Kelsie Kimberlin Releases “We Are The Promise”
A prophecy: Today, popular American-Ukrainian singer Kimberlin released her epic song and video “We Are The Promise” about ordinary citizens opposing authoritarianism. The idea for the video began in 2017, when she finished a demo version of the song and sent it to the great Ukrainian composer and film director Sergiy Krutsenko in Kyiv. He immediately realized the power and significance of the song and wanted to give it a cinematic touch, so he wrote an orchestral score which the Kyiv Radio Symphony Orchestra performed. He then invited Kelsie to Ukraine to shoot the video as a full-length film at a former Soviet prison, centuries-old castle, and other iconic places.
The shoot, which lasted several weeks, was grueling, exhilarating, and historic in the sense that it provided a glimpse into past horrors of autocrats while warning of similar future horrors. The plot of the video is about a dystopian society wheremusic is banned and musicians are executed for violating the “law of silence.” Kelsie plays the role of the musical protagonist who stands up to a dictator while his propaganda-zombified army constantly tries to stop her, but she always escapes at the last second.
The story is not only a metaphor for the actions of authoritarian regimes around the world, but also, in a sense, is a prediction of the processes that have been occurring in Russia, Afghanistan, Iran, and other authoritarian countries. For example, after the complete invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia banned not only protests, but also any anti-war or anti-Kremlin manifestations in art, songs, and public and personal statements. Thousands of ordinary citizens have been arrested and imprisoned for violating these decrees. Russia not only targeted its own artists but just recently issued criminal charges against one of the most popular singers in Ukraine, Jamala, because she used her music to sing about regaining freedom for her native Crimea. Anyone who manages to speak freely, against a sea of Russian fascist propaganda, is living in a metaphorical straitjacket. In the video, several scenes show Kelsie in a straitjacket as she is spun around and upside down while the dictator dances around in celebration.
This video is about people with a moral conscience who oppose autocrats that want to silence them no matter in what country. Ukrainian citizens made a moral choice to break free from the stranglehold of a dictator which resulted in a failed attempt by the dictator to destroy those citizens. Kelsie’s video is meant to inspire everyone who is similarly held down to rise up and fulfill their divine promise. While the lyrics of the song are meant as a war cry for Ukraine, and the chorus as a power anthem for the entire country, any color revolution, whether in Russia, Belarus, Iran, or elsewhere can sing to the heavens, “We are the Promise, We are the Glory, We are the Story.”