I have told you this before. I don’t read news. Or, at least, I seldom read news. The papers are always filled with horrid and sad stories, and I don’t think the world becomes a better place by dwelling too much on such matters. Still, there are some stories that push through, of course. I’m not neglecting my duty to take part in the responsibilities I have to check in on what’s going on in the world. I just don’t think that news about drugged car drivers or street fighting between adolescents are that important to stay updated about. But the big news reach me - and the big news are very often heartbreaking.
We know Aurora feels the same way. The day-to-day matters of the news media bring her down if she dwells on it, but she has found an outlet for the emotional impact these stories have made on her: She writes about it to get them out of her system. You don’t have to look at many interviews before you stumble upon her touching on this topic.
Now - Fabrice has a very interesting theory for us. We can not know the facts for sure, of course, but he gives us enough “evidence” to buy the story. This is why we chose to write about “Through The Eyes Of A Child” this time.
Check out the performance evolution over the years
16th of March 2016 - Release date
To the 405, she had only one thing to say about this song: "This is a very important song for me." (^27.1). A closer look at the history of this song, clearly shows this as an understatement. In a longer interview with FaceCulture at Eurosonic Festival in 2016, she elaborated upon this a bit:
"My first album will be released The 11th of March. It's a nice day. I love the number 11. It's my favorite number. Two ones... The most difficult song was also the most easy song, because it was a really strong emotion... It almost burned me up from the inside. It was really strong. I had to write it down.
It's the song that means the most to me on the record. It's called "Through the eyes of a child". It's about wishing to see the world through the eyes of a child. To only see the beauty and the kindness, and not everything else. It means a lot to me." (^27.2)
To show you how much she means this, I included a clip from her performance of this song at Tivoli Vredenburg in 2016. Notice how she, like a child, takes hold of her teddy bear. Take also notice of how she seeks comfort by pressing the teddy bear to her chest. This is clearly very emotional to her.
"I care a lot about people's inner child and I am very determined to never lose my inner child. I get why we need all these layers to survive. It is a very tough world [and] I think sometimes we forget that child, sometimes we lose it and I think that's a bad thing.”(^27.4)
Fabrice’s theory
After this great introduction by Rune, I’m gonna try to explain what I think is the reason why Aurora wrote this song, the video above (merging of 4 different extracts) is here to support my theory. To clarify a little more, this is NOT an attempt at interpreting the song, I’m just trying to understand what led Aurora to write it in the first place.
Let's start at when she wrote it. The discussion panel in the first part of the video gives us a clue when they’re talking about the release of AMDGMAAF and the writing of “Through the eyes of a child” : to make it short (see the video for more details), they say that “Through the eyes” was written a few months before the release of the album.
Aurora confirms it in the second extract (Brighton, October 2016) when she says she wrote it "last year at this time". So basically, we know it was written during the fall of 2015. She also gives a few more clues, like "something horrible just happened ... closer to us". In the 3rd extract (Stavanger, December 2016), she basically says "we're lucky to live in Norway" (27.4).
At this point, I already had a theory, because that was the only thing that made sense (to me, at least) regarding what was already said and the lyrics themselves : there was one big crisis in 2015, the migrants crisis, and its most poignant manifestation was this picture of a child who drowned and was washed up on a beach (his name was Alan Kurdi, look it up if you don't know what I'm talking about). This happened in September 2015, so the dates definitely match. If I'm right, this could give a whole new meaning to the "please, don't leave me here" ending ...
The last hint I got (which finally prompted me to make the above video) is actually recent : the concert in “Sky Children Of The Light”. It's the 4th and last extract in the video. I don't think I need to elaborate much more on how the portraying of “Through the eyes” in this event is very relevant to what I just explained.
Anyway, whether I'm right or completely off track (despite the "evidence"), and as usual with Aurora, it's possible (maybe even likely) that the song, in the end, means much more than what it was written for in the first place, and everyone can and will find their own interpretation of the song (which, once again, is not the goal of this “explanation”).
And to end this newsletter, I’d like to redirect you to this very emotional performance of the song (Rome, January 2019), which definitely needs to be seen (if you have not yet). And with this, we’re back to Childlike Soul’s introduction, and how much this song actually meant to Aurora …
One More Thing
I got this message sent to me, asking me to share it with you.
Have u got tickets to @auroramusic Stavanger show 16.03.24?
Are u also in town already the day before, Friday 15.03?Come and join us at the Stavanger Meet Up for the Warriors & Weirdos!
The place is called GNU BAR.In addition to meeting up with old friends and get the chance to make new friends, we have amazing prizes to GIVE AWAY 🤩
These AMAZING artists have donated their original work to give to u:
Concert pics taken from Aurora shows at Portør and Kongsberg last year by @fokus_foto and @vituper
Art pics by @samsoedraws and @aurora8team
And ofc The Gods We Can Touch book
FREE ENTRANCE
(you must be over 20 years old to enter the bar)Can’t wait to see you all there 🤩!
Final words
This wraps up this letter to you.
I have just one more thing I would like to say about Through The Eyes Of A Child:
I LOVE IT!
This song speaks to me on more levels than I can even begin to comprehend myself. I hope they play it at my funeral some day. This song is what made me begin with social media in the first place. This is where the name of all my accounts and newsletter stems from. As long I have this song in my life, I’ll be fine 🥰
Thank you for being here.
Have a day
Rune
I would love to hear your opinion about this song and/or the the theory presented here
Sources
27.1 - 405, Track by track
27.2 - FaceCulture interview, 2016
27.3 - Independent interview
27 - Aurora, Through the eyes of a child, Vevo
27.4 - Fabrice’s compilation to explain his theory: