The Boy Band On A Mission To Stop Brexit (HBO)
Posted
March 24, 2019
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20,107
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March 24, 2019
20,107
294
188
2.40%
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5:46Now PlayingGilles, Seyed, Hajo, Pablo and Joshua are the Breunion Boys. Brexit plus Union equals Breunion. Get it? They’re a Dutch boy band on a mission to stop the United Kingdom from leaving the European Union.
The music video for the band’s first single, Britain Come Back , features the five men, all in their 20’s, rolling around on a Dutch beach, pleading for a girl who’s sailing across the English channel, to come back.
“We’re cheeky as hell, like it’s funny but I mean this way you can actually open up a conversation,” Joshua Alagabe told VICE News. The band is using humor, catchy lyrics, and chiseled six packs, to spread a message about what they see as the downsides of Brexit for Europeans.
“I don't want to be a person that thinks like, ‘Oh yeah that happened we had something great and it got fucked up.’ And I did didn't do anything,” Julia Veldman, the creator of the band said. Veldman, who is a visual artist, was devastated by results of the 2016 Brexit vote and thought a boy band would be a quintessential British way to reach people’s hearts. She’s funding the project out of her own pocket and working with two friends who have joined the group to write lyrics and produce their music videos.
VICE News met up with the Breunion Boys as they prepared for their first UK performance at Liverpool University. The event, called Rock for Europe was hosted by anti-Brexit activists. It didn’t draw a huge crowd but the Breunion Boys managed to get people up off of the floor and dancing as they performed covers of classic Backstreet Boys and One Direction songs, as well as their two originals, Britain Come Back and The Real Deal.
“There’s a lot of people who are just tired by the whole discussion, right? A lot of people just think, ‘We’ve had enough’,” the band’s guitarist and lead singer, Gilles Meester, said.
The Breunion Boys are aware of the boy band risk of becoming a one hit wonder but say with the way Brexit had unfolded so far, their chances of staying relevant are good. “Let's put it in perspective,” one of the band members, Seyed Hosseini said. “What are the politicians doing right now? Are they making any progress in the Brexit debate? Is Theresa May coming back with great trade deals? Is there anything substantial going on that compared to us is more productive?”
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