"Pray for Me Brother" is a single by

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

n composer

A. R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967), also known by the initialism ARR, is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and philanthropist known for his works in Indian cinem ...

. Released in 2007, being one of the earliest vertical music videos, the song was conceived as an anti-poverty anthem for the Millennium Goals for the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

. It is part of a joint venture between the A. R. Rahman Foundation and

Nokia Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, originally established as a pulp mill in 1 ...

. The song had lyrics by

and

Blaaze Lakshmi Narasimha Vijaya Rajagopala Sheshadri Sharma Rajesh Raman (born 15 October 1975), professionally known as Blaaze (), is an Indian Tamil language playback singer and rapper in Indian cinema who specializes in writing and performing rap m ...

with additional lyrics by

Sukhwinder Singh Sukhwinder Singh (born 18 July 1971) is an Indian playback singer who primarily sings Bollywood songs. He sang " Jai Ho" in the film '' Slumdog Millionaire'', for which he won a Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Televisi ...

. The main vocalist was Rahman himself, while

accompanied him by providing backing vocals.

Clinton Cerejo Clinton Cerejo is an Indian singer and composer. Personal life Clinton Cerejo was born into an academically inclined family with no known musical background. His father was an engineer at L&T and his mother is a French professor. His elder b ...

, Dominique Cerejo, Vivienne Pocha and Hrishikesh Kamerkar have also provided backing vocals. The video of the album was directed and conceived by Bharatbala of BharatBala Productions, who is a usual associate for Rahman's album videos. It has been shoot by the ace cinematographer Tassaduq Hussain Mufti.

Background

In 1998, after averting a major crisis in the Middle East through diplomatic means,

UN Secretary-General The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or UNSECGEN) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the United Nations System#Six principal organs, six principal organs of ...

Kofi Annan Kofi Atta Annan (8 April 193818 August 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founder a ...

had spoken the following words, "Never underestimate the power of prayer". In his eyes, it was prayer that finally gave any material means the agency to make the world a better place. The

Foundation represents a movement to eradicate poverty through facilitation of education to poor and needy children. As part of the initiative, it has joined with several institutes across the globe. ''Pray For Me Brother'' is an initiative by the A.R. Rahman Foundation, with

Nokia Corporation Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, originally established as a pulp mill in 1865. Nokia's main headquarters are in Espoo, Finland, in the Helsinki metro ...

to collect funds for the U.N. Millennium Development Programme aimed at eradicating poverty by the year 2015. It is a song about the emotion that lies at the heart of prayer – the emotion of love. It reinstills our faith in love’s power to heal and reminds us that there are those in this world who need of our gestures of healing and comfort. The song was made available for a free download at the official website of U.N. Millennium Goals. Speaking on the occasion of the audio launch, Rahman said, One thing is common about hunger-everybody feels it. This song is a statement from India to the world. Otherwise we listen and the world talks. I have seen beggars everywhere. This song is not a remedy but an inspiration to do something.

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...

official Sathya suggested I should come up with a song for the tuberculosis cause for which U.N. had appointed me as their Brand Ambassador. As I was doing this, I noticed the poverty around that we seem to have become immune to. I called my friend Blaaze and asked if we could do something, hence the song was born, he added. The film is set primarily in Los Angeles, USA, where progress and plenitude abound. Lives and lifestyles there stand in stark contrast to those parts of the world where pain and suffering abound. The film attempts to bring these two worlds together through its story and in doing so depicts the dawning of a particular realization on its protagonist – that he need not wait for a reason to show kindness, that now was the time for him to offer a healing prayer to his brothers and sisters in need across the world.

Music video

The film was conceived and directed by Bharatbala in the banner of BharatBala Productions. The song was picturised in Los Angeles, USA, with cinematography by Tassaduq Hussain Mufti. The choreography was done by Cassel Dixion Jr, Talent Bryan Clark and Adele Jones. The music video was the first to be shot on mobile cinemascope format.

Track listing

The official track listing.

Disc one

Disc two (limited edition DVD)

#Pray for Me Brother - Original unedited full length video film in 4:3

aspect ratio The aspect ratio of a geometry, geometric shape is the ratio of its sizes in different dimensions. For example, the aspect ratio of a rectangle is the ratio of its longer side to its shorter side—the ratio of width to height, when the rectangl ...

. #Making of the video Feat.

, Bharatbala

Album credits

Personnel

–

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

Srinivas Srinivasa (Sanskrit ) is a Hindu name. The term Srinivasa is Vaishnava in origin, the combination of two Sanskrit words, ''Shri'' (श्री) and ''nivasa'' (निवास). It is a name for males in India as well as a family surname. Shriniv ...

–

Sarod The sarod is a stringed instrument, used in Hindustani music on the Indian subcontinent. Along with the sitar, it is among the most popular and prominent instruments. It is known for a deep, weighty, introspective sound, in contrast with the sweet ...

Mikey McCleary Michael McCleary is a New Zealand songwriter, composer, performer, producer and director based in Mumbai, India since 2007. He has worked on a large number of advertisements such as for brands such as Levi's, Coca-Cola, Vodafone and films such ...

–

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

*Christy Samuels -

*Carry Hernley –

Saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

*Leigh Ann Woodard –

Oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double-reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common type of oboe, the soprano oboe pitched in C, ...

*Seetha Sivaswamy -

Flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

Production

*Producers:

*Executive Producer: Mohan Chopra *Engineers: H. Sridhar, Aditya Modi, S. Sivakumar, P. Deepak *Mixing:

*Mastering:

Design

*Artwork : Epigram *Photography: Akin

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pray For Me Brother Songs with music by A. R. Rahman Indian songs 2007 singles 2007 songs Universal Music Group singles