A mere week ago Aussie folk-roots artist Shelley Segal premiered her debut video for her springy-pop ode ‘Morocco’ here on Tone Deaf, which was initially greeted with a positive reception having been viewed by tens of thousands of fans on YouTube.
The week following the release of the video saw the production stretch its wings to Europe and the seed of its origin, Morocco. French publication Afriquinfos (via The Music) berated the artist, writing poverty, gender inequality, sexual harassment and drug use are reported in the song of the artist”accusing Segal of casting Morocco as a dark and unstable nation.
Not entirely surprised, Segal attests these comments are a complete misrepresentation of her track’s meaning, “I can see how people who believed that I had set out to criticise Morocco could take this the wrong way. The issues that the song highlights are not specific to Morocco they exist in many places around the world, if not all to some extent.”
The catalyst for the track, as Segal cements, was inspired by a trip the songstress had taken in 2007, “I travelled to Morocco with two girlfriends. We visited Marrakech and Essaouira. The trip and my experiences there were the inspiration for the song.”
In her own words, the singer-songwriter recounted what she pertains to be the misinterpreted lyrics, spiking such controversy, “in the second verse I spoke about an 8-year old boy I met in the park with my friends who was homeless and had been sniffing glue. He wanted to sit and play music with us.”I contrasted this with the fun time and escapism that was offered to me a tourist in the chorus.”
Following the publication’s denouncement, comments begun to flood the YouTube page, attacking Segal, “yes we need moor people like you to show the world our miserable life!” whilst another crassly spat, “sorry girl, go suck another country, not my country bitch, NOT MY FUCKING COUNTRY.”
Responding to the flurry of Youtube attacks, Segal said that “most of the negative responses have been ad hominem attacks and I am not taking them personally, I have had my music out before and I understand that this can be the nature of YouTube comments.”
The songstress highlighted a particular faceless remark thrown her way, “one woman who posted the video with the words: ‘Who ate all the pies’ and I replied saying, ‘I guess that must be me. You know they say the camera adds 10 pies’, which I thought was quite funny! Then she responded by apologising and explained that she was having an angry moment.”
“I think some people forget that they are talking about a real person that might actually read what they are saying,” added Segal. “Some may truly want to be hurtful but I think that the anonymity of the internet encourages people to be crueler than they may have otherwise been.”
Segal further confirmed that such negative response will not get in her way, “this reaction won’t affect the way that I write songs. I like my music to be a reflection of my experience. I think a strong response is a good response as it means that what you are saying is resonating with people. There has been some positive and encouraging support as well.”
In closing, Segal firmly defended her piece of music, “I would like people to know that the song was not written to denounce Morocco or even to define it in any way. It was written to share a genuine reflection on my time there, which I found to be beautiful, sad, thought-provoking and powerful all at once.”
Such noise around the questionably controversial film clip has not stunted Shelley Segal’s future music endeavours, the artist stating, “my album, An Easy Escape is coming up for release on June 6th. I am very much looking forward to sharing the rest of the album. I’m running a pledge campaign to help with the release which is going well.”
If you’d like to be apart of Segal’s upcoming record An Easy Escape, jump over to her Pledge Music page.
Check out the video to ‘Morocco’ here:
