The Velvety Ones

I was watching the most unusual video on LINK TV last night as I was drifting in and out of sleep. Starring Natalie Merchant, Stephen Marley, Angelique Kidjo and (the funkiest of them all) Hugh Masekela to name a few, it was an Amnesty International "We are the World"-type project celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I haven't been able to find the actual video online anywhere to confirm that it wasn't, in fact, a trippy dream.

Not to take away from the message of the video at all (they were also protesting genocide) but it was lit strangely, like one of those lamps with thermochromic layers that fills you with chills as the colors change. Or it might have been the CGI used to paste all the performers from their varied locations on to one ochre colored stage. Some images jumped out to the foreground, almost as if in 3-D, like in "YANA" with Mikaael Jackson and Lisa Marie.

And then at one point it seemed like the group was singing to the U.N. as it was in session and about to vote, when all of a sudden the U.N. (or an audience full of people wearing business wear) started to dance. Which is I don't think is very conducive to voting.

By far the most interesting one to look at was Andrea Eccheverri (below left) of the duo Aterciopelados, whose forehead was bejewelled and painted. Which again, is fine, but just added to the strangeness of the whole affair.

Aterciopelados was representing Colombia and their critically acclaimed album Rio came out in October of this year. Both Eccheverri and her partner, the arranger Hector Buitrago, have been deeply involved in the fight to bring clean water to the residents of all Colombians and (if you scroll down on the Wiki page*) a reworking of their song Cancion Protesta formed the basis for the song "Price of Silence" used in the trippy video that I watched last night.

The song itself is pretty funky. They manage to maintain both an indigenous but modern Grateful Dead sound. Below is the song Rio from their album Rio:

*(A reasonable explanation of the concept of the Link video is given as well.)