Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past few weeks, chances are you’re aware that the Winter Olympics are currently heating up in the Russian city of Sochi. Personally, I love the Olympic games. It’s a time for the international community to set aside their political differences and instead battle it out on the sports fields, tracks, mountains, hills, pools and arenas that surround the Olympic Villages. It’s heated, it’s competitive, and it’s breathtaking as we watch athletes push their bodies past the limit of what we think is possible.

But not all Olympics are created equal, as we have come to find out with the Sochi games. Marred by unfinished construction, shortsighted viewpoints and bad press, the XXII Winter Games has seen it’s fair share of harsh criticisms. Most notably, Putin’s anti-LGBT laws and his view on gay athletes competing in the country. It’s been a heated debate worldwide as some countries have spoken of boycotting the event altogether. And while that debate is beyond the scope of this blog, even musical acts are making their voices heard in opposition. Swedish pop group Urban Cone is one of those groups, releasing the brash, electronic single “Humanity” in defiance of Putin and his anti-gay sentiments. We come from a place where human rights are generally taken for granted, but it’s not like that everywhere in the world, and “Humanity” strives to get that point across in a very simple way.

“Today the Olympic games starts in a country where human rights are not something taken for granted. We made this song to express our frustration against the fact that you can’t love whoever you want. This is our statement, our way of saying – this is wrong.
LOVE // URBAN CONE”

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