Pink Floyd today released a brand new single to help raise funds for humanitarian relief efforts in Ukraine. “Hey Hey Rise Up” is the band’s first new original music since 1994’s The Division Bell album.
You can watch the video for “Hey Hey Rise Up” in the player below.
For the recording, David Gilmour and Nick Mason were joined by long time Pink Floyd bass player Guy Pratt and Nitin Sawhney on keyboards. The song features vocals by Andriy Khlyvnyuk of Ukrainian band BoomBox.
The song itself is based on a rousing Ukrainian protest song titled “The Red Viburnum In The Meadow” written during the first world war. The title of the Pink Floyd track is taken from the last line of the song which translates as ‘Hey Hey Rise up and rejoice’.
Gilmour first met BoomBox in 2015 when they were on the same bill for a show in London. When Andriy was unable to make the show due to visa issues, Boombox joined Gilmour on stage for his set instead.
Despite having been on tour in the U.S. with BoomBox when his home country was invaded last month, Andriy returned to Ukraine to join the Territorial Defense. An Instagram video of him singing “The Red Viburnum In The Meadow” in Kyiv caught Gilmour’s attention and with Andriy’s blessing, the audio became the vocal track for “Hey Hey Rise Up”.
The artwork for the track features a painting of the national flower of Ukraine, the sunflower, by the Cuban artist, Yosan Leon. The cover of the single is a direct reference to the woman who was seen around the world giving sunflower seeds to Russian soldiers and telling them to carry them in their pockets so that when they die, sunflowers will grow.
All proceeds from “Hey Hey Rise Up” will go towards Humanitarian relief efforts in Ukraine.
Backstage Access:
David Gilmour Guitar Auction Reveals A Lot About The Man
