Stevie Nicks shines her light into the US’s anti-abortion debate
Written by Kai Palmer on 27th September 2024
Singer Stevie Nicks performing on stage.
“I want to be the lighthouse / Bring all of you together”: Stevie Nicks, the transcendent songstress of Fleetwood Mac legend, has released her first single in two years, raising her own flag for women’s rights in the teeth of America’s anti-abortion court ruling.
The Lighthouse is Nicks’ protest against the American Supreme Court’s decision, in June, to overturn its own 1973 Roe vs Wade ruling, which gave US women a general constitutional right to abortion .
The Edge of Seventeen writer and singer released a short video teaser on Wednesday night, which featured her silhouetted inside a lighthouse, against the lyrics “I want to teach you to fight”.
Nicks explained on Instagram: “I wrote this song a few months after Roe v. Wade was overturned […] This may be the most important thing I ever do: to stand up for the women of the United States.”
The Lighthouse continues Nicks’ track record as a true defender of women’s rights, and the compelling track begins with that notion of shared compassion: “I have my scars, you have yours” as Nicks sings hushed and intimately.
The Fleetwood Mac superstar had already offered a glimpse of the song back in 2022, in the run-up to the US mid-term elections.
Fleetwood Mac (left to right) Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham and John McVie, together in 2018 in New York.
Initially called Get It Back, the poem was the blueprint for what has become The Lighthouse.
The song’s release was accompanied on social media by another cinematic trailer featuring a ferocious, crashing sea with The Lighthouse stand among it.
As it turns out, this was a snippet of the song’s music video, which must be watched to understand the anger that comes with the track.
Nicks performed at Hyde Park in London this summer and urged festival-goers to vote.
Steve Nicks performing at Hyde Park in July (Kai Palmer, 2024)
The Lighthouse ends with the words, “You better learn how to fight, you better say it out loud”. The message is clear.
Nicks is set to perform on Saturday Night Live (SNL) on October 12, along with Ariana Grande. It’s the first time she’ll have appeared on the show since 1983.
