"Birth of a New Age" is a song by Surinamese singer-songwriter

Jeangu Macrooy Jeangu Macrooy (; born November 6, 1993) is a Surinamese singer-songwriter. He was born in Paramaribo and has been living in the Netherlands in the eastern city Enschede in the region Twente since 2014. Macrooy's music is described as modern s ...

. The song represented the Netherlands in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2021 The Eurovision Song Contest 2021 was the 65th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Rotterdam, Netherlands, following the country's win at the with the song "Arcade" by Duncan Laurence. The Netherlands was set to host the , ...

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

, the Netherlands. The music video was recorded in the

Rijksmuseum The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the St ...

. In the song, Macrooy calls for resilience and

authenticity Authenticity or authentic may refer to: * Authentication, the act of confirming the truth of an attribute Arts and entertainment * Authenticity in art, ways in which a work of art or an artistic performance may be considered authentic Music * A ...

. The song is mostly written in English and partly in

Sranan Tongo Sranan Tongo (also Sranantongo "Surinamese tongue," Sranan, Surinaams, Surinamese, Surinamese Creole) is an English-based creole language that is spoken as a ''lingua franca'' by approximately 550,000 people in Suriname. Developed originally amo ...

, a

lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...

Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...

Music video

On 4 March 2021 Macrooy and the broadcaster

AVROTROS AVROTROS () is a Dutch radio and television broadcaster that is part of the Dutch public broadcasting system. It was founded in 2014 as the result of a merger between the Algemene Vereniging Radio Omroep (AVRO) and the Televisie Radio Omroep Stic ...

announced via a livestream that ''Birth of a New Age'' would be the Dutch entry of the Eurovision Songfestival. The next day the official music video was presented. The recordings were shot in the

, in the

Tropenmuseum The Tropenmuseum ( en, Museum of the Tropics) is an ethnographic museum located in Amsterdam, Netherlands, founded in 1864. One of the largest museums in Amsterdam, the museum accommodates eight permanent exhibitions and an ongoing series of tem ...

and in the ''Koepelkerk'' (

Ronde Lutherse Kerk The Ronde Lutherse Kerk (''round Lutheran church'') or Koepelkerk (''cupola church'') is a former Lutheran church in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on the Singel canal. The church can be easily seen from the Singel, identified by its copper dome. Histor ...

) in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, under the direction of Kevin Osepa and cinematography of Jasper Wolf.

Composition

The

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

of ''Birth of a New Age'' is

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...

combined with

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

and the exchange of

call and response Call and response is a form of interaction between a speaker and an audience in which the speaker's statements ("calls") are punctuated by responses from the listeners. This form is also used in music, where it falls under the general category of ...

from kawina, a genre that originated in

, Macrooy's birth country. The

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

consists of sixty voices that were recorded by three singers: Jeangu Macrooy, his twin brother Xillan Macrooy and singer Milaisa Breeveld. In addition, the voice of fellow composer

Pieter Perquin Pieter Perquin (born 13 April 1982, Amsterdam, Netherlands), better known under the pseudonym Perquisite, is a Dutch musician, music producer and composer. Biography In 1996, at the age of 14, Perquisite started making hip-hop beats. Due to hi ...

can be heard at the beginning of the song.NPO Radio 2
Bart en Jeangu Macrooy ontleden het songfestivalnummer Birth Of A New Age
12 Mai 2021 The basis of the song was from Macrooy, who finished it on December 17, 2020. He worked further on it with Pieter Perquin. While composing, Macrooy and Perquin did not begin with a defined

song structure Song structure is the arrangement of a song, and is a part of the songwriting process. It is typically sectional, which uses repeating forms in songs. Common forms include bar form, 32-bar form, verse–chorus form, ternary form, strophic form, and ...

like verse-refrain-verse-refrain-bridge-refrain; instead, they built it piece by piece, and tried out new elements when they popped up. With the choir at the beginning of the song, it therefore looks like the song has two refrains and an ending of its own.

Lyrics

Macrooy had already written a poem that would become the song's lyrics before he started with Perquin to work out the music. According to Macrooy, this poem would not have existed if the developments in 2020 around

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police bruta ...

had not occurred. Those gave him the feeling that the struggle of sixty years ago had not been lost. The demonstrations meant a lot to him. Being there at a demonstration, it inspired him that he did not only see black people around him, and that he saw a lot of young people there. "In fact that is the ''new age'' I am singing about," said the singer. While composing, Macrooy also decided to sing partly in

; this is the language of the refrain, whereas the verses are sung in English. He sings the following sentence a number of times: "Yu no man broko mi, mi na afu sensi," which can be translated as: "You can't break me, even if you think that I am inferior." The last part of the sentence literally signifies "that I'm half a cent", which was the smallest coin in Suriname in colonial times. Macrooy makes use here of what is being called an ''odo'' in Suriname, in other words a life wisdom which was passed on among enslaved. Because of his choice, Sranan Tongo marks a new step in its development. It originated in the 17th century because the enslaved were not allowed to speak Dutch, whilst they did not have a common African background. Later on, Sranan Tongo was forbidden and Dutch language made mandatory. Then, during the 1950s, Sranan Tongo was allowed, but regarded as an inferior language and discouraged socially. Since the

independence of Suriname The early history of Suriname dates from 3000 BCE when Native Americans first inhabited the area. The Dutch acquired Suriname from the English, and European settlement in any numbers dates from the 17th century, when it was a plantation colony ...

in 1975, it became gradually more accepted. With "Birth of a New Age", Sranan Tongo will be heard for the first time on the Eurovision stage.Nina Jurna
Jeangu Macrooy geeft ooit verboden taal Sranantongo groot podium
NRC, 6 Mai 2020

Mural

As a part of the artist project ''#UPStreetRotterdam'' visual artist Tymon de Laat completed his artwork with the title ''Birth of a New Age'' on 19 April 2021. He made a mural near Ahoy Rotterdam and signed it in the presence of Macrooy, in a joint action at a

aerial work platform An aerial work platform (AWP), also known as an aerial device, elevating work platform (EWP), cherry picker, bucket truck or mobile elevating work platform (MEWP) is a mechanical device used to provide temporary access for people or equipment t ...

Eurovision Song Contest

Internal selection

On 18 March 2020, directly after the cancellation of the

Eurovision Song Contest 2020 The Eurovision Song Contest 2020 was planned to be the 65th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It would have taken place in Rotterdam, Netherlands, following the country's victory at the with the song "Arcade" by Duncan Laurence. The con ...

, the national broadcaster

announced its intent to again host the

, and to keep Macrooy as the nation's representative for the event.

At Eurovision

As the host country, the Netherlands automatically qualified to compete in the final. It was the 23rd performance in the final on 22 May 2021. Because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, the 2021 edition of the festival was held with a small test audience, called "field lab".Parool
Jeangu Macrooy: ‘Ik kan het Eurovisie Songfestival alleen winnen door mezelf te blijven’
26 April 2021

Charts

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 2021 2021 songs 2021 singles Eurovision songs of 2021 Eurovision songs of the Netherlands Jeangu Macrooy songs