinum album in Canada (March 2, 2021)⁶^•⁷
Critical reception	Metascore of 62 on Metacritic, based on 9 critic reviews⁸
Tour	The Beautiful Trauma World Tour ran from 2018 into 2019, playing more than 156 shows in 18 countries⁹

Background and songwriting

Five years separated Beautiful Trauma from its predecessor, 2012's The Truth About Love, the longest gap between P!nk's studio albums to that point. The AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine, a longtime music journalist, read the album's refusal to chase contemporary trends as deliberate, a reflection of how her hits and audience had moved toward the adult contemporary charts.⁴

P!nk co-wrote all 13 tracks on the album, working with songwriters and producers including Steve Mac, Johnny McDaid, Max Martin, Shellback, Jack Antonoff, Julia Michaels, Greg Kurstin, busbee, and Tobias Jesso, Jr. Antonoff, who had worked with Lorde, St. Vincent, and Taylor Swift, produced the piano-driven title track.²^•¹ Billy Mann, a creative partner of long standing, also contributed.¹

The title. In an interview with The Guardian, P!nk explained the naming: "That's why I named the album Beautiful Trauma, because life is fucking traumatic. There's natural disasters at every turn and there's kids starving and there's Trump and there's all kinds of stuff going on, but there's beautiful people in the world that are having a blast and being good to each other and helping others." She added that because she can be dark, she tries to remind herself that there is more good than bad.¹⁰

Songs and singles

The track list runs from the title cut through the Eminem collaboration "Revenge" to ballads such as "But We Lost It" and "Barbies", the anthem "What About Us", and the gospel-tinged "I Am Here".¹^•¹¹

"What About Us" led the rollout. Released ahead of the album, it had over 100 million streams worldwide by late September 2017 and 150 million by release day, hit number one on iTunes in 26 markets, and reached the top 10 in 48 markets on the day of release. It later received a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal and was certified RIAA platinum in the US.¹²^•⁶ The title track followed as the second release, written by P!nk and Antonoff and produced by Antonoff, and Apple Music's editorial description singles out "Barbies" as a devastating ballad and "What About Us" as a festival-ready anthem for the disenfranchised.¹²^•¹ "Whatever You Want" and "Secrets" also received music videos.¹

Commercial performance

The album was a commercial success across major markets. In the United States it scored P!nk her second Billboard 200 number-one debut and a career high for first-week sales, though it was not the highest-selling US debut by a female artist in 2017, a mark held by Taylor Swift's Reputation; Billboard later reported first-week figures of 408,000 equivalent album units.¹⁷ It also topped the Top Album Sales and Digital Albums charts. In Canada it debuted at number one on the Nielsen Consumption and Top Albums charts and was certified gold within two weeks.³^•⁵

In the United Kingdom, Beautiful Trauma became P!nk's second chart-topping album after 2008's Funhouse.¹³ It spent 39 weeks on the Official Albums Chart and placed fifth on the year-end albums chart for 2017.¹⁴ By May 2018, the album had sold over 2.6 million album equivalents worldwide, with more than 1 billion audio streams and 400 million video views, and was certified either gold or platinum in 12 other countries in addition to being 4x platinum in Australia.⁶ The album returned to number one on the Canadian Nielsen SoundScan sales chart and to number two on the US Billboard 200 in May 2018.⁶

Critical reception

Professional reviews were mixed to positive. Metacritic assigned a Metascore of 62 based on nine critic reviews, indicating generally favorable reviews; two reviews were positive and seven mixed, with none negative.⁸ Entertainment Weekly gave the album 91, writing that trusted collaborators such as Max Martin, Shellback, Greg Kurstin, and Billy Mann helped make the record sound both fresh and familiar.¹⁵ The Guardian's review, by the music journalist Michael Cragg, noted that P!nk's manager had described the album as "just a continuation of the previous records" and concluded that the experimental pockets, especially the Antonoff-produced title track and the soft electronic pulse of "Secrets", often worked, though "I Am Here" aimed for gospel-tinged redemption without quite achieving it.¹⁶ The Independent scored it 60, finding little room for originality behind what it called the protective pop wall of Max Martin and Greg Kurstin, but placing P!nk on safer ground with the pop-funk of "Secrets" and the title track.¹⁵ AllMusic's Erlewine judged every style on the record well executed but found the whole somewhat controlled and tamer than her best work.⁴

Beautiful Trauma World Tour

The album was supported by the Beautiful Trauma World Tour, which began on March 1, 2018 in Phoenix, Arizona, with second shows added early in Toronto, New York, Boston, Washington DC, Chicago, Houston, and Oakland.¹² The tour ultimately ran into 2019 and included more than 156 shows in 18 countries; Billboard reported that it ranked among the biggest tours by a woman in over a decade, and P!nk received Billboard's Legend of Live Award in November 2019.⁹

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Musical works and recordings › Albums and recorded releases › Studio albums › Pop albums › 2010s albums › Fourth and later albums

Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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