Album Launch: MIGRANTS by Wilbur Sargunaraj
Venue: Pablos, Bangalore
Date: 25th November
Opening Act: Naveen Richards, Stand Up Comedian
A brief on the EP
Wilbur wanted to write a song that would challenge us to face our bias by breaking walls and opening our hearts to people who we perceive as being ‘different’. They are fellow humans and need our help desperately. Though the title track focuses on the refugee crisis, the EP has 6 other tracks that are unique in their own way but deal with the theme of movement. The title track was filmed in Chios, Greece just a week after a far right group attacked the refugees staying at the Souda refugee camp. He then headed to Chios after hearing this news and it was a beautiful time of engaging with people from Syria and making new friends. ‘Another beautiful story was connecting with the Syrian Refugee Rapper Tamman who made his way from Turkey to Greece with his younger brother and now lives in France. I saw an article on the BBC and knew that this is the artist I needed for the song! To make a long story short Tamman agreed to do the part and even found a way to record it simple superstar style despite having no equipment! Its passionate, raw and powerful! What’s even more meaningful for me was that Tamman mentioned after the recording was done that he was so happy that this was his first paid project as a rapper! That meant the world to me! To empower another simple superstar that’s what Wilbur World Wide is all about!’ he said.
Story behind the name MIGRANTS
All throughout the production phase of the song and music video, Wilbur has been using this word to denote people who are on the move looking for a better place to live in peace and away from war. A Migrant can mean someone who is leaving their country looking for better economic options while a Refugee is someone who is fleeing war and persecution in their own country. The word Migrants covers both meanings. Interestingly enough, he spent my childhood as a ‘Migrant’ wandering with his parents to a number of countries and cities before settling back in Tamil Nadu and this has always made him think that we all are ‘migrants’ in one way or another. ‘This is my plea! Don’t tighten immigration policies and shut the door to other humans looking for refuge! They are vulnerable people who are fleeing war and just want to live in peace! We as fellow migrants have a huge responsibility to take care of our brothers and sisters of this world’, says Wilbur.
