Kehlani Has Released A Powerful New Song Dedicated To The 15,000 Palestinian Children Killed By Israel
“The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible," the singer wrote in a post on Instagram.
Grammy-winning American singer and songwriter Kehlani has released a new pro-Palestine song titled “Next 2 U,” condemning Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and standing in support of thousands of Palestinian children killed by Israel.
The R&B artist, who has been vocal about the genocide in Gaza since Oct. 7, released the new track on Friday, May 31, which follows closely on the heels of Macklemore’s viral song “Hind’s Hall,” in which he denounced Israel’s actions in Gaza and the US’ complicity in the genocide.
The singer, while announcing the release of the song in a post on Instagram, quoted American author Toni Cade Bambara, writing, “The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible.”
Kehlani said that as an artist, they had been nervous and terrified about losing so much of what they had worked so hard on and valued for an album to their humanity, paired with “the crippling wonder of what music is appropriate to drop during the most historical tragedies of our generation.”
But Kehlani, who uses she/they pronouns, said they were then reminded of their favorite poets, singers and filmmakers and the impact they had.
“i listened to this song enough to recognize a love song IS a protectors song IS revolution,” they wrote.
The music video ends with a message, “We tried to make a scroll honoring the names of thousands of deceased children. The list was so long that our fastest scroll at 3 minutes was illegible.”
The message then invited viewers to take a moment to read the names, which were printed on Al Jazeera, at their own pace.
A few days earlier, the singer criticized theirher fellow artists for remaining silentmuted and not raising their voices against Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Kehlani has also teamed up with Palestinian designer Simsim and the Nol Collective to develop a line of merchandise inspired by the song and encouraged everyone to buy the original merchandise, adding that 100% of the proceeds will be donated to Palestinian, Congolese and Sudanese families.
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Cherry Mohamed
Cherry Mohamed
