In 1986, José Luis Perales included on his album ‘Con el paso del tiempo’ a song called ‘Let the children sing’ that said: «Let the children who live in peace and those who suffer pain sing, let them sing for those who will not sing because they have muffled their voice». Written in his own handwriting to pay tribute to the solidarity work of Aldeas Infantiles, the song is sadly still valid almost forty years later and has now served to encourage the Ukrainian people to deal with the difficult situation faced by their little ones, victims of injustice. of a war that is stealing their most precious days.
One year after the invasion of Ukraine, boys and girls from a Kiev music school have covered the Perales anthem to ask for peace, in an initiative that arises from the Cultura Contra Balas association and that has the support of SOS Children’s Villages, which owns the copyright of the theme and has supported the idea by assigning them.
The video was recorded in November 2022 by students of the Notas Alegres music school in kyiv, in the center of the capital. The boys and girls rehearsed the song by José Luis Perales, illuminating the notes with the flashlights of their mobiles in the darkness of the anti-aircraft shelter and accompanied by sirens.
«For these children between the ages of five and seventeen, who experience the atrocities of war on a daily basis, music is a force for transformation and hope; learning the song in Spanish was an exciting challenge and today is his call to all of society to stop indifference; They want to teach us that culture is their tool against the brutality of war and that despite the darkness and cold they continue to sing and create music, hoping that the children of Spain and the whole world will unite their voices so that peace comes”, they explain from the Cultura Contra Balas association.
José Luis Perales himself wanted to join the initiative by sending a message of encouragement: «I feel a deep emotion to see that a song can serve to alleviate in some way the great pain of children in this cruel war, of which they are victims. My solidarity and affection to the Ukrainian people. Peace for Ukraine”.
