In the ten months since the junta’s coup, Myanmar’s musicians have produced over a dozen anti-regime revolutionary songs to strengthen anti-coup spirit and maintain the momentum of the resistance to military rule.
On Friday, two of the country’s most famous rockers, Lynn Lynn and R Zar Ni, released This Must be the Last, the latest anti-junta song.
Uploaded on WECLICK4MM, a fundraising channel for the anti-regime movement, the video for This Must be the Last was viewed nearly half a million times within 12 hours of its Friday release, with the number of viewings increasing all the time.
Lynn Lynn and R Zar Ni said that all of the money made from the song will go to support Myanmar’s revolutionary movement.
With powerful lyrics like “In this country, loving kindness has always been killed by injustice”, and “Hook up your future in your hands, that is the devil-clearance game”, the song reflects on the junta’s brutal crackdowns against peaceful protesters and the growth of the resistance movement against military rule.
Myanmar’s military seized power from the civilian National League for Democracy (NLD) government on February 1, detaining State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint, and ending freedom of expression in the country.
The release of Lynn Lynn and R Zar Ni’s song on Friday coincides with the nationwide Silent Strike, when Myanmar people are showing their “loudest defiance against the junta by participating in the Silent Strike and staying home and refusing to go out,” singer and song composer Lynn Lynn told The Irrawaddy. He played the music for the song.
Since last week, democracy supporters have called on the Myanmar people to join the Silent Strike to challenge the military regime.
The song says that “we are in solidarity [with the pro-democracy movement] and the lyrics reflect the truth that we, Myanmar, witness and share, and therefore I sang it wholeheartedly,” said singer R Zar Ni, who sings on the song with Lynn Lynn.
Writing and recording the song took almost nine months as both Lynn Lynn and R Zar Ni are in hiding, after arrest warrants were issued against them in April for speaking out against the coup.
Soon after the military takeover, celebrities from the world of music, movies, art and literature joined the anti-coup protesters taking to the streets in Yangon and across the country.
Lynn Lynn and R Zar Ni were among the people protesting the coup. Both have since been charged with incitement under Article 505(a) of the Penal Code.
Many artists urged civil servants to join the Civil Disobedience Movement, and nearly 100 artists and celebrities are now the subject of arrest warrants. Some were arrested, with around a dozen still in detention, while others went into hiding, like Lynn Lynn and R Zar Ni.
The junta has banned the showing, broadcasting or publishing of works by artists arrested or wanted for their involvement in anti-regime activities.
Lynn Lynn composed the lyrics to This Must be the Last in March, after witnessing the military’s atrocities in late February. The song was finally completed earlier this month.
“There is solidarity and there is strength which is different from my previous songs,” explained Lynn Lynn, who has also written songs for his collaborator R Zar Ni.
Both singers have worked on NLD electoral campaigns since 2012. Lynn Lynn was a bodyguard for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi during the 2012 by-elections and the 2015 general election.
Although they are unable to perform in public, the pair are continuing to write songs, with more to be released soon.
On Friday, they expect one million views of their song and the money it makes will “provide 100 per cent support to any needs in our revolution,” said Lynn Lynn.
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