Sunday, Bloody Sunday

 „I can’t believe the news today
Oh I can’t close my eyes and make it go away
how long, how long must we sing this song?...“

I am sure most of you know these lyrics. They belong to the famous song „Sunday, Bloody Sunday“ by U2. When I first heard this song, it did not have any meaning to me – I just found it was a really catchy song. However, after having learnt about the song’s background in my English class at university, it will never sound the same to me. That is why I would like to make you familiar with the reason why “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” was written; with the sad story that its lyrics tell.  

The song is about Sunday, January 13^th 1972. The period from the late 1960s until the end of the 20^th century was a time of ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland. This conflict is also known as The Troubles. Basically, the reason for this conflict were tensions between the protestant and catholic inhabitants of Northern Ireland. While the protestant majority of NI mainly wanted it to remain part of the United Kingdom, the Catholic minority wanted NI to become part of the Republic of Ireland. This is why Northern Irish Protestants were also called unionists or loyalists and the Catholics, on the other hand, were called nationalists or republicans.  

In 1968, Northern Ireland had been ruled by a majority of unionists for over fifty years. The parliament’s attempts to solve social and political problems, such as institutional discrimination against Catholics, were too slow for nationalists and too quick for many unionists. This gave rise to violence between the two groups.

On  Sunday, January 13^th 1972 a peaceful Civil Rights March, that was part of a campaign for equality between Protestants and Catholics, was organized in Derry. Since the protestors were redirected by the British Army, they could not reach their original destination. However, some teenagers tried to get there nevertheless and on their way they threw stones at the police. The police started using water cannons, tear-gas and rubber balls against the rioters, but soon the situation got out of hand and the Parachute Regiment started firing against the crowd. As a result, 13 unarmed civilians were killed. 

Understandably, the Irish population was shocked facing such violence. As a consequence of the events of “bloody Sunday”, the nationalist’s resentment and  hostility towards the Army grew and the conflict between the two Northern Irish communities deteriorated. 

The Troubles are generally seen as having ended with the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. 


Maybe now you see why this song gives me chills every time I hear it. The sad truth is that the starting lines of “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” contain so much truth. Every day the news tell us about shootings, killings, fights or terrorist attacks. And sadly, Bono is also right by saying we become immune to all of this. Since we read about new atrocities every day, we  start looking away.

What makes such conflicts even worse is when they are seemingly fought over religion. I really find it terrible and very sad that people in power often use religion to divide people. Because after all, you don’t have to be a genius to understand that all religions have one basic idea in common - compassion. Sadly, most of the events we hear about on the news do not have anything to do with this principle. 

Because We Can!

On Friday, May 17, immediately after Russian class I rushed to Vienna to visit the Bon Jovi concert.

After waiting for about an hour sandwiched between loads of fans in front of the entrance, my two friends and I finally entered the main concert area in Krieau, Vienna. Usually, horse races take place in this area. This fact caused some worries to Jon Bon Jovi, who is highly allergic to horses. Therefore, the rain, which set in as soon as the performance started, was gladly welcomed by the singer. He stated that he had never been so happy about rain before. The rain eased his allergy and nothing could stop him from entertaining his fans.

He managed to captivate the audience by presenting a blend of old and new songs, among them the super hits “Living on a Prayer”, “You Give Love a Bad Name”, “We Weren’t Born to Follow” and more recent songs like “What About Now” and “Because We Can”, which also serves as motto of his tour.

His sunny mood and bright smile contrasted with the weather. While the rain started out as a drizzle in the first hour of the show, it increased during the later part of the performance. Nevertheless, Jon Bon Jovi kept rocking, jumping, joking and flirting with his female fans. He also told some girls, who were standing beneath a shelter, not to be “chickens” and to “get the f*** out in the rain”, since he wasn’t complaining or stopping his performance either. Regardless of the pouring rain, the show went on for 2,5 hours, including four encores.

My friends an I were affected by Jon’s attitude and energy and we were encouraged to dance, jump, clap, scream and sing along just like the rest of the audience, even when we were sharing a raincoat in the last third of the concert.

Light and video effects and the impressive stage design (which looked like the huge front of a car) supported their vivid performance and even sparked the excitement of some beer and popcorn sellers, who suddenly didn’t seem as interested in their jobs anymore and just stopped to gaze at the stage.

I think it’s safe to claim that the majority of the 55 000 visitors enjoyed the concert. 

      As for our impression: we definitely 

                  HAD A NICE DAY :)          

Summer Hit 2013

"Here’s To Never Growing Up" – that’s the name of Avril Lavigne’s brand new single which has been released today! 

I’m not a hard core Avril Lavigne fan, but I like most of her songs and her music has kind of accompanied me while growing up…

I also associate her songs with starting to learn and love the English language. This might be because the first time I’ve heard about Avril Lavigne was in the first grade of high school. I had a young and ambitious English teacher and she tried to spark our excitement for English by giving us fill-in-the-blank lyrics of songs and having us complete them while listening. The first song was “My Happy Ending” by Avril Lavigne.  I really liked the song and bought her album “Under my skin” (I think that was one of the first CDs I bought). Later that year we were asked to do a presentation about our favorite artist and I did it about the Canadian singer-songwriter Avril Lavigne. I think what appealed to me was her natural style and the catchy tune of her songs.

I came across Avril’s songs in many situations of my life:

- I loved to sing “Complicated” and “My Happy Ending” at the PlayStation game “SingStars”.
- At a kid’s holiday camp I befriended a girl who was absolutely crazy about Avril Lavigne and even tried to look and dress like her.
- In 2007 I finally received a new “fashionable” mobile phone which was able to play downloaded mp3 files and could receive them via Bluetooth (oh, I remember all of this was so exciting back then!!) The first song a friend sent me was “Girlfriend”.
- The first concert I went to was Avril Lavigne playing in Leoben in 2008. (Among thousands of fans I even accidently met the girl I mentioned before!)
- I like to watch movies and Avril wrote two songs for movie soundtracks: “Keep Holding On” for the movie adaption of “Eragon” and “Alice” for the remake of “Alice in Wonderland”, directed by Tim Burton.

I have bought all of her albums so far (“Let Go”, “Under My Skin”, “The Best Damn Thing” and “Goodbye Lullaby”) and the funny thing is I never liked all of the songs instantly, but as time went by my taste changed and so there always were some songs I liked at a certain stage of my life.

A few days ago I got to know that her new single “Here’s To Never Growing Up” would be released on the 9^th of April, so today I thought I’d check it out. I’ve just listened to it for the first time and it seems to be a catchy, infectious, feel good song and I don’t know if it’s due to the first rays of sun that have brightened my mood immensely in the last few days but anyhow, I think this could become a summer hit song for 2013. 

If you're curious now - check it out: :)

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1556659/avril-lavignes-heres-to-never-growing-up-lands-early-listen