Ecolint, the International School of Geneva, has an early childhood campus called Pregny. It’s a wonderful school, dedicated to play and cooperation and creativity. I’ve performed there several times over the last few years.
The last time I was there, in spring of 2017, the staff had asked me for a song about making change that young children could relate to. I wrote this as I walking to the school in the morning.
It’s a simple song, a zipper song. It started out as “Who’s Gonna Do It? You and Me” but I’ve since changed it to “Who’s Gonna Change It? You and Me.” It seems more specific and takes away the ambiguity of “do it.”
As I was singing the song at Pregny, I solicited ideas from kids about what to change. One boy, no more than five, said, “Plastics.” I replied, “So, use less plastic?” He said, quite definitively, “No. No more plastic. At all.” I used his words, and admired how certain he was. And, with all we’ve come to know about how plastic is affecting our oceans and our land, he was ahead of his time.
A shout out to Alex Sabbag for his suggestion in the song. He’s a fine teacher there.
Another fun part of the song is the little 7th that is in the melody on the third line. Makes it a little blusier, and kids and grownups like that feeling. We also translated it into French, but I haven’t quite got that well enough to include it.
Who’s Gonna Change It?
Who’s gonna change it. You and me.
Who’s gonna change it? You and me.
Make the world a better place for us to be.
Who’s gonna change it? You and me.
What a great song to come across this afternoon! I will add it to my repertoire immediately!
So singable and positive!
Great song! Once again!
Love this!!
Thanks Stuart, for anther terrific song!