Joan Baez ærer ofrene for den tragiske Charleston kirkeskyting som skjedde i 2015 og Barack Obamas påfølgende tårefulle tale i Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church i den nye videoen for «The President Sang Amazing Grace.»
Sanger-låtskriver Zoe Mulford skrev låta «The President Sang Amazing Grace» ikke lenge etter de tragiske drapene i Charleston kirke i 2015. Den legendariske amerikanske folkesanger, låtskriver, musiker og aktivist Joan Baez (77) ble sterkt grepet av både hendelsen og den påfølgende låta, og ønsket derfor å lage sin tolkning ved å spille inn sin versjon. I et tidligere intervju med magasinet Rolling Stone sier hun følgende: «I heard that song and I just pulled over. It’s so expressive of my thoughts and feelings, which are pretty fucking gloomy, but she did it in such a beautiful way that’s as dark as it is beautiful.»
Hør den sterke låta «The President Sang Amazing Grace» og musikkvideo:
A young man came to a house of prayer
They did not ask what brought him there
He was not friend, he was not kin
But they opened the door and let him in
And for an hour the stranger stayed
He sat with them and seemed to pray
But then the young man drew a gun
And killed nine people, old and young
In Charleston in the month of June
The mourners gathered in a room
The President came to speak some words
And the cameras rolled and the nation heard
But no words could say what must be said
For all the living and the dead
So on that day and in that place
The President sang Amazing Grace
The President sang Amazing Grace
We argued where to place the blame
On one man’s hate or our nation’s shame
Some sickness of the mind or soul
And how the wounds might be made whole
But no words could say what must be said
For all the living and the dead
So on that day and in that place
The President sang Amazing Grace
My President sang Amazing Grace
Filmmaker og maleren Jeff Scher har iflg. magasinet Rolling Stone regissert videoen til «The President Sang Amazing Grace» ved hjelp av akvarell og pastell som fokuserer på Emanuel AME-kirken, Obamas besøk og portretter av de ni mennene og kvinner drept av Dylann Roof.
«I wanted to give the animation a human, non-digital feel,» Scher told The Atlantic. «I wanted the scenes to feel like they were blooming from the white paper, like a photograph in a developer or a memory emerging from a cloud. I wanted it to feel like the scenes were being remembered … which is really the grand goal of the song».
‘Se Obama synge låta «Amazing Grace» til minne om ofrene i den tragiske drapsepisoden