Standing 'united'

‘What we did show was that musicians and people are more humane than politicians’  George Harrison said right after his Concert for Bangladesh in ‘71.
Whether it’s the famous live aid concert series that’s been going for about 20 years now with Madonna, Queen, Bob Dylan and Led Zeppelin or everyone from  Jay Z, Bono and Rihanna coming together to raise funds for Haiti, for decades, we have had musicians come together for a social cause. They have understood the power of music and have helped raise awareness and funds for the cause.

Recently, the legendary Seymour Stein at Warner Brother Records helped push a collaborative album in association with The United Nations and Rukus Avenue Records, executively produced by South Asian hip hop pioneer, Sammy Chand, to bring out  Artists United Against Human Trafficking.

Over 40 renowned artistes and dignitaries from around the world have come together to participate in the Music To Inspire: Artists UNited Against Human Trafficking triple album that benefits the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for victims of trafficking in persons.

Some of the participants appearing on this project include multi Academy Award and Grammy Award winner AR Rahman, several artistes signed to 28-time  Grammy winner Quincy Jones have ‘donated’ their song to this album as well.

Bollywood music legend Sonu Nigam has sung a song that almost has a divine and spiritual welcoming with a little bit of his pop sensibilities and a surprise rock like twist. This would also probably be his first time singing in English on a record. Other notable artistes and bands include Joss Stone, Michael Franti, Anoushka Shankar, Garbage and Karmin among many others.  

Anoushka Shankar has, through her song, In Jyoti’s name, paid tribute to Jyoti who was tragically raped and killed a few years ago in a bus which went on to become a national incident. By listening to her track you can almost immediately feel the weight of sadness and loss such an incident can bring about and the gory nature of the act. Joss Stone’s beautiful song We Are who We Are is almost like a prayer and a yearning for acceptance as she sings Tell me do you feel an angel somehow has given you the right to advise the world and his wife, how to live their lives...” You would also love the record by Garbage – Where Do Children Play with its score like treatment and the electric and sizzling buildup that ends on every repetition of the motif.

In India, human trafficking especially in children has been rising in number, although statistically hard to obtain a correct number. In the last few years, human trafficking not only involves sex and labour, but people are also trafficked for organ harvesting and those children, most of them young females are subjected to starvation, beating and other cruelty. This has to end.  And this album was put together as a collective fight by the music community to make a social statement and end human trafficking.

–The writer is a Bengaluru-born, Los Angeles-based music producer whose song Running to Freedom is on the UN album