The ode to social distancing is about being together alone.
During these times of social distancing we are all learning how to be alone together. We’re playing games and watching Netflix with friends online, turning our bathrooms into hot yoga studios with space heaters and trying to figure out how not to eat everything in the cupboard before noon while working from home.
While we’re doing that, Bono and Will.i.am are busy writing uplifting anthems for these pandemic times. “In times like these, creative people must continue to collaborate…Whether you are a computer scientist, an engineer, a Therapist or a Teacher, just because we are self-isolating or in quarantine doesn’t mean you are alone…The beauty of international connectivity is that nobody is alone on the internet!” Will wrote on Tuesday morning (March 24) in a post debuting his inspiring collaboration with Bono, Jennifer Hudson and Yoshiki, “Sing For Life.”
The track first sprang to life as “Let Your Love Be Known” last week, when Bono posted it in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, performing it on piano just shortly after it was written. “A little postcard from bubbling Dublin on St Patrick’s Day,” he said in a live stream. “A little tune, made up here about an hour ago. I think it’s called ‘Let Your Love Be Known’ – let me know what you think.”
“Yes there was silence/ Yes there was no people here/ Yes I walked through the streets of Dublin/ And no one was near,” Bono sings along with spare piano accompaniment in the new video for the track. “We all wait for the science/ To make everything clear/ Now I walk down the streets of London town/ It seems like everyone’s disappeared,” Will adds as he looks out his window at abandoned streets.
“You can’t touch, but you can sing across rooftops/ Sing on the phone/ Sing, promise me you won’t stop/ Sing your love be known/ Oh let your love be known,” Bono sings on the plaintive chorus. The second verse weaves Bono’s voice with Will and Hudson’s, as the three harmonize about dancing away the pain, social distancing and singing to each other across rooftops as an act of resistance over Yoshiki’s piano chords.
Watch the video below.