piano melody sounds comparatively tepid." She favorably compared "Praying" to the works of Adele and Florence Welch. Althea Legaspi and Elias Leight of Rolling Stone similarly called the track "triumphant" and "uplifting", while Patrick Hosken of MTV deemed it "about as soul-baring as anything gets." Tom Breihan of Stereogum opined that the recording was "grand and expansive". The Singles Jukebox ranked "Praying" as the best song of 2017, writing: "The music nods at large-scale drama but, rather than letting the drum and piano echo into space, the thuds stay close to the ear, like Kesha's singing to her own heartbeat." At the 60th Annual Grammy Awards, "Praying" was nominated for Best Pop Solo Performance. Commercial performance "Praying" debuted at number four on Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart for the week ending July 22, 2017, although it was released during the last day of the sales, streaming and radio tracking week from June 30 to July 6, 2017. According to Nielsen SoundScan, "Praying" sold 17,738 copies in the United States in its first day of release. The song entered the Billboard Hot 100 at position 25 on July 29, 2017, falling down to number 40 the next edition with sales of further 27,000 copies. The track eventually reached a new peak at number 22 following the release of Rainbow. It also peaked on the Adult Top 40 and Mainstream Top 40 charts at numbers six and nine, respectively. Nielsen SoundScan reported in October 2017 that the song had moved 428,120 total copies in the United States and as of December 13, 2018, the song was certified double platinum by the nation's Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of 2 million units in the country. Worldwide, "Praying" reached the top ten in Australia, while charting within the top 40 in multiple countries like Canada, Scotland, Ireland and Spain. The single was certified quadruple Platinum by Australia's Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) and Canada's Music Canada for selling 280,000 and 320,000 units, respectively. Music video Background and development The song's accompanying video, directed by Jonas Åkerlund, was released on July 6, 2017. Kesha has described the experience of working with Åkerlund as "a dream come true" and said that the process of shooting the video was akin to a good, long therapy session. The video was shot at Salvation Mountain, Niland, California, and the Salton Sea over the course of