At just 15 years old, the music created by Safiyah Hernandez embodies a crossroads of genres and heritages. Her most recent single, “I Can’t Be Here (Song for Palestine),” couldn’t have come at a more pressing moment — the track giving voice to the agony and profound resilience of the people in Gaza. But it’s also not the first time she’s used her art to illuminate human rights crises with such poignant precision.
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One of the first things that strikes you about Hernandez is the alluring fluidity of her sound. Her adolescence was marked by a love of everything from East Coast 90’s hip-hop and alt-rock to Bollywood and traditional Mexican music. The ethos of speaking truth to power inherent in groups like A Tribe Called Quest is ever-present, as is the audacious rock experimentalism of The Beatles or Nirvana.
But Hernandez — who embraces the threads of her Pakistani, Mexican, Irish, and Italian roots — also looks to Egyptian singer/songwriter Umm Kulthum and Indian singer/composer Lata Mangeshkar, as well as Spanish phenom Rosalía and Tejano icon Selena. The result is a tactful melding of indie rock, and R&B/pop melodics overlayed with instrumentals that draw on her Arabic influences.
The release of her debut album Homesick this year confirmed that Hernandez is an uncompromisingly urgent voice. Its opening track, “9Pm” is a bittersweetly dreamy piece that dwells on the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor amidst a litany of visceral introspections. “Mars,” with its moody collision of scintillating riffs and roiling beats, wrestles with the climate crisis and absurdity of those who dream of leaving Earth as an easy escape from our environmental woes. Throughout the record, she weaves her tender but incisive lyricism through stunning atmospheric ballads like “Stardust” and “Daydream” — as well as earnest rollickers like “Pink Sunglasses.”
Her latest single, “I Can’t Be Here (Song for Palestine),” focuses Hernandez’s dutifully emotive soundscapes on manifesting the brunt of the pain and passion she feels for those suffering in Palestine. One that powerfully articulates the anger and weariness of watching helplessly as an entire people is killed indiscriminately.
Against the weeping groan of electric guitars and her ghostly cries, she elicits all the conflicting emotions summoned by such atrocity. But it also delivers a defiant rebuke against the vengeful and violent hate that the Palestinian people are currently facing — issuing a refusal to give in or stay silent.
Words: Steven Ward
Visit Safiyah Hernandez on her website and Instagram to stay updated on new releases and tour announcements.
Listen to “I Can’t Be Here (Song for Palestine)” the new single from Safiyah Hernandez.
