by senior contributor Brendan Kownacki
Photo credit: Brendan Kownacki
Pope Francis is capping off his historic trip to the United States which included stops in Washington DC, New York City and Philadelphia, and he has captured the minds and hearts and souls of thousands that he encountered near and far. In Philadelphia, the Pontiff attended the 2015 World Meeting of Families, in New York he addressed the United Nations and in DC, he spoke before a joint meeting of Congress; a packed and hard-hitting agenda. Encircling the conversations on several of these occasions though was messages from the Holy Father about climate change, which begs the question, why is the leader of the Catholic Church so concerned about the environment?
He spoke before Congress about rights and liberty and reminisced about the golden rule, mentioning that a common good need be our focus instead of partisan fractures to our policy initiatives. This lead to his comments on the environment that “We need a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all.”
The universal message of collective action on behalf of the planet was one that audiences were prepared for and ready to hear. Just a stone’s throw down the National Mall, as the Pope spoke, the Moral Action on Climate Justice Rally was taking place to bolster this same environmental message. The rally itself gathered a large audience of activists and many presenters including a slew of artists and producers who were on hand to present, “Love Song to the Earth.” The song itself, an anthem presented as a tribute to the planet features performances by Paul McCartney, Jon Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow, Fergie, Colbie Caillat, Natasha Bedingfield, Leona Lewis, Sean Paul, Johnny Rzeznik, Krewella, Nicole Scherzinger, Christina Grimmie, Victoria Justice and Q’Orianka Kilcher, among others.
Christina Grimmie, Toby Gad, Natasha Bedingfield, Victoria Justice, Sean Paul, Q’orianka Kilcher
“Love Song to the Earth” was released on September 4 and has already gained acclaim online with almost 50,000 downloads and almost 100,000 YouTube views of its accompanying “Lyric Video.” In DC for the rally’s performance and to discuss the issue were Natasha Bedingfield and Sean Paul, who were co-authors of the song, as well as Christina Grimmie, Victoria Justice and Q’Orianka Kilcher.
Victoria Justice, Christina Grimmie, Natasha Bedingfield
“We focused on doing a song with a very positive message; not the doomsday scenario but a love song to the planet of how precious this planet is and how important it is to care for it,” said producer Toby Gad who also co-wrote the song. He spoke of a longstanding concern about global warming as inspiration and that getting many prominent and powerful voices behind the message would help to spark the interest on a global scale that the planet needs to take action.
Toby Gad
“I’ve always had a lot of things to say, but found them very hard to ‘say;’ to actually say them…so I put them in a song,” exclaimed an excited Natasha Bedingfield about how she has always channeled her views and expression into music rather than the spoken word. “As we started to write [the song] I became more and more aware of how grateful I am for the Earth,” she added. “As we were like, ‘let’s write this as a love song’ we came to kind of personalize the Earth, that it’s like a being. A living, breathing organism that’s in our care.”
Natsha Bedingfield, Multi-platinum selling singer/songwriter
Sean Paul referenced hope for his homeland of Jamaica and the way environmental shifts have effected the land. Paul also mentioned how he often will post pictures of sunsets on his Instagram profile to remind him of his connection to the environment even if he is touring and is away from nature. Victoria Justice similarly noted about her home, “I hope to have kids one day and I wanna be able to take them back to my hometown of Hollywood Florida and for it to still be above water.”
Sean Paul, multi-platinum selling rapper, Grammy Award-winner
Q’Orianka Kilcher said that it’s not the Earth that needs saving, but rather the people who will be impacted. Christina Grimmie echoed the passion for the cause as well and said she was ready use social media to spread the word, but was also happy to lend her voice as an artist because music is a universal language that is bigger than countries or parties or religion, and hopefully the music would span the globe more than anything else, for an issue bigger than anything else. And now perhaps the Pope’s interest is just as clear.
Q’orianka Kilcher, Actress, Activist, Singer/Songwriter
“A lot of people need to get the message” emphasized Bedingfield. She specifically called out a line from the song, “it’s not about possessions, money or religion” as the core of the message, that this isn’t about the things you worry about day-to-day, this is about survival.
Listen to the artists in their own words, talk about the project:
