It grew organically from the conversations that Lindsey and Gaga were having one day, with the title phrase lifted from the singer's musings about the men in her life.

It lyrically delves on "heartbreak and hope" during a relationship, as well as Gaga's religious faith during the chorus, ultimately making it a song with a positive message.

[4] On October 2, 2016, several publications claimed that during the first show of the tour, a new song titled "Million Reasons" would be performed, in addition to "Perfect Illusion".

[5][6] During the Dive Bar Tour, Gaga recalled that she and musician Hillary Lindsey were seated in couches and having a back-and-forth conversation with guitar and piano.

[12] Gaga co-wrote and co-produced "Million Reasons" alongside Mark Ronson, while Lindsey and BloodPop provided additional songwriting and production, respectively.

[15] Idolator's Patrick Bowman agreed and described it as a "country-tinged [...] quiet ballad" while Stephen L. Betts from Rolling Stone called it a pop song which had a country music appeal, similar to singer Beyoncé's "Daddy Lessons".

[19] Gaga described the genre as a "country song mixed with funk and rock 'n' roll" and felt that the composition was unexpected, with underlying tones of hip-hop.

[23] Bustle's Amy Roberts theorized that, like most of the songs from Joanne, "Million Reasons" had extra hidden depth in its lyrics and predicted it to be about Gaga's separated boyfriend Taylor Kinney.

The phrase "quit the show" was described as a metaphor by Roberts about Gaga feeling dejected about her life, with the second verses confirming this.

Roberts concluded by saying that "[t]hough the song may seem extremely fraught with sadness, confusion and heartache, its main message appears to be a pretty positive one".

[25] Craig Jenkins of Vulture compared its potential appeal to "Daddy Lessons" as well and felt they both shared a "big left-field bid for country-radio airplay".

[19] International Business Times''s Nicholas Mojica ranked "Million Reasons" at number six on his list of the best songs from Joanne; he acclaimed its lyrics and noted the contributions made by Lindsey.

[28] Gary Trust from the publication wrote an article titled "With 'Million Reasons,' Is Lady Gaga Bringing Back 'The Vocalist Era'?"

[33] The same week, after Gaga's performance at the 2016 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, "Million Reasons" reached a new peak of number 52 on the Hot 100.

[45][46] Following Gaga's performance of the song at The X Factor, "Million Reasons" re-entered the UK Singles Chart at number 60, with sales of 10,396 copies.

The video begins with the singer laying across the desert floor from the ending of "Perfect Illusion" during sunset, as black SUVs approach her from afar.

Monroe theorized that with the recent reveal by Gaga that she suffered from Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in an open letter, the continued theme between the videos made sense.

Along with the essay, the videos portrayed Gaga being handled roughly in her early career, forced to tour through her hip pain (described by the dancing in "Perfect Illusion"), and finally in the "Million Reasons" clip, her team helps her in healing and crafting Joanne.

[56] Julianne Shepherd from Jezebel compared Gaga's looks in the video to that of singer Stevie Nicks, "with a filmic play on the rock-and-roll mythos, attaching imagery of everyday backstage tour preparation to a song of loneliness and isolation, life on the road forever breaking its practitioners.

[58] Justin Harp from Digital Spy described the clip as "breathtaking" and "poignant", adding that it "highlights the theme of loss and ultimately redemption" as enamored in the song.

[66] It received unanimous praise with Hilton Dresden from Out calling it a "heart-wrenching" rendition,[67] while The Huffington Post's Cole Delbyck described it as "stirring" and "emotional".

[69] A few days later Gaga visited the Ali Forney LGBT community centre and performed an acoustic version of "Million Reasons", seated atop a piano wearing a T-shirt that read "Be Brave".

[71] For the performance Gaga wore a black dress with fish-tail train, printed with red roses, high neck and long sleeves.

[75] The singer began promoting Joanne in the United Kingdom with a surprise intimate gig at London's Shepherd's Bush Westfield shopping center, performing "Million Reasons" on piano.

[78][79] On February 5, 2017, Gaga was the headliner of the Super Bowl LI halftime show and "Million Reasons" was part of the set list.

Tracy Gilchrist from The Advocate commended Gaga and found that the lyrics referred to the political environment in the United States following the election of Donald Trump.

[85] In October 2017, Gaga had a surprise performance at the One America Appeal benefit concert in Texas, joining all five living former US presidents to raise money for those affected by the hurricane catastrophes of the year.

[88] The performance started with "Joanne", and after Gaga gave a shout-out to the Time's Up movement, she continued with "Million Reasons", later also standing up from the piano while singing the song.

[17] Isis Briones from Vogue praised the cover saying that Ballerini "stripped the track all the way down with just a guitar in hand and delivered an incredibly moving performance in just a few seconds.

[93] A collaborative cover version of the track was performed by Grateful Dead's Bob Weir and Phish's Trey Anastasio during the Wanee Music Festival in Florida.