"Hey, Hey, Rise Up!" (also written "Hey Hey Rise Up") is a song by the English rock band

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments ...

, released on digital platforms on . It is based on a 1914 Ukrainian anthem, " Oh, the Red Viburnum in the Meadow", and features vocals in Ukrainian by Andriy Khlyvnyuk of the Ukrainian band

BoomBox A boombox is a transistorized portable music player featuring one or two cassette tape players/recorders and AM/FM radio, generally with a carrying handle. Beginning in the mid-1990s, a CD player was often included. Sound is delivered thro ...

. "Hey, Hey, Rise Up!" is the first piece of music recorded by Pink Floyd since " Louder than Words" in 2014.Tonight at midnight, Pink Floyd will release their first recording since 2014's Louder Than Words. 'Hey Hey Rise Up'
/ref> The guitarist,

David Gilmour David Jon Gilmour ( ; born 6 March 1946) is an English guitarist, singer and songwriter who is a member of the rock band Pink Floyd. He joined in 1967, shortly before the departure of the founder member Syd Barrett. By the early 1980s, Pink F ...

, was inspired to record it in support of Ukraine during the 2022 Russian invasion. Pink Floyd also released a

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

, directed by Mat Whitecross, with images of life struggling amidst warfare. The single was released on CD and vinyl on 15 July 2022, alongside a new version of Pink Floyd's 1994 song "

A Great Day for Freedom "A Great Day for Freedom" is a song by Pink Floyd from their 1994 album, ''The Division Bell''. Writing The song, originally titled "In Shades of Grey", addresses the great hopes following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the disappointment that f ...

". All proceeds go to the Ukraine Humanitarian Relief Fund.

Background

In February 2022, the Ukrainian singer Andriy Khlyvnyuk, who had abandoned a US tour by his band

to serve in the

Ukrainian military The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are the Military, military forces of Ukraine. All military and security forces, including the Armed Forces, are under the command of the president of Ukraine and subject to oversight by a permanent Verkhovna Rad ...

in response to the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

on 24 February, recorded an

a capella Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...

version of the first verse of the Ukrainian anthem " Oh, the Red Viburnum in the Meadow" (). The anthem was written by Stepan Charnetskii in 1914 to commemorate the

Sich Riflemen The Sich Riflemen Halych-Bukovyna Kurin () was one of the first regular military units of the Ukrainian People's Army. The unit operated from 1917 to 1919 and was formed from Ukrainian soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian army (Ukrainian Sich Riflem ...

. Khlyvnyuk, wearing fatigues and carrying an

automatic rifle An automatic rifle is a type of Self-loading rifle, autoloading rifle that is capable of fully automatic firearm, automatic fire. Automatic rifles are generally selective fire, select-fire weapons capable of firing in Semi-automatic firearm, semi ...

, videoed his performance in

Sophia Square Sophia Square or Sofia Square () is a square in the center of Old Kyiv, Ukraine. Located in the Shevchenkivskyi District of Kyiv, the square lies in front of Saint Sophia Cathedral, is bordered by Volodymyrska Street, and features a monument o ...

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

, with the Bell Tower of Saint Sophia Cathedral in the background, and posted it on

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

on 27 February. The Pink Floyd guitarist,

, was shown the Instagram post by the Ukrainian artist Janina Pedan, who is married to his son Charlie, and was inspired to record something in support of Ukraine in the ongoing

Russo-Ukrainian War The Russo-Ukrainian War began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia Russian occupation of Crimea, occupied and Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, annexed Crimea from Ukraine. It then ...

. He contacted Pink Floyd drummer

Nick Mason Nicholas Berkeley Mason (born 27 January 1944) is an English drummer and a founder member of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. He has been the only constant member since the band's formation in 1965, and the only member to appear on every ...

and suggested they collaborate. Pink Floyd had been inactive for several years, and Gilmour had said several times that the band would not reunite; however, the war encouraged him to release the track as Pink Floyd as it was a "big platform" and it was "vitally" important to raise awareness about the war. He said: "It's a really difficult and frustrating thing to see this extraordinarily crazy, unjust attack by a major power on an independent, peaceful, democratic nation." Khlyvnyuk, while recovering in hospital from a shrapnel wound sustained in defence of Ukraine, gave Gilmour his blessing to use his vocals. Gilmour wrote extra music, including a

guitar solo A guitar solo is a melody, melodic passage, instrumental section (music), section, or entire piece of music, pre-written (or improvised) to be played on a classical guitar, classical, electric guitar, electric, or acoustic guitar. In 20th and ...

. Gilmour had previously been backed by BoomBox—without Khlyvnyuk—in 2015, at Koko, London, in support of the

Belarus Free Theatre The Belarus Free Theatre ( Belarusian: Свабодны тэатр, ''Svabodny teatr'') is a Belarusian underground theatre group. Following the 2020–2021 Belarusian protests, the BFT no longer has any presence in Belarus, with the remaining m ...

. Pink Floyd had already removed music from streaming services in Russia and Belarus. Their work with

Roger Waters George Roger Waters (born 6 September 1943) is an English musician and singer-songwriter. In 1965, he co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd as the bassist. Following the departure of the group's main songwriter Syd Barrett in 1968, Waters became ...

remained, leading to speculation that Waters had blocked its removal; Gilmour said only that "I was disappointed ... Read into that what you will." Gilmour said the song was a "one-off for charity" and that Pink Floyd had no plans to reform.

Recording

"Hey, Hey, Rise Up!" was recorded on 30 March 2022 at Gilmour's home by Gilmour and Mason with

Guy Pratt Guy Adam Pratt (born 3 January 1962) is a British bassist. He has worked with artists including Pink Floyd, Roxy Music, Gary Moore, Madonna, Peter Cetera, Michael Jackson, the Smiths, Robert Palmer (singer), Robert Palmer, Echo & the Bunnymen, T ...

, bassist with Pink Floyd since 1987, and keyboardist

Nitin Sawhney Nitin Sawhney (; born 1964) is a British musician, producer and composer. A recipient of the Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement award in 2017, among multiple international awards throughout his career. Sawhney's work combines Asian and other ...

. It was Sawhney's first work with Pink Floyd. Gala Wright, the daughter of late Pink Floyd keyboardist and founding member Richard Wright, was also present during the recording. The song—whose title comes from the last line of "Oh, the Red Viburnum in the Meadow", which some translations give as "Hey, hey, rise up and rejoice"—opens with a sample from another recording of Charnetskii's anthem, by the

Veryovka Ukrainian Folk Choir The Veryovka Ukrainian Folk Choir (fully titled in ) is a professional Ukrainian ensemble founded in 1943. The choir was founded in 1943 in Kharkiv to promote and spread Ukrainian folk music and dance traditions. The initiator and the first l ...

Music video

Pink Floyd Their Mortal Remains - 2017-10-13 - Andy Mabbett - 47

The music video was directed by Mat Whitecross, also on 30 March, on a set designed by Pedan. In the video, the band play while Khlyvnyuk's Sophia Square video is projected behind them. The performance is intercut with scenes of war damage, survivors and refugees in Ukraine. Mason's drums are decorated with reproductions of a painting by Maria Primachenko, a Ukrainian artist, several of whose works were destroyed in a fire caused by Russian shelling during the invasion.

Cover art

The single's artwork depicts a band logotype (in the style of

Gerald Scarfe Gerald Anthony Scarfe (born 1 June 1936) is an English satirical cartoonist and illustrator. He has worked as editorial cartoonist for ''The Sunday Times (UK), The Sunday Times'' and illustrator for ''The New Yorker''. Scarfe’s other work in ...

's lettering for ''

Pink Floyd – The Wall ''Pink Floyd – The Wall'' is a 1982 British live-action/animated musical surrealist drama film directed by Alan Parker, based on Pink Floyd's 1979 studio album '' The Wall''. The screenplay was written by Pink Floyd vocalist and bassist ...

'' patterned after the Ukrainian flag alongside a

sunflower The common sunflower (''Helianthus annuus'') is a species of large annual forb of the daisy family Asteraceae. The common sunflower is harvested for its edible oily seeds, which are often eaten as a snack food. They are also used in the pr ...

, the national flower of Ukraine, in a 2019 painting by Cuban artist Yosan Leon. The choice of flower also references a remark from a Ukrainian woman who was seen handing sunflower seeds to Russian soldiers in the early days of the invasion, telling them to carry the seeds in their pockets so that sunflowers will grow from their dead bodies.

Release

"Hey, Hey, Rise Up!" was released on digital platforms and streaming services on 8 April 2022. It was Pink Floyd's first newly recorded material since the 2014 song " Louder Than Words". A physical version of the single on both CD and vinyl was released on 15 July 2022, which included a newly reworked version of "

" as a b-side. Proceeds from "Hey, Hey, Rise Up!" go to the Ukraine Humanitarian Relief Fund.

Reception

The journalist Mark Savage of

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

praised the song, saying that it was "built around a spine-tingling refrain" by Khlyvnyuk. Khlyvnyuk said the song was "fabulous" and thanked Pink Floyd for their efforts. Some fans felt that it was improper for the group to release music as Pink Floyd without the keyboardist Richard Wright, who died in 2008, or the bassist and songwriter

, who left in 1985. The ''

Classic Rock Classic rock is a radio format that developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, it comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the early-1990s, primarily focusing on comm ...

'' journalist Fraser Lewry disagreed, writing: "When thousands have been killed and millions have fled their homes, moaning about the absence of a band member aterswho left 37 years ago is churlish at best. At worst, it's contemptuous of the suffering." Waters was critical of the song, saying it "lacked humanity" and constituted a "content-less waving of the blue and yellow flag" rather than an explicit call for the war to end. He said Russia's invasion of Ukraine was "probably the most provoked invasion ever" and refused to "see Russia from the current Russo-phobic perspective".

Commercial performance

Based on downloads and sales in its first two days, the single appeared on the midweek UK Singles Chart at number 5. It debuted at number 49 on the final chart.

Personnel

– guitar, additional vocals *

– drums * Andriy Khlyvnyuk – vocals *

– bass guitar *

– keyboards *Romany Gilmour – additional vocals * Veryovka Folk Song and Dance Ensemble – choral vocal sample Technical *Produced by David Gilmour *Assisted by Damon Iddins Artwork * "The Sunflower Look" by Yosan Leon – front cover painting * Steve Knee / Blade Design Ltd – artwork design

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

External links

* {{2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine Songs about the Russian invasion of Ukraine 2022 singles 2022 songs Pink Floyd songs Song recordings produced by David Gilmour Songs written by David Gilmour Works based on songs Rhino Entertainment singles Columbia Records singles Sony Music singles