Coldplay song 'We Pray': What does 'Baraye' really mean?

The song is peppy, vibrant, and full of positive energy

James Jose

Published: Wed 9 Oct 2024, 1:17 PM

And so we pray

For someone to come and show me the way

And so we pray

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For some shelter and some records to play

And so we pray

We’ll be singing Baraye

Pray that we make it to the end of the day

And so we pray

That's the chorus to the latest offering — We Pray — to music fans by the legendary British band Coldplay. The song has already hit over 2.2 million views on the streaming platform YouTube.

The song has not just captured the senses of music fans and die-hard aficionados of Coldplay but also attracted new fans to the iconic band (a not-a-fan of Coldplay said she's been hearing it on loop).

The song is peppy, vibrant, and full of positive energy, and features an ensemble of artists sparkling star dust with that effervescent genius Chris Martin on stage.

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The iconic band has always infused different kinds of music into its repertoire, especially Hymn for the Weekend, which saw a collaboration with the diva Beyonce and had heavy Indian influences.

Chris Martin performs with Beyonce. Photo: Reuters file

And We Pray takes it farther with Palestinian singer Elyanna, born Elian Marjieh, and other famed artists — British rap star Little Simz, Nigerian singer Burna Boy and Argentine singer Tini — collaborating on this latest masterpiece.

We Pray can be interpreted in different ways. Leading online music magazine Magnetic Magazine called the song, which debuted at the famous Glastonbury festival in June, "a global prayer." It perhaps is.

Coldplay and Elyanna will be rocking the floors off the Zayed Sports City Stadium over a quartet of concerts in the UAE capital just after we usher in the New Year.

And ahead of the shows, we remarked at something our not-a-fan of Coldplay wondered upon hearing the tune -- the meaning of the word 'Baraye'.

The story behind Baraye

The phrase: We’ll be singing Baraye and the word Baraye hold different meanings.

Baraye is a Farsi words which means "For..." or "Because of..." and Coldplay performed the song Baraye, written by one of the top Iranian musicians Shervin Hajipour, with the exiled Iranian actor Golshifteh Farahani singing it in Farsi, during a concert in Buenos Aires, Argentina in October 2022.

The ballad Baraye, by Hajipour, was inspired by the death of the 22-year-old Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, who was arrested in 2022 for allegedly wearing her hijab improperly, and allegedly died in police custody.

Baraye became an anthem for the protests that followed and in 2023 won a special merit award for the Best Song for Social Change at the Grammys.

In fact, there are a some more inferences from real life in the song apart from Baraye, where at the start, Martin sings: Pray Virgilio wins.

It refers to 19-year-old Guatemalan farm worker Virgilio Aguilar Mendez, who was accused of killing a police officer in Florida.

Songs inspired by real life

There have been plenty of songs over the years and decades that have been inspired by real-life.

Winds of Change by the legendary Scorpions, was written by frontman Klaus Maine after the German band's visit to the then Soviet Union. The song, which has become an anthem worldwide, is also closely connected to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

Scorpions. Photo: AFP file

The song Zombie by the late Dolores O'Riordan of the band Cranberries is about the 1993 bombings in England an about the heartbreak of the mother who lost her child.

21 Guns by American band Green Day, broaches the topic of patriotism.

A song way ahead of its time is Imagine by the great John Lennon, which speaks about world of peace, a world without borders and a world without religion.

We Pray, perhaps, has all these meanings, especially in a world where we are submerged by conflicts.

It is left to how you interpret it.

Peace.

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