SongFacts: Believers (Arab Spring) by Nelly Furtado
Furtado penned this song with San Francisco-based songwriter Rick Nowels around the time of the Libyan revolution and civil war. She explained to Artist Direct: “I was inspired by the rebels and the idea of people having to make really tough decisions in the eleventh hour. I was inspired by the idea of a young man or woman going into battle with one of their close friends. By the time the day is over, their friend has turned to the other side. That dilemma is something we could never imagine in the lives we lead. I found it inspiring people were going through those kinds of emotions the moment I wrote that song, so that’s what I wrote it about.”
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Furtado admitted to Billboard magazine that she had doubts about calling the song, ‘Arab Spring.’ “Maybe it’s too specific,” she said, “but I’m thinking you know what? I’m gonna call it that because that’s what it was inspired by. I mean, at the time Rick Nowels came to Toronto; we write together all the time and he’s awesome. It was actually not too long after that whole thing [Libyan uprising] happened,” she added. “At one point, I wanted to call it ‘Benghazi’ because specifically in Libya, the Libyan rebels. I remember watching it on the news and reading newspaper articles and just feeling really inspired by that and also incredibly overwhelmed by the fact that there were these people halfway across the world dealing with these major decisions of ‘I’m going to battle here.’ We’ve never experienced a civil war. I can’t name somebody who has experienced that. I don’t know anyone.”
Related:
Victoria’s Nelly Furtado to donate $1 million she received from Gadhafi concert:
Furtado is one of several celebrities who have come under fire recently after reports from the New York Times and a WikiLeaks document released earlier this month revealed several entertainers had received extravagant sums to perform for the dictator’s family.
The New York Times reported Mariah Carey, Beyonce and Usher had also received handsome sums to perform at lavish parties held by Gadhafi’s sons on the Caribbean island of St. Barts.
WikiLeaks Cables Detail Qaddafi Family’s Exploits
Amid his siblings’ shenanigans, Seif, the president’s second-eldest son, had been “opportunely disengaged from local affairs,” spending the holidays hunting in New Zealand. His philanthropy, the Qaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation, had sent hundreds of tons of aid to earthquake-ravaged Haiti, and he was seen as a reasonable prospect to succeed his father.
The same 2010 cable said young Libyan contacts had reported that Seif al-Islam is the ‘hope’ of ‘Libya al-Ghad’ (Libya of tomorrow), with men in their twenties saying that they aspire to be like Seif and think he is the right person to run the country. They describe him as educated, cultured, and someone who wants a better future for Libya,” by contrast with his brothers, the cable said.
Arab Spring: 2011 – Year of the Dupe (archived)
U.S. Groups Helped Nurture Arab Uprisings
NATO bombing of Libya ‘exceeded UN mandate’
Gaddafi’s Libya was Africa’s Most Prosperous Democracy
Ten Years Ago: The Assassination of Gaddafi. A Black Page in the History of Italy
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 