Ok so I’m not going to lie I still love the band the Black Eyed Peas and have still listened to their music over the years and was actually quite gutted when they went on a second hiatus in 2011 after their 5th studio album ‘E.N.D’ (“The Energy Never Dies”).
Although they have still been in the public eye since then, predominantly Will.I.Am and Fergie, who have both had success with their solo careers in the meantime, when I heard they were getting back together I was so excited.
I then became more interested when I heard the reason why.
I think it’s fair to say everyone is well aware of all the tragedies the world has seen in the most recent year alone: the Paris attacks, the deaths of black men involving police in the USA and the migrant crisis in Europe are just a few cases.
The Black Eyed Peas song ‘Where is The Love’ from 2003 seemed to once again became all too relevant; which is exactly what the band thought deciding they would reform to record and release a newer version of the song with more relevant lyrics. With the help of other artists/celebrities for the audio and from people affected by these causes for the video.
The song became ‘The Black Eyed Peas – #WHERESTHELOVE ft. The World’
The whole video is shot in black and white with the only colour coming from the well-recognised symbol of [?] with a red question mark which originates from the first video.
To me with the use of a hashtag really makes the song and video current in today’s society and reaches out to all generations but mainly the younger one who really have this all to come and could make the change needed for future generations.
But it’s much more than just a new song and video. There’s a website called ‘wherethelove’ which has the video on but the main focus is a link to each cause which inspired the video and how you can donate. It also has statistics of the issues and where people can learn more about them. The website also states that all royalties from the sale of the song will go to the i.am angel foundation to help support some of the causes.
All of the artists, celebrities and real people did this not for the money but because they genuinely believe in the message and its importance.
There is something to me quite powerful about what the Black Eyed Peas are doing with this, the new version of the song was released in 2016 and since then they have been using their social media platforms to make sure the message is still being heard.
Personally I think it is great to see ‘celebrities’ who hold so much influence among young people especially, deciding to do what they can to try and make a change in the world for the better. A lot of people say it but few act on it.
By including ‘ft. The World’ has quite a huge impact as it shows that everyone is together and ready to show support for those who need it, and hope events like these will one day not be a regular occurrence.
This links back to the use of the hashtag which really encourages people to get involved and create a movement which the message by actively participating rather than just listening to the song.
While it’s still something that has came out recently I think it already has and will continue to be successful while spreading an important message through a different approach worldwide.
Here is the link to the website for #WHERESTHELOVE which also has the video on it, it is definitely worth a watch and read for what I think is a really effective movement with a difference:
https://www.wheresthelove.com/
There is also a link to official merchandise to help spread word of #WHERESTHELOVE:
https://www.rageon.com/a/users/blackeyedpeas
Photo Credits: question mark: https://www.emaze.com/@ALCTCZFW/The-Black-Eyed-Peas (found through google images) – I do not own any rights to this photo
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