Peter Gabriel has teamed up with Playing For Change and a collective of artists from around the world to re-record his 1980 anti-apartheid anthem, “Biko”, in honor of Black History Month as part of the long-running Songs Around The World collaboration series.
The “Biko” collaboration includes contributions from esteemed artists and ensembles from across the globe including Yo-Yo Ma and Silkroad (Brooklyn, NY), Angélique Kidjo (Paris, France), Meshell Ndegeocello (Hudson, NY), The Cape Town Ensemble (Cape Town, South Africa), Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe (Wadsworth, NV), TaikoProject (Little Tokyo, CA), Dynamic Music Collective (Los Angeles, CA), Jason Tamba (Kinshasa, Congo), and more.
Peter Gabriel wrote “Biko” in 1977 following the death of South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko in police custody. With the world continuing to reckon with racial injustice as we continue into the nascent 2020s, the four-decade-old themes of the song ring as true as ever on this collaborative rendition.
Produced by Sebastian Robertson and Mark Johnson, the video starts off with a quote by the songs namesake, Steve Biko, emblazoned across the screen: “It is better to die for an idea that will live than to live for an idea that will die.”
With that, the performance gets underway. Gabriel, beaming in from the studio in the U.K., sings the song’s lyrics as if not a single day has gone by, his vocals still as inspiring as they were in his heyday. It’s the contributions of the many collaborators, however, that make this video so powerful, as the various percussion, singing, string, and dance ensembles imbue the song with their respective cultures and emphasize the notion that the goal of equality is shared worldwide.
As Playing For Change notes in the Peter Gabriel “Biko” video’s description,
In honor of Black History Month, we are proud to bring the message of Peter Gabriel’s “Biko” back to the forefront, 40 years after its initial release. Inspired by the death of anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko while in police custody, this song’s relevance still holds true with the unfortunate police brutality that continues to take place in the USA, Nigeria and many places around the world. More than 25 musicians from seven countries join Gabriel for this global rendition to share a message of unity, peace, and hope, including Beninese vocalist and activist Angélique Kidjo, Silkroad’s Yo-Yo Ma, and bass legend Meshell Ndegeocello.
As Gabriel told Rolling Stone about the revamped—and still relevant—rendition of “Biko”, “Although the white minority government has gone in South Africa, the racism around the world that apartheid represented has not. Racism and nationalism are sadly on the rise. In India, Myanmar and Turkey, Israel and China, racism is being deliberately exploited for political gain. … On the black/white front the Black Lives Matter movement has made it very clear how far we still have to go before we can hope to say we have escaped the dark shadow of racism.”
Watch Peter Gabriel collaborate with artists around the world on “Biko” for Playing For Change’s Song Around The World series below:
Peter Gabriel & Friends – “Biko” – Song Around The World
[Video: Playing For Change]
Playing For Change (PFC) is a movement created to inspire and connect the world through music, born from the shared belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. The primary focus of PFC is to record and film musicians performing in their natural environments and combine their talents and cultural power in innovative videos called Songs Around The World. Creating these videos motivated PFC to form the Playing For Change Band—a tangible, traveling representation of its mission, featuring musicians met along their journey; and establish the Playing For Change Foundation—a separate 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting music programs for children around the world. Through these efforts, Playing For Change aims to create hope and inspiration for the future of our planet. For more information, head here.