New Pussy Riot single

Madonna shows her support for the trio as the band releases ‘Putin Lights Up The Fires’...

The Hot Press Newsdesk, 20 Aug 2012

Pussy Riot have released a new single, the aptly-titled ‘Putin Lights Up The Fires’, as a riposte to three of their members being found guilty of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.”

One of the first to react to the guilty verdict was Madonna, who’d previously showed her support for Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alekhina, and Yekaterina Samutsevich at her Moscow show by donning a balaclava, and turning round to reveal the words ‘Pussy Riot’ stamped on her back.

“I protest the conviction and sentencing of Pussy Riot to a penal colony for two years for a 40-second performance extolling their political opinions,” she says. “Even if one disagrees with the location or how they chose to express themselves, the sentence is too harsh and in fact is inhumane. I call on all those who love freedom to condemn this unjust punishment. I urge artists around the world to speak up in protest against this travesty. They've spent enough time in jail. I call on all of Russia to let Pussy Riot go free."

According to the Hollywood Reporter’s Russian translator, the lyrics read as follows:

“The state time in prison

The more arrests – the less happiness

And every arrest - with the love of a sexist

We swinging our cheeks, chests and tummies

But we can not be released out of the box

officers overthrew the better and grander

Putin ignites the fires of revolution

He was bored and frightened people in to silence

Whatever punishment he had – that rotten ash,

With no time in many years – the reason for pollution

Chorus

The country is going, the country goes to the streets with audacity

The country is going, the country is going to say goodbye to the regime,

The country is going, the country is a wedge of feminists

And Putin is going, Putin is going, leave cattle

Arrested May 6th, the whole city

7 years not enough for us – give us 18

The ban for yelling, slandering, and walking,

Go take the old Lukashenko's wife

Chorus

The country is going, the country going to the streets with audacity