Video Premiere: Moira Smiley, “Refugee”
In 2017, it feels like the world is filled with differences. Political differences, racial differences, economic differences. It seems as though there’s no common ground anymore. And in this kind of an environment, it’s easy to think that you are different from anyone else, that your concerns, your problems, are the ones that matter more than anyone else’s.
They don’t.
“Imagine if your unbreakable world was broken, no more rules to protect you.” What then? How would you survive, how would you live, to whom would you turn for guidance, for help, for support if your world came crashing down?
These were the questions Los Angeles musician Moira Smiley started asking herself after spending time volunteering at refugee camps in Greece and in France. She came face to face with people who’d lost everything, people who were forced to start over with nothing, people who had no choice in what happened to them and who had no control over their own lives. It’s not at all surprising that Smiley’s life view shifted dramatically after these experiences. That view is the one she shares in her new song, “Refugee.”
“My song, ‘Refugee,’ is about feeling bereft and misunderstood,” she said during a recent interview. “We are all much closer to being refugees than we want to imagine. Realizing this may remind us of our humanity – especially those of us who have relatively plenty. Lately, ‘Refugee’ is the only song I feel like singing.”
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All proceeds from the sale of this single will go to the the UN Refugee Agency, a global organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people. Available here.
