The Fleetwood Mac Stevie Nicks has returned with a hard-hitting protest anthem for women’s rights.
The track, titled “The Lighthouse”, sees Nicks offer a guiding hand to the women of America, and tackles issues such as the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which ended the constitutional right to have an abortion. Co-written with Magnus Birgersson and Vincent Villuis, the track arrives with a stunning music video, featuring Nicks performing at the top of a lighthouse, surrounded by gothic candelabras and doves, the latter an iconic Nicks motif.
It’s also her first new music since the release of her Buffalo Springfield “For What It’s Worth” cover in 2022. “The Lighthouse” begins with a hushed piano melody and the crashing of waves, as the dictionary definition of the track’s title appears on screen: ‘a guide for weary travellers through stormy seas / a beacon of light providing a sense of direction, safety and hope / a powerful beam that illuminates a path from darkness and uncertainty toward light’.
With muted vocals, Nicks croons ‘I have my scars, you have yours…don’t let them take your power’. For the chorus, the percussion smacks like thunder and hypnotic guitar riffs rumble, as the melody takes an intense, stormy turn. Meanwhile, the video displays powerful footage of protests from around America.
“I wrote this song a few months after Roe v. Wade was overturned,” Nicks says in a statement. “It seemed like overnight, people were saying ‘What can we, as a collective force, do about this?’ For me, it was to write a song.
“It took a while because I was on the road. Then early one morning, I was watching the news on TV and a certain newscaster said something that felt like she was talking to me — explaining what the loss of Roe v. Wade would come to mean. I wrote the song the next morning and recorded it that night.”
She continues, “That was September 6th, 2022. I have been working on it ever since. I have often said to myself, ‘This may be the most important thing I ever do.’ To stand up for the women of the United States and their daughters and granddaughters — and the men that love them. This is an anthem.”
On October 12th, Stevie Nicks will feature as the musical guest on comedy-sketch show Saturday Night Live, her first time on the programme since 1983.
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