British Christian electropoppers Ooberfuse have filmed a music video calling on Myanmar not to lose long-standing traditions amid the country’s rapid change.
The London-based band is known for eccentricity: they once sound tracked a papal visit with a rap song and later stirred controversy by highlighting sexual abuse within the Church. Earlier this year they teamed up with an Iraqi archibishop to pen an anti-ISIS track.
The video for their latest song, ‘Don’t Let it Go’, shot in and around the Bagan temples, features lead singer Cherie Anderson chumming around with this cheroot-smoking lady in a local marketplace.
They enlisted some somewhat baffled-looking Padaung women.
And this kid, who totally freaked out. (Demonstrating “local regional dance moves including foot shuffles and exotic hand jives,” according to a press release.)
They wouldn’t be a Christian pop band without scenes like this.
Anderson, who has Filipino heritage and is referred to as the band’s “far-eastern front person,” said she wanted to show some of the lesser-known Myanmar traditions in the video.
“There is charm, mystery and naivety in traditional ways of life that have survived colonial incursions,” she said.
“Whilst progress and development is inevitable it would be a tragedy nevertheless to let go of some of the mysteries of Myanmar.”
Anderson and fellow band member Hal St John describe Ooberfuse online as an attempt to “secure paths over the wildest oceans and unvisited regions of the human soul.”
In 2010, one of their hip hop tracks was chosen as the theme song for Pope Benedict XVI’s papal visit to the UK.
But last year the band was uninvited from London’s largest gathering for Catholics, Catholic Underground, after producing a music video about sexual abuse by priests.
Organizers called the song “disturbing” and said it was “graphic and explicit and overall painted a very negative image of the Church.”
We can’t say the same about their well-intentioned Myanmar track. Watch the video below.
Reader Interactions