Celebrities Vow to Keep ‘The Promise’ of Chris Cornell’s Refugee Advocacy
The recent death of Chris Cornell was a loss felt by many who grew to love the man through his music, but Cornell also used his music as a way of helping out others as well. The singer wrote and recorded the title track to the film The Promise and he planned to use the proceeds from the song to help charities and children in need. The song and film did a great deal to shine a line on the Armenian Genocide as well as current atrocities happening in the world today, and in light of Cornell's recent passing, a number of celebrities have recorded a new video vowing to keep up the singer's advocacy.
Among those featured in the video are Cornell's longtime friend, actor Josh Brolin, as well as musician Serj Tankian, who had worked with Cornell on the music for The Promise. Other well known faces in the video include Cher, Elton John, Pharrell Williams, Jennifer Lopez, Christian Bale, George Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Tom Hanks and Oscar Isaac. Watch the video above.
At the time of the song's release, Cornell stated, "'The Promise' to me is mainly about paying homage to those we lost in the Armenian Genocide, but it's also about shining a light on more recent atrocities. The same methods used in the Armenian genocide were used to carry out crimes against humanity in Bosnia, Darfur, Rwanda and right now in Syria on multiple fronts, contributing to a massive global refugee crisis. Unfortunately, the words 'never again' seem like just words when we recall these mass executions of the twentieth century, as well as renewed racism and prejudice around the world."
He continued, "Even in the US, the warning signs -- isolating groups based on race and religion -- are evident. We really need to tell these stories and keep telling them in as many different ways as we can. As humans, we have a tremendous capacity to trudge ahead in our lives and not look at the difficult and challenging moments... but I think it's important. Educating ourselves on the past is the best way to understand the present and avoid future atrocities by understanding and intervening. We must educate and stand as one to combat this fear and violence, and as citizens of the world, work to protect each other's human rights."
Just this past April, Cornell and his family toured refugee camps in Greece and while visiting the singer and his wife decided to focus the efforts of their Chris and Vicky Cornell Foundation toward helping the child refugees and the issues affecting them, including education, health care and human trafficking.
Even though the movie came out earlier in the year, Cornell had expressed his desire for the video for "The Promise" to arrive on World Refugee Day, and Survival Pictures released the clip on the singer's behalf. You can watch the stirring video in the player below. As stated, all of Cornell's proceeds from this song will go to help in ending the worlds refugee crisis.
In addition to looking into the works of the Chris and Vicky Cornell Foundation, we urge you to visit the sites for Refugee Rescue, Human Rights Watch and Doctors Without Borders.
Chris Cornell, "The Promise"
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