Janelle Monae: “Turntables” (2020)
“What is a revolution without a song?”, pondered Jenelle Monae after she was asked to provide one for the documentary All In: The Fight for Democracy.
The film deals with Georgia’s 2018 gubernatorial race in which Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s actions–incompetence or outright voter suppression, or a combination thereof–resulted in 300,000 Georgians being incorrectly deemed ineligible to vote.
When the film was in production, and co-producer Stacey Abrams asked Monae for a song, it roused her from an uninspired period, creatively speaking, at the height of Covid.
“Turntables” was just the anthem the film required. And (unfortunately) it feels no less required in the present moment.
Every Moment Has A Song 