We have previously revealed that The Traitors contestants actually spend hours at the famous roundtable and now, as if that wasn’t tense enough, a former contestant has revealed that the cast actually have a song played to them as they wait for the roundtable session to start.
It’s a wonder they get anything done with all this tension, honestly.
Former contestant Rayan Rachedi revealed on X: “Fun little fact - the Hanging Tree is the song they would play (in full) before every roundtable to get us in the mood, and hearing it still makes me uncomfortable!”
What is The Hanging Tree?
If you’re not familiar, this eerie track was originally made famous in Mockingjay, part one in The Hunger Games film series.
Vulture explains: “The song was written by The Hunger Games’ author, Suzanne Collins, and the Lumineers (of “Ho Hey” fame) were called in to provide a haunting melody to match Collins’s lyrics.”
The lyrics are haunting, opening with:
“Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where they strung up a man they say murdered three.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be”
Perhaps a little bit too dramatic for a reality show, but definitely sets the dark tone that the show is aiming for, especially during roundtable sessions.
Vulture concludes: “This rebel song was concocted not about a desperate lover, but a revolutionary whose plea was for his neighbours to follow him toward freedom, no matter the cost. Even if it meant they might end up hanging by his side.”
Yikes. Not quite the same as battling strangers in a Scottish castle for the sake of entertainment, is it?