Montreal band Arcade Fire is the latest musical act to protest President Donald Trump’s rise to power by releasing politically charged music on the eve of his inauguration.
The new song, called I Give You Power, is a collaboration track with gospel singer Mavis Staples and was released on both Spotify and Tidal Thursday night.
“It’s never been more important that we stick together and take care of each other,” the band wrote on their Facebook page.
READ MORE: Arcade Fire’s Win Butler gets cut off when trying to talk politics at NBA All-Star game
Lyrics to the song include, “I give you power / over me / I give you power / But I gotta be free / I give you power / And now I can say / I give you power / I can take it away.”
Front man Win Butler spoke to Zane Lowe, host of the radio show Beats 1 on Apple Music, about the band’s new music.
“It’s the eve of the inauguration and I think it’s easy to get sucked into sitting on the couch and checking your news feed and watching things on CNN, and we’re just musicians and the only thing we have to offer is our music,” he said, as reported by The Independent.
“I talked to Mavis last night and she said, ‘Now more than ever we just need to hold onto each other.’ For us it’s a feeling of solidarity – to not feel powerless and focus on what we can do as individuals and try to do our part.”
Several other artists have released new music in protest of Trump in the days that led up to the president’s inauguration Friday.
READ MORE: Donald Trump inauguration: Celebrities attending (and not attending)
Popular 90s band Gorillaz came out of an eight-year retirement to release their song Hallelujah Money Thursday evening, according to The Guardian.
Fiona Apple previewed her anti-Trump song Tiny Hands, a song The Guardian says is meant to be a rally call for Saturday’s women’s march in Washington.
Apple only included one lyric in her chant-like song, “We don’t want your tiny hands anywhere near our underpants,” – in reference to the leaked Access Hollywood tape in which Trump talked about inappropriately grabbing women.
Electronic musician Moby and The Void Pacific Choir also released a video for their song called Erupt and Matter. The track appears on his 2016 album called These Systems Are Failing.
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