It’s fitting that K’NAAN’s hit, Wavin’ Flag, has become the theme song for Young Artists for Haiti.
“My song Wavin’ Flag seemed like the right feeling for what was going on in Haiti,” said a soft-spoken K’NAAN, while currently on tour in Europe.

The Canadian hip-hop artist’s signature tune was re-worked and recorded by a cross-section of 57 of today’s biggest Canadian music stars. Calling themselves Young Artists for Haiti, they included indie favourite Emily Haines, superstar Avril Lavigne and rising rap star Drake. They gathered on Feb. 18 in a Vancouver studio to record the song in an effort to help the victims of the Haiti earthquake.

A new version of Wavin’ Flag, which includes new lyrics specific to Haiti and is produced by the legendary Bob Ezrin, was released wherever music is sold digitally at 12:01 a.m. ET on March 12. All proceeds will go to Free The Children, War Child Canada and World Vision.

K’NAAN, whose music fuses together hip-hop, spoken word, rock and just an echo of pop, said he was “overcome by a kind of powerlessness” about the recent devastating events in Haiti. “You watch it on TV and you feel very, very small and you feel a little bit helpless. This is what happens to me. In fact, it makes (me) a little immobile — I can’t really write when something like that happens,” he said.

Now 31, the Toronto resident is all too familiar with suffering. K’NAAN was born in Somalia, where he lived during that nation’s civil war. He left with his family when he was 13 and stayed with relatives in New York before moving to Canada.

In 2009, he released his second album, the critically hailed Troubadour which featured Wavin’ Flag. The artist is optimistic that music does have the power to reach people and creative positive change in the world.

“I think there’s a difference between media coverage of an incident and a song. I think a song does something a little more lasting, I hope. I hope we register into people’s feelings,” K’NAAN said. “Since Haiti is going to be struggling for a long time now to fix this thing, I think we need a song that stays with people a little bit more than the newspapers are willing to commit to the subject.”

The new version of Wavin’ Flag stays true to the original — hopeful, epic, with a catchy, uplifting chorus that almost forces you to sing along while giving you chills.

When it comes to his songwriting, K’NAAN said they often begin with some discontent, including Wavin’ Flag. “There’s a sadness that emerges into some kind of beauty,” is how he describes Wavin’ Flag. “That’s what’s so hopeful about the song, the mix of sadness and beauty at the same time.”

K’NAAN returns to Canada in April for the Juno Awards, where his in up for three awards. Previously, the artist has re-recorded a version of Wavin’ Flag to serve as an anthem for this summer’s World Cup in South Africa.

The Gazzete.

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