British band Pink Floyd has reunited again after a 28-year hiatus to release a new song, Hey Hey Rise Up released last Friday to show their support for the Ukrainian people during Putin’s invasion.
The song, whose title translates into Spanish as ‘Oye, levántate’, features a performance by Andriy Khlyvnyuk, a member of the Ukrainian band Boombox. Despite the absence of Roger Waters, the band has reunited: David Gilmour and Nick Mason, as well as bassist Guy Pratt, who has collaborated with the group since the eighties, and Nitin Sawhney, on keyboards, have given life to this composition.
With this new single they try to bring a point of light to so much darkness. All proceeds from the new song will go to support the Ukrainian people. A message against the Kremlin with rock and roll with which the historical music group has wanted to show its support.
The guitarist David Gilmour has a daughter-in-law and several Ukrainian grandchildren, one of the reasons why this war is affecting him in a more direct way. In statements published by CNN, the guitarist explains that “like many other people, we have felt the fury and frustration of this vile act of a democratic, independent and peaceful country being invaded and its people killed by one of the world’s major powers”.
Gilmour also told how the idea of featuring the Boombox singer for the track came about, “I recently read that Andriy had left his American tour with his band and had returned to Ukraine to fight. Then I saw this amazing video on Instagram, where he’s in a square in Kiev with this beautiful golden domed church and he’s singing with the background silence of a city with no traffic or noise because of the war. It was a powerful moment that made me want to put it to music.”
Although the Ukrainian singer could not attend the recording of the song that took place last March 30, his voice was used from the post on Instagram in which he sang a famous protest song in a square in Kiev.
As for everyone’s doubts as to whether the group would return after this song, David Gilmour has spoken out and said that “this is a unique thing for Pink Floyd. I’m working all the time and I hope to finish a record of my music at some point. But, right now my attention is focused on this“.
Dácil Palmero
