Several out artists have responded to
this weekend's attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando with new music.
Melissa Etheridge told Rolling Stone
that she wrote Pulse while on tour.
“I'm dealing with it the way I deal,
which is, I wrote a song,” Etheridge said. “I just sat here, and
I just started writing a song... That's how I first started to cope
because, as a singer songwriter, I feel very... I've done this
before. I feel called to speak; to do what musicians do. We've been
the town criers for hundreds of years. We're mirrors of society. We
want to try to make sense. We want to try to heal. We want to bring
some meaning, some purpose. We also want to put it down forever in
history. That's how I'm coping.”
Forty-nine people died when a lone
gunman opened fire early Sunday morning in Pulse nightclub. Several
of the dozens injured remain in critical condition.
Etheridge appears to be speaking to the
gunman when she sings: “Who you gonna hate now?; When there's no
one left but you?; Who you gonna gun down?; If you can't kill the
truth; That it's inside of us; Inside our blood; Inside our pulse.”
Etheridge, who
premiered the song on Wednesday, said that all proceeds from the
track will be donated to an LGBT charity.
Eli Lieb and Brandon Skeie also
produced a powerful song titled Pulse and dedicated to
Sunday's victims.
Lieb
sings: “I'm in chains 'cause I'm choosing; Showing love or
living life; I shouldn't have to leave where I stand; I shouldn't
have to change who I am; To count as a human; Feel my pulse.”