Press Announcement of New Climate Song I NEED AIR

Musician Bernadette La Hengst Previews I NEED AIR on European Balcony Project Day Prior to Release in Katowice, Poland for COP24

Hamburg – A new climate anthem, written by the German singer-songwriter Bernadette La Hengst as part of the Save the World festival 2018, will be previewed live to the public today at 4pm from the balcony of the Deutsches Schauspielhaus, the main theatre in Hamburg, Germany.

The performance, in support of the European Balcony Project which is happening at theatres across the Continent on 10 November, previews the song I NEED AIR. It will be officially released later in the month on the eve of the annual UN Climate Conference (COP24) happening in Katowice, Poland from 2-14 December. Here governments from around the globe will look to step up climate action via the landmark 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement

I NEED AIR, which goes into video production in cooperation with the City of Katowice in a few weeks’ time, will feature Ms La Hengst and youth choirs from the Polish city and the City of Bonn. I NEED AIR is the fifth climate song by Bernadette La Hengst and the Save the World festival. Last year she collaborated with Save the World by writing the song ‘I’m an Island’ which was performed at the opening of the UN Climate Conference (COP23) in Bonn with support from the German government’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.

Bernadette said:” Artists and musicians everywhere have an important role to play in mobilizing awareness and action on what is happening in society and across the globe. Climate change is not a simple, single issue but one we must address”. “At its core is how humanity can live together now and in the years and decades to come in a way that respects the beauty and wonder of our natural world while providing hope, dignity and respect for every man, woman and child—that has got to be worth fighting for,” she added.

The song can be heard and understood on different levels—it is a love song and it is a protest song. It also takes the theme of air pollution, one of the most shocking and direct manifestations of the impacts of burning fossil fuels. According to the World Heath Organization and its new campaign Breathe Life as many as seven million people world wide die as a result of air pollution set aside the many more whose bodies and health are damaged by it.

The Save the World festival 2018 is also holding a TEDx talk in Bonn on 17 November about the future of cities under the theme Smart Cities? Smart People! Good Climate.
The event is bringing experts and artists together as a further cultural contribution to climate action and in favour of a strong outcome at COP24 in Katowice.

Notes to Editors
The Save the World festival has been catalysing action through promoting closer collaboration between the arts, culture, science, experts and sustainability since 2014.

Bernadette La Hengst has been a collaborator with SAVE THE WORLD from its inception, often through an alter ego called the Climate Fairy. As a musician and director, she works on the interface of pop, performance and politics and has already written a number of songs about climate change. For the first edition of SAVE THE WORLD she wrote the song “Save the World with this Melody“. I NEED AIR is her fifth climate song. This year she also wrote the song “Wir sind die Vielen“ for the foundation FUTURZWEI which was also performed at the 240,000 strong UNTEILBAR demonstration in Berlin: thus contributing to the soundtrack of one of the biggest demonstrations in Germany of the past decades. Currently Bernadette La Hengst is performing in Falk Richter‘s production of Lazarus at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg. Premiere is on the 17th of November.

All Climate Hits by Bernadette La Hengst:

• • Short section of the new song „I Need Air“ in our Call for Entries
  • Opening of the COP23 in Bonn with „I am an Island“
  • SAVE THE WORLD – Climate hymn by Bernadette La Hengst & Nick Nuttall
  • SAVE THE WORLD – YOUNG PLANET, workshop “Climate & Mobility“
  • „Climate Astronauts“, winner of the worldwide youth music competition organised by the Climate Secretary oft he United Nations for the Climate Conference in Paris in Paris

Today’s performance in Hamburg links SAVE THE WORLD with the European Balcony Project. A proclamation and a manifesto for a united Europe by Ulrike Guérot, Robert Menasse and Milo Rau, will be read out in numerous European cities at the same time. At the Hamburg edition Bernadette La Hengst will perform her new climate-hit I NEED AIR for the COP24 for the first time publicly on the 10^th of November 2018 at 4 pm on the balcony of the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg.