Did you hear Bryan Adams’ new song this summer? It’s called 51st State, and its pretty much exactly what you’d expect, it’s a song about sticking it to Trump and saying “We’ll never be the 51st state.” Y’know, it isn’t his best work, but the message alone makes it a groovy listen.
But it got me thinking, about the whole thing. We’re a different country, I know that, and you know that, but there are people who don’t know that. Namely that big orange guy down south. But one thing I think is important to differentiate us, is the character of our superstars.
Now I want to make one thing clear before going any further, none of this is meant to put down people, it’s meant to lift people up. Specifically, the same guy I mentioned earlier, Bryan Adams. You know his hits, you’ve heard them before, it’d be an insult to you, and a waste of my time to tell you about who he is. But beyond his music, he’s a real environmental activist.
Do you remember a couple years ago, when everyone was getting on Taylor Swift’s case for her carbon emissions? And honestly, rightfully so. She is an incredible star, blowing the roof off stadium after stadium. But that comes at a cost, not just her jetting around, but how much energy does it cost to run her shows? I actually googled it, and it came back with 10000 kWh for her shows on the Eras tour. Which was the one that everyone was thrown into a frenzy over. One group figured that the amount of energy she used while in the UK could power over 100 homes for a year across the pond.
That’s a lot, and again, I want to stress, this is not a hit piece, that would imply its untrue. But no, this is a fact of modern touring. Big shows take a lot of electricity to pull off, and Bryan Adams is no different. I mean he was at one point the biggest star in the world, his footprint would be gigantic by now right? Well, he does what he can to offset it. He actually uses solar power to keep his shows going. He also partners with shipping companies to plant trees, again in an effort to offset his carbon footprint, pretty literally by attempting to mitigate the carbon he releases while touring. And finally, not just as an animal rights activist, he has been vegan for 30 years! I could never, but he sees a plant burger across the room and he’s gotta run to it. Stupid pun aside, it’s cool to see a superstar like him care. It shows that you can take the person out of BC but you cannot beat the hippie upbringing out of them with a hammer.