"To Be Human" lyrics

MARINA Lyrics

"To Be Human"

The pagodas and the palaces dressed in gold leaf
Hide the damages
Spot the Geisha as she balances
Life's a cakewalk, full of challenges

Go to Russia, see the Red Square
Lenin's body lying dead there
From Kyoto, Hiroshima
Watch the black cloud crawling nearer

There were riots in America
Just when things were getting better
All the things I've done and seen
Still I don't know what life means

All the people living in, living in the world today
We're united by our love, we're united by our pain (ooh)
All the things that I've done and I've seen
Still I don't know, don't know what it means

Fly to Athens, pass the Parthenon
See the village where my father's from
To Chicago from Angola
São Paulo to Verona

And anywhere you go, you'll see (o-o-oh)
People are just like you and me (o-o-o-o-o-o-oh)
All the things I've done and seen
Still I don't know what life means

All the people living in, living in the world today
We're united by our love, we're united by our pain (ooh)
All the things that I've done and I've seen
Still I don't know, don't know what it means
To be human
(Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, oh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, oh)
Still I don't know, don't know what it means
To be human, a real human being

I like to think about how we all look from afar
People driving fancy cars look like beetles to the stars
The missiles and the bombs sound like symphonies gone wrong
And if there is a God they'll know why it's so hard

To be human
(Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, oh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, oh)
To be hu-
Still, I don't know, don't know what it means
To be human, a real human being

I want connection (To be human)
I want to feel human again
Lost my direction (To be human)
I want to feel human again

To be human
To be human
To be human
To be human


Thanks to Jazmine Bennett, Angry Alexandria for correcting these lyrics.
Writer(s): Marina Lambrini Diamandis
A fragment of this song was uploaded by Marina to her Twitter and Instagram accounts on the 27th of March 2019. She also posted a short explanation video on Twitter with the caption "It's probably the most important song on the record for me."
Marina told about "To Be Human" the following, "I namecheck a lot of places around the world: São Paulo, Verona, Angola, Chicago, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Greece. And I think when I was writing that I wanted to create this picture of humanity, because in our political climate we are constantly being made to see other people as 'other'."
The first three lines of the song describe Japan which Marina likes very much. She even posted a message on Twitter on the 1st of December 2018 saying, "So happy to be back in Japan. I was conceived in Nagasaki! I'm a Nagasaki Babyyy."