No Subtext Needed: Gordon Koang Takes on “Coronavirus”

<p> For Australia-based South Sudanese singer/songwriter Gordon Koang, the direct route was the best one. After a year of canceled shows, living in the outskirts of Melbourne, unable to play in Australia and unable to visit family in Africa, Koang and his cousin Paul Biel wrote a song directed right at the scourge of 2020 (and also a lot of 2021). </p> <figure><iframe loading="lazy" scrolling="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/1077205450&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true" width="100%" height="300" frameborder="no"></iframe></figure> <div><a href="https://soundcloud.com/musicinexileau" title="Music in Exile" target="_blank">Music in Exile</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/musicinexileau/gordon-koang-coronavirus" title="Gordon Koang - Coronavirus" target="_blank">Gordon Koang - Coronavirus</a></div> <p><br></p> <p>Bob Dylan, even at his most direct early days, could never have approached this one. <br> </p> <p>Gordon Koang is no stranger to addressing dark topics in his songwriting, drawing out hope in the face of the civil war that displaced him from East Africa to Australia (where, fortunately, African music is still flourishing). <br> </p> <p>Penned in July of last year, the song thankfully already has the feel of an artifact of the era, but the grief and frustration of the global pandemic are bound to linger even once—or if—worldwide vaccination levels put COVID-19 in the rearview mirror. <br> </p> <p>The song comes out on a double-A-sided release Aug. 4 <a href="https://musicinexile.com.au/">via Music in Exile</a>. </p>