The year 2020 has been a year. A year I do not know how to describe, explain, or analyze. At this point, the year 2020 needs a song to calm it down and for me, Rise Up by Andra Day is the song for it.

Rise Up is a song written to help you summon your innate strength when you need it the most. For a lot of people, 2020 has proven to be the year when we need that strength more than ever before.

The global lockdown and its attendant challenges have been a major source of depression, frustration, and exhaustion for a lot of people. A video of a young girl trying to describe her pain from the inability to go out and socialize to her parents really got to me.

There have been different kinds of losses around me and I often wish I could do more to help. The fact that we are unable to help those we want to at the time they need it the most is in itself another source of despair.

For me, I have come to a conclusion. Surviving this era in itself is a miracle. The gift of life and health should never be underappreciated again.

We should climb on it, build upon it, launch forth from it to the better days that will surely come around.

In the meantime, let us enjoy the company of those around us. Let us value the relationships we have built and that have been thrust upon us. Let us try to make the sweetest possible lemonade from this batch of lemons known as 2020.

Andra Day’s Rise Up Lyrics

You’re broken down and tired
Of living life on a merry go round
And you can’t find the fighter
But I see it in you so we gonna work it out
And move mountains
We gonna work it out
And move mountains

And I’ll rise up
I’ll rise like the day
I’ll rise up
I’ll rise unafraid
I’ll rise up
And I’ll do it a thousand times again
And I’ll rise up
High like the waves
I’ll rise up
In spite of the ache
I’ll rise up
And I’ll do it a thousand times again
For you
For you
For you
For you

When the silence isn’t quiet
And it feels like it’s getting hard to breathe
And I know you feel like dying
But I promise we’ll take the world to its feet
And move mountains
We’ll take it to its feet
And move mountains

And I’ll rise up
I’ll rise like the day
I’ll rise up
I’ll rise unafraid
I’ll rise up
And I’ll do it a thousand times again
For you
For you
For you
For you

All we need, all we need is hope
And for that we have each other
And for that we have each other
We will rise
We will rise
We’ll rise, oh oh
We’ll rise

I’ll rise up
Rise like the day
I’ll rise up
In spite of the ache
I will rise a thousand times again
And we’ll rise up
Rise like the waves
We’ll rise up
In spite of the ache
We’ll rise up
And we’ll do it a thousand times again
For you oh oh oh oh oh
For you oh oh oh oh oh
For you oh oh oh oh oh
For you