Hidden Ones

Cause they made a choice Not to follow their leader But use one voice Shows ordinary people can make a really loud noise When the hidden ones speak up

Such a good song, such a strong message. Speak up, use your voice.

I love this song, each verse is a new issue that faces our communities/world and gives a message of empowerment that we can do something about it.

'she's holding a torch in her hand, pointing towards heaven, and on the streets below her people living out of trash cans are trying to believe shes got a plan' - image of the statue of liberty in New York as grand and a symbol of the nation but with so much poverty and despair among the people who slip through the governments system

'we dug a hole under the sea, and nobody knows how to stop the bleed' - talks about the oil spills that have happened recently and the changes we need to make that process safer for the environment

'there's 999 channels on my TV and i still have no idea what to believe' - impact of the media on our society and how it both shapes and confuses our opinions

'over the water to the east, two million in a square refuse to sleep until every pleading voice is heard and all the world has seen revolution pull a king down to his knees' - about the recent uprisings in the middle east of millions of individuals standing up to dictatorship and demanding freedom

'he started drinking too young, tucked into his jeans now is a gun, and the stories of his ancestors, they will never be sung, for he's going where they do not see the sun.' - a commentary on the current situation for many young indigenous Australians, with a cycle of alcohol and violence and a lack of support systems, their culture is being lost and the 'easy' option of shunning them or a life of crime resulting in prison is unfortunately all too common

The chorus is a call to arms from the individual that one person with seemingly no voice has the power to create change.

the bridge - lots of imagery of bright circus and 'the lion eats the clown, tell me who out there is leading on the ground, who will catch the boy before he drowns, if they're busy putting shows on for the crowd' depicts us all looking to better our own lives at the expense of others and that governments can rule us but it often feels like there is no control or implementation of this rule on the ground level in our communities. That so often the unheard voices get swallowed and the disadvantaged fall further into the background while the rest of us all spend our time trying to ensure we are look the best to the outside world as we can. That through this chaos of life we forget to look out for others and only look out for ourselves.

That these problems 'will just keep up' until the individual voice is ready to take a stand.

----- this is just my interpretation, feel free to add your own :)

Statue of Liberty in the first verse; the verse after that is about offshore oil drilling. Verse after the first chorus is about the Arab Spring. Then the boy with the gun is a reference to school shootings, with a possible emphasis on the plight of the Aboriginal people (And the stories of his ancestors / They will never be sung). The circus from the bridge is about the media circus / reality shows like the Kardashians, and how society lets troubled youth fall through the cracks while they're busy being distracted by things that do not concern them.

P.s. correction: "pull a king", not "fallen king". From official lyrics: http://missyhiggins.com/2012/06/set-me-on-fire/ (yup, that's the URL to Hidden Ones)