Aloe Blacc Remembers Black Lives Lost and Paris Victims in ‘Merry Christmas Mr. Brown’ Video
As we celebrate the Christmas holidays, Aloe Blacc is taking time to remember the black lives that were lost and the families left behind in his touching video for "Merry Christmas Mr. Brown."
"In remembrance of the many lives lost. Our love endures," reads the caption before the song starts.
Blacc, backed by only an acoustic guitar, sings to families of those who lost their lives including Mike Brown's parents, Eric Garner's wife, Sandra Bland's mother and Oscar Grant's daughter. He also sings to Travyon Martin's parents and Freddie Gray's family as black-and-white candid photos play throughout the heartfelt video.
"New Year's Eve, Mr. Martin / When you look up at the sky / See the fireworks that sparkle bright / Like the light in Trayvon's eyes," he sings.
Towards the end, Blacc brings up another tragedy that happened this year -- the terrorist attacks in Paris.
"Sitting on a train in Paris / Where the streets are cold and bare / And I wonder if it's gonna ever / Feel like Christmas again out here," he croons towards the end.
According to an interview with NPR, Blacc recorded the song "ten days after the terrorist attacks." The elegiac tune, which is available for free, has been in the works for over a year since the murder of 18-year-old Mike Brown in August 2014.
"I was inspired and moved to write a memorial to the Brown family. But so many more deaths had occurred that I just felt compelled to expand the memorial to more families of victims of violence," Blacc told NPR. "I chose the specific families because those were victims that were spoken about on television and in the media most widely, and I wanted to humanize the victims, to humanize the situation in such a way that didn't discuss the protests and it didn't discuss police brutality, but simply discussed the real human emotion around losing someone, so that everybody could connect through what these families are feeling."
Watch Aloe Blacc's video above.