Hawaiian Singer Makana Sings Bernie Sanders Anthem ‘Fire is Ours’ [Viral Video]

Makana – Hawaiian singer and slack key guitar player of fame – just spent $11,000 of his own money to produce an anthem for presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders.

Many people – especially Occupy members – will remember Makana’s brave stand on the stage at the Apec dinner in Honolulu Hawaii back in November 2011. He stood there for 45 minutes playing variations of his protest song “We Are the Many” to an assemblage of world leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama. The diners were totally unaware of the words he was singing at the time, even though he had opened his jacket to reveal his “Occupy with Aloha” t-shirt. A video about the Apec dinner is included at the end of this article.

As reported by Policy.Mic, he’s back in the political and protest frame of mind and has produced a music video, which is currently going viral, supporting presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Let’s say at this point, we known who singer and guitar player Makana will be voting for in the upcoming U.S. presidential primaries.

The song is titled “Fire Is Ours” and was uploaded to YouTube by Matthew “Makana” Swalinkavich on February 10. Reportedly the video received 25,000 views in just 24 hours and has been racking up the views ever since. The video is included here.

Makana told Hawaii News Now that he “became inspired” and ended up spending $11,000 out of his own pocket to make the video. His end goal for the Bernie Sanders anthem is simple, “I hope it gets people to get out to vote, to care, to exercise their democratic right.”

The video has been cleverly put together, showing Makana in the role of a moderator to the presidential debate and also as a newscaster. We also see him sitting at a piano, literally on fire, in the middle of an icy desert, singing his heart out.

Makana said in an email to his fans that he recently traveled from Hawaii to Los Angeles, where he performed at the Grammy Museum to celebrate the grand opening of a new exhibit honoring the “Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar” – an instrument he is accomplished at playing.

While he was there, he produced the new Bernie Sanders anthem, “Fire is Ours,” saying it was a “labor of love ‘guerrilla'” shot by a friend and himself. As part of the video, they took a 700 lb piano out into the icy desert and literally set it on fire, as he sung those famous words “feel the Bern.”

Makana was interviewed by Fox News on Tuesday and explained he became a Bernie Sanders supporter late last year.

He told them, “I started to see what was going on and [Sanders’] messaging, and it really resonated with the messaging that I had been singing about for a long time.”

“Something that was representing not the corporations and the big banks but the people and really standing up for the diminishing working class.”

Makana is not planning on making any money out of the Bernie Sanders anthem, as it is free to download from a link on the YouTube video page, and the lyrics are included, in full, below.

Lyrics:

I’ve been lied to. Misled.
Built up by what they said
Lifted only to be let down

I’ve been taken for a ride
Given power to decide
Only to find out I was wrong

But I’ve learned to tell the ones who fake it
From the few really fit to run

Just follow the money they’ve been takin’
And the truth will shine like the sun

I’m so tired of lies now babe
Don’t wanna compromise no way

And I feel the burn
For someone who can’t be bought
To back the man who’s fought
For the People of America

Color. Gender.
Who’s a bigger spender?
Party. Personality.

Soundbite. Get it right.
Entertain ’em, it’s a fight
Pick the one who most thinks like me

Don’t speak of any real solutions
It’s the shock appeal they’re looking for
Don’t criticize the institution
But I can’t take it anymore

Aren’t you tired of lies now baby?
It’s time for us to rise- no more maybe

And I feel the burn
For the truth to come across
To melt away the gloss
And reveal their motivations

And you’ll feel the burn
For integrity to lead
To focus on the needs
Of the People of America

Somebody’s tuggin’ at your heartstrings
Sayin’ what you wanna hear
But they’re just a pawn to the real kings
Playin’ upon your fear
The love of power is a puppet string
But can’t control the love we bring
The fire is ours
The hour is now
The tide is set to turn

And I feel the burn
To cast aside the chains
And salvage what remains
Of a dream worth defending

And you’ll feel the Bern
Standing up to greed
Word aligned with deed
Worthy President of America

[Photo via YouTube]