Every artist with an Instagram account has expressed an opinion—with various degrees of sensitivity—on the deaths of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile and the five police officers killed in Dallas last week. Ariana Grande and Victoria Monét, however, decided to take a slightly different tack: They wrote a song.
“Better Days” isn’t exactly a masterpiece, but both its melody and the lyrics (“Baby, there’s a war right outside our window/Don’t you hear the people fighting for their lives?”) conspire to make it an effectively melancholy earworm.
Both artists posted the song to Instagram and included the following statement:
“Music is a universal language that all of us can feel regardless of color lines, gender, sexuality, age, race, religion…. it unifies us. We believe we can not fight hate with hate, only love. Just as we can not fight darkness with more darkness. Only Light.”
The rest of their statements diverge slightly from one another, so we’ll post them both. Here’s Grande’s:
And here’s Monét’s:
Image via screengrab
GET JEZEBEL RIGHT IN YOUR INBOX
Still here. Still without airbrushing. Still with teeth.
