Carry On (Fun song)
Fun song

"Carry On" is a song by American pop rock band Fun. It was released on October 23, 2012, as the third single off their second album, Some Nights. The song was written by the band members, Nate Ruess, Andrew Dost, Jack Antonoff, alongside the album's producer, Jeff Bhasker.
Composition
"Carry On" has been called "a song about perseverance in hard times", which is supported by a rock-anthem sound written in F major and composed in 128 time. The song begins with Ruess singing with faint vocals, as he confronts a potential suicide. Ruess's quiet vocals are eventually reinforced by a large chorus and band member Jack Antonoff's guitar-playing. The narrator takes refuge in a bar alongside his friends, who begin to contemplate the mortality of the people close to them. Antonoff delivers a short, 20-second "Slash-type wailing" guitar solo, which appears over two and a half minutes into the song.
Live performances
On November 3, 2012, the band was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, with Louis C.K. as host, and performed this song, alongside "Some Nights". They also performed the song at the 2013 Grammy Awards.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Carry On (Fun song)” as fun song. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as fun song. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5046786. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2012 and 2013.
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This entry incorporates text from “Carry On (Fun song)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.