What Podcasting, Celebrity Musicians Add to a Global Mission
Musicians Talk Social Activism on Global Citizen and Hozier’s ‘Cry Power’ Podcast
Note: I wrote this piece before the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then, Global Citizen has launched relief efforts for the virus, including a virtual benefit concert, “One World: Together At Home.”
“I’ve seen some stuff, Hozy,” Mavis Staples, a legendary Civil Rights singer, tells folk-pop star Hozier on his podcast, “Cry Power.”
The 80-year-old talks about racial discrimination she faced growing up in Chicago, Illinois, and recording music with her family’s group, “The Staples Singers,” while fighting for civil rights alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“I’m seeing stuff today that I saw in the ’60s, and that’s what’s so painful,” she says later on in the episode. “But I know that all I can do is sing my songs and try to help us come together and make a change.”
Staples is one of nine guests to chat with Hozier on the podcast, which Hozier presents in partnership with Global Citizen, an organization that mobilizes people to take action to end extreme poverty by 2030.
Most who come on the podcast are musicians who do advocacy work and use their platforms to build awareness for a cause, while other guests are full-time activists. They’ve included musicians Marcus Mumford of Mumford & Sons, Bono, and Annie Lennox, as well as activists Nick Grono, head of the Freedom Fund, and Hugh Evans, the president and founder of Global Citizen.
The idea for the podcast is based off of Hozier’s protest song, “Nina Cried Power,” which pays homage to singer-activists from more than half a century ago to today. In fact, Staples is featured on the song with Hozier. She sings one powerful line in it, which the two now-good friends spoke about on the podcast:
“Power has been cried/By those stronger than me/Straight into the face that tells you to rattle your chains (ha ha!)/If you love bein’ free.”
Part of the singers’ conversation centered around that “ha ha” that Staples let out during the recording of the song, which made it onto the final track released as a single and then, on Hozier’s 2019 album “Wasteland, Baby!”
Music and emotion are intertwined, and Staples’ story is proof of that. She became acquainted with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the ’60s. She, her father, and siblings would sing before his sermons. This was before the movement, she said.
And when the movement began, they were on board. From religion to music to action, this thread ran deep for Staples and many other singers involved in social movements — then and now.
The conversation in this episode of “Cry Power,” and others, get to the heart of how music moves people to action.
Musicians for change
“Artists are generally a bit porous to other people’s experiences,” Bono pondered, as Hozier agreed here and there. “So that’s probably where the protest song begins is: you feel so shit about somebody else’s circumstance, and you just do not like feeling shit. And you don’t have any other utensils other than your guitar or your piano or pen…
“You don’t have any other weapon than your voice to fight against whatever it was.”
As it turns out, though, once a musician rises to fame, it’s not only the voice they use to sing a song that can make a difference; it’s the actual, political voice they apply to the larger movement or narrative for issues they care about.
Bono, for example, has been a strong advocate for many years to end the global AIDS crisis. It’s in part his fame, his popularity, and the weight that his influence holds, that allows him to create change and bring life-saving medicine to underdeveloped nations.
“Celebrity is nonsense,” he told Hozier, “but it’s currency.” Standing up for something simply helps it all make a little more sense.
It’s not enough to act — celebrity activists must first-and-foremost listen, according to Marcus Mumford. In his episode, he spoke about celebrities’ responsibility to listen to what the most vulnerable need before making a grand gesture, such as holding a huge benefit concert.
But in many cases, benefit concerts work. They bring in the money to fuel movements.
Initiatives like Live Aid, a 1985 benefit concert that combated world hunger, and (RED), an organization battling the AIDs crisis that often partners with celebrities, have given a voice to the voiceless by bringing on big names in music. Global Citizen is one of the few to rise up and make a huge, worldwide impact. [link]
Bono noted that even the podcast could be used for good.
“Can we be useful?” he asked, thoughtfully. “Can this conversation be useful? Can this podcast be useful? Can people who listen to it become even more useful than they are? That would be a nice goal for this podcast. A podcast about goals.”
Podcasts cry power
Global Citizen is perhaps gaining even more attention now that Hozier has started this podcast with the organization’s name attached. The show is no doubt part of their strategy to reach more people — in this case, Hozier fans and podcast lovers — in order to reach their goal of eliminating extreme poverty by 2030, which is now just a decade away.
Podcasts have hit their stride in recent years. They can easily be streamed or downloaded and listened to anywhere (I prefer listening while I drive). There’s podcasts on almost any topic, too — politics, video games, life advice, movies, TV and more.
I’d argue that this medium works best for discussing music and even better for music and activism. Clips of music can be — and are — played in podcast episodes for immediate reference to an important song. While they are produced by audio engineers, these audio shows are not so much over-produced “shows” as they are simple conversations. And doesn’t activism really begin and continue to flourish with good conversation?
Each episode of the Cry Power podcast features a different issue that the guest advocates for, such as ending global slavery and sex trafficking, promoting global feminism or addressing the HIV/AIDS crisis. These issues each coincide with one of Global Citizen’s 17 global goals.
In the intermissions of the podcast, Hozier encourages listeners to take action on the goals, directing them to Global Citizen’s website. Unlike television commercials, these breaks in the scheduled programming seamlessly blend into the “show” or conversation. For me, personally, I listen.
I listen because Hozier has become a trusted source in fighting for social justice through his songs, showmanship onstage at concerts, and actions. I listen because I believe this is a strong partnership — Hozier and Global Citizen — with aligned goals and mission. It is built not selfishly or for anyone’s personal gain or publicity, but to engage people with a shared love of music and compassion for the world to take action and help those who cannot help themselves.
