"Losing My Religion" is a song by American alternative rock band R.E.M., released in February 1991 by Warner Bros. as the first single from their seventh album, Out of Time (1991).

It developed from a mandolin riff improvised by the guitarist, Peter Buck, with lyrics about unrequited love.

At the 1992 Grammy Awards, "Losing My Religion" won Best Short Form Music Video and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.

guitarist, Peter Buck, wrote the main riff and chorus for "Losing My Religion" on a mandolin.

recorded a demo version with the working title "Sugar Cane" in a studio in Athens, Georgia, featuring banjo and Hammond organ.

[9] The title phrase is an expression from the Southern United States that means "losing one's temper or civility" or "feeling frustrated and desperate".

Recreating a scene from the Andrei Tarkovsky film The Sacrifice, Buck, Berry, and Mills run across the room while Stipe remains seated as a pitcher of milk drops from the windowsill and shatters.

Singh wanted to create a video in the style of a certain type of Indian filmmaking, where everything would be "melodramatic and very dreamlike", according to Stipe.

[16] Singh said the video was modeled after the Gabriel García Márquez short story "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings", in which an angel crashes into a town and the villagers have varied reactions to him.

[17] He also drew inspiration from the Italian painter Caravaggio, and the video uses religious imagery such as Saint Sebastian, the Biblical episode of the Incredulity of Thomas, and Hindu deities, portrayed in a series of tableaux.

Steven Baker, then the vice president of product management., said there were "long, drawn-out discussions" about releasing such an "unconventional track" as the single until the label agreed.

did not tour to promote Out of Time, but visited radio stations, gave press interviews and made television appearances.

performed "Losing My Religion" with members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra to celebrate the tenth anniversary of MTV.

[27] Asked if he was worried the success might alienate older fans, Buck told Rolling Stone, "The people that changed their minds because of 'Losing My Religion' can just kiss my ass.

"[7] Caren Myers from Melody Maker named the song "Single of the Week", writing that it "occupies a smaller, more intimate space, delicately picking a path with mandolins and acoustic guitars, soothed by the mournful sweep of a string section.

Deceptive echoes of 'World Leader Pretend' dissolve on second listen as the song wraps itself around the impossibility of communication with glancing but painful accuracy.

"[30] A reviewer from Music & Media wrote: "Hearing such a beautiful song with a striking mandolin arrangement, provides an ample religious substitute.

had returned to its "trademark jangle", and that "Stipe touches again on what seems to be ambivalence about his role as a pop star, and about the need to communicate with an audience".

[33] David Fricke from Rolling Stone felt that "there is melancholy in the air: in the doleful strings and teardrop mandolin".

[35] "Losing My Religion" placed second in the Village Voice Pazz & Jop annual critics' poll, behind Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit".

169 on its list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time", writing that "never before had Michael Stipe sounded so vulnerable, yearning, and articulate".

Additional musicians All songs were written by Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Michael Stipe except where noted.

Finn Hudson (Cory Monteith) covered the song in the 2010 Glee episode "Grilled Cheesus".

American heavy metal band Trivium covered the song on their 2013 album Vengeance Falls.