Watch Miguel’s Stirring, Politically Charged ‘Now’ Video
Miguel sheds light on the social injustice of immigration detention centers with his moving video for “Now,” the closing electro-soul ballad from his newly issued fourth LP, War & Leisure.
The singer-songwriter traveled to the California desert for the clip, performing the song at an October 20th political rally near the Adelanto High Desert Detention Center, a temporary home to roughly 2,000 federal immigration detainees predominantly from Mexico, Haiti and Central America.
Many of these spaces are closer to legitimate prisons: “How can somebody be kept for like nine years, four months? That’s not detention,” one speaker notes. From the stage, Miguel adds, “To see innocent people being ripped from their way of life to essentially be incarcerated and used as cheap labor is really crazy to me.”
Miguel spoke to Rolling Stone about the California event and how musical heroes like Prince, Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder inspired his own political awakening. “They all cared. It’s a human thing,” he said. “They all pushed the boundaries in their own way. They all challenged us to look at things a different way. I saw that from the artists I love, and I decided I want to do that. To be an artist is to deal with what’s happening in your time.”
The singer will promote War & Leisure with a lengthy, 34-date tour launching February 22nd in Portland and concluding April 12th in Berkeley, California.