Following on from her involvement in the ActionAid 6 Degrees recording of ‘I’m Every Woman’ earlier this year, Sinéad O’Connor has re-recorded one of her own songs in aid of anti sex trafficking organisation GEMS (Girls Education and Mentoring Services) to raise awareness about the rising incidence of child prostitution in the United States. The new version of ballad ‘This Is To Mother You’, originally from her 1997 EP Gospel Oak, was recorded over the summer at Dublin’s legendary Windmill Lane Studios. Headed up by production team Doc McKinney (Santigold, Esthero) and Ali Shaheed Muhammad (A Tribe Called Quest, Lucy Pearl), it also features Mary J Blige and GEMS member Martha B on backing vocals, recorded separately at a studio in New York. “It’s a song about survival,” she told journalists at a press conference. “I myself am a survivor, not of sex trafficking but of severe child abuse. So this is obviously a subject that I can identify with when it comes to young girls trying to get out of bad situations and make a good life for themselves. To me, the song was a part of me talking to me.”
“I’m honored that Sinéad donated the song for our campaign,” said Rachel Lloyd, GEMS Executive Director. “To have artists of her and Mary’s caliber taking a stand and joining our campaign to promote girls’ empowerment and education as critical tools in the fight against child traffickers is incredible. It is even more special to have Martha, a GEMS member who I have known since she was 14, realise her dream and be included on this song.” Mary J Blige, who recently opened a women’s refuge in upstate New York, speaks just as highly of the track, saying ”It describes how I feel about my work and how so many fans view me – as a mentor and a mother figure. It has always been my dream to be able to encourage women and let them know that if I can make it, they can make it too despite any physical and emotional abuses they may endure.”
The new version of ‘This Is To Mother You’ gets a digital release on December 2 with profits being donated to GEMS’ Girls Fund. Do a good deed and download it.
Alan Pedder