by Howard Campbell
SOUTH FLORIDA -The Ebola crisis in West Africa and Russia’s controversial annexation of Crimea were just two of the disturbing international issues in 2014 when staff at the United Nations contacted David M to compose a song calling for world peace.
He obliged with This is Our World, a song for the UN’s Players For Peace Program. It appeared on a website set up by the organization featuring world figures such as UN secretary-general Kofi Annan of Ghana and Brazilian soccer player Ronaldinho.
But after just over two months, the program was scrapped. Recently, David M revived the song with additional lyrics and a video calling for world tranquility and a pristine environment.
With global turmoil still the order of the day, refreshing This is Our World was not difficult for the Jamaican singer/musician.
“With the proliferation at this time of wars and conflicts worldwide and the flagrant increased degradation of the planet by man, I felt an urge now to release this song…I am..and feel that most people today are concerned with the state of affairs environmentally..and the outbreak of struggles, conflict and war today,” he said.
This is not the first time David M has addressed world matters in song. In 2009, he released Lest we Forget which used the release of Nelson Mandela from prison in South Africa and election of Barack Obama as America’s first black president, to counter racial animus.
That track earned him consistent airplay on BET Jazz, while its video was shown at the Martin Luther King Foundation Awards in New York City, where David M was a special guest of the King family.
Although he considers Bob Marley one of his biggest influences, and he has worked with noted acts such as saxophonist Dean Fraser and singer Diana King, David M refuses to be typecast as a Jamaican artist.
“In terms of my songwriting it starts with an idea…a need to speak out about a particular situation and I put this to words and music. I don’t cater to a particular audience..but do find that what I would call an enlightened audience or those who share my views or outrage, tend to listen to my music,” he stated.
