"Albertine" is a song by singer-songwriter

Brooke Fraser Brooke Gabrielle Ligertwood (née Fraser; born 15 December 1983) better known by her maiden name Brooke Fraser, is a New Zealand singer and songwriter best known for her hit single " Something in the Water", released in 2010. Fraser released two ...

, and the third single from her second studio album, '' Albertine''. It was largely inspired by a Rwandan orphan, by the name of Albertine, whom Fraser met while there in 2005. "Albertine" did not appear on any

record chart A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide charts, often ...

, but it won Fraser the annual

APRA Silver Scroll The APRA Music Awards are several annual and two-yearly award ceremonies run in New Zealand by Australasian Performing Right Association to recognise songwriting skills, sales and airplay performance by its members. APRA hold the annual Silver S ...

Background and release

Fraser went to

Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...

on behalf of

World Vision In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

in 2005, the first of many trips. While there, she met a girl named Albertine, who had become orphaned by the

genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...

of 1994. Fraser described Albertine as "tall and beautiful". Her guide, Joel, took her to a village school in Kabuga district, and showed her a girl whose life the guide had personally saved. On her return, she felt she was "in a position where I could share message with other people nd as a musicianthat could be a great way to contribute in and of itself". "Albertine" tells the "tale of courage" of the two Rwandans in the 1990s. "Albertine" was released by

Sony BMG Sony BMG Music Entertainment was an American record company owned as a 50–50 joint venture between Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann. The venture's successor, the revived Sony Music, is wholly owned by Sony, following their buyout o ...

on 9 July 2007 as a

digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Technology and computing Hardware *Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals **Digital camera, which captures and stores digital i ...

EP, as well as a CD single.

Musical and lyrical composition

"Albertine" is a guitar-based pop

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

. Mike Schiller from

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said that "its rhythmic, largely amelodic guitar work stands in sharp contrast to the lush, almost cloying melodic sensibilities of the rest of the album." The lyrics of "Albertine" describe Fraser's feelings while visiting Rwanda, and her responsibility to help the Rwandan people. Chris Thomas from suite101.com described it as "a tale of one less fortunate than herself; one who needs the love, care and support of those who are more fortunate". Another reviewer said that "On its surface, 'Albertine' is a song about a tall and beautiful girl who survived the Rwandan genocide. Really, though, it’s a song about a whole lot more. Really, it’s a song about faith, it’s a song about hope, it’s a song about love… and it’s a song about deeds.

Reception

'' The Southern Cross'' selected "Albertine" as one of the standout songs from Fraser's album. "Albertine" did not appear on any official record chart, and was the first of Fraser's singles that did not chart on the

New Zealand Singles Chart The Official New Zealand Music Chart ( mi, Te Papa Tātai Waiata Matua o Aotearoa) is the weekly New Zealand top 40 singles and albums charts, issued weekly by Recorded Music NZ (formerly Recording Industry Association of New Zealand). The Music ...

. It did, however, win Fraser the 2007

, a peer-chosen award for songwriters. Other contenders for the Silver Scroll in 2007 included " Maybe" by

Opshop Opshop is a New Zealand rock band who formed in 2002. They released their first album, '' You Are Here'' in 2004, their second album ''Second Hand Planet'' in 2007, and their third album '' Until The End of Time'', which debuted at number one on ...

, "

Light Surrounding You "Light Surrounding You" is the second single by alternative rock band, Evermore, taken from their second studio album, ''Real Life'' (June 2006). It was written by Dann Hume, the group's drummer. The record is co-produced by Jon Hume. The song ...

" by Evermore, Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No! by

The Mint Chicks The Mint Chicks were a New Zealand noise rock/art punk group (the band began to refer to their style of music as "troublegum" and have been referred to as anything from neo-punk to schizo-pop to the only half-serious genre definition of shit-gaz ...

, and Fraser's "

Deciphering Me "Deciphering Me" is artist/songwriter Brooke Fraser's sixth single, and her first single from her second studio album '' Albertine''. The song debuted on the New Zealand Singles Chart at number forty on 23 October 2006 and on 4 December 2006, peak ...

", also released from '' Albertine''. Fraser performed "Albertine" at the 2007

New Zealand Music Awards The Aotearoa Music Awards (previously called the New Zealand Music Awards), conferred annually by Recorded Music NZ, honour outstanding artistic and technical achievements in the recording industry. The awards are among the most significant that ...

, where her album won the Highest Selling Album award, and "

" won Airplay Record of the Year.

Music video

The music video for Albertine was shot in May 2007 in

. Fraser posted a blog entry in her official MySpace blog while en route to Rwanda from

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

. In this entry, she stated: Later, on 15 July the video for the song was released on Brooke Fraser's official YouTube channel. It shows mostly face shots at the start of the video interspersed with pictures of children from Rwanda, before finally showing Fraser walk along a bridge as Rwandan people walk by.

Track listing

All songs written by Brooke Fraser."Albertine""C.S. Lewis Song""Faithful
at APRA search engine.

Australasian Performing Right Association APRA AMCOS consists of Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS), both copyright management organisations or copyright collectives which jointly represent over 100,000 songwr ...

. Retrieved 17 July 2010. :;Albertine – EP # "Albertine – 3:57 # "C.S. Lewis Song" (live) – 5:12 # "Faithful" (demo) – 7;49

References

{{Authority control 2007 singles APRA Award winners Brooke Fraser songs Songs written by Brooke Fraser Song recordings produced by Marshall Altman 2006 songs Sony BMG singles