
Can You Write an Uplifting Song About the Climate Crisis? Student Zitong (Selina) Zhang talks about the inspiration behind her new song Life, a meditation on climate change and its impact on our world.
By
Tori Donahue
May 20, 2022
Zitong (Selina) Zhang
Image courtesy of the artist
Sixth-semester student Zitong (Selina) Zhang took inspiration from the beauty and vulnerability of the world around her to write her new song Life, a meditative reflection on the cycles of life and the impact of climate change.
A songwriting major from Beijing, China, Zhang submitted the song as an entry for Berklees Songs for Social Change contest, impressing Mark Simos, the contests faculty facilitator. She also performed the song at the recent Earthapalooza showcase with a nine-piece backing band helping to drive home the powerful effect of lyrical refrains such as, Life is endless, day and night, and, Praise life and release nature.
Berklees Media Relations team spoke to Zhang about the inspiration and creative process that goes into writing a song about such a difficult topic, as well as the tools shes learned from Berklee to enhance her musical and creative abilities.
Listen to Life on Berklees Songs for Social Change SoundCloud playlist and watch Zhangs Earthapalooza performance on Vimeo (at the 2:22:00 mark).
You submitted the song Life, a reflection on climate change and its impact on our world, for this year's Songs for Social Change songwriting competition. Why did you choose this subject for your submission? The reason why I submitted Life is because I think social change can be expounded and acted upon from various perspectives and angles in a broader scale, among which climate change and its impact on our world would also be an inseparable part of social change. Imagine as if our whole society is an organic organism, and every department of the organism existed for the survival of each organic entity. Whether we are flowers or trees, animals or humans, we are an indispensable component of this life circle.
What inspired you to write Life ? I particularly loved your descriptions of nature's many wonders followed by lyrics like appear, disappear, survive, destroy -how did you come up with this contrast? How do you reflect this contrast in your performance? From a literal perspective, the special inspiration of this song stems from the precious and priceless natural landscape that we can see every day in our daily routines, but coincidentally becomes the most easily ignored part of the world for us. For example, as mentioned in my lyrics, earth, sky, mountains and rivers; jade tree, scorching sun, wind flower, snow moon, -their changing processes, a result of climate change, are reflected in the lyrics appear, disappear, survive, destroy.
All things in the world have balance, and balance is harmony. In the performance, the most obvious way I reacted to this contrast is the change from the last chorus to the outro. With the increasing speed of the chorus and the continuous rising tone, the appeal becomes increasingly stronger and stronger, and particularly conveys the message of life being like a wave with an ebb and flow-until the final part of the outro expresses that we will find the unity of life when we return to the purest and most tranquil spaces in our hearts.
You performed with nine backing musicians at this year's Earthapalooza concert. How did you conceptualize the instrumentation of the song? For the instrumentation of this song, each instrument plays their own unique language. In addition to several indispensable but traditional musical instruments, one highlight is the addition of several national percussion instruments, such as the Chinese kit, gong, and rain stick. The arrangement of [the songs] instrumentation is not convoluted; it interprets cultural charm while also highlighting musical expressiveness. I have always wanted to better integrate the traditional culture and music of China and show it to an audience. This is inter-complementary to the big topic of Life.
I want to thank Associate Professor Kevin Block-Schwenk for giving me this special opportunity to perform. And I also appreciate my excellent band-I couldnt have done this without them!
Has anyone at Berklee-faculty, staff, or student-influenced your performance style and themes in your music throughout your time here? My studies at Berklee have made a great impact on my performance and music style. They have given me the drive to constantly explore and practice relentlessly. In particular, I would like to thank several people who have had a far-reaching impact on me and my mindset. The first is Associate Professor Ben Camp. I think he is very special, resourceful, and talented. I feel so grateful that I took his course, Stealing from the Masters, last semester. The content of this class is divided into three parts: past, present, and future. In the future section, it unconsciously had me thinking, What will the future development of Chinese music be like? And it became one of the driving inspirations for me to complete Life.
I would also like to thank Rob Lewis ['94] and Ash Rodriguez [B.M. '10]. In their event for Career Jam, The Show, the whole process of the concert was like a hallmark, offering profound help and influence on my current and future musical path. They urged us to think and helped us translate our visions into live performances. Rob and Ash also encouraged us to constantly uncover and improve our uniqueness by discovering our most suitable place in the ever-changing music arena. I love them so much! Truly, every professor, student, and the whole environment of Berklee has had an influence on me.
What is coming up for you next, both in your studies at Berklee and in your own creative pursuits? I graduate from Berklee in a year. I feel
North America Stories
14/06/2026
HBO Comedy Rooster Shot with URSA Cine 17K 65
Brie Clayton June 14, 2026
0 Comments
Large format brings viewers intimately close to characters.
Black...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...
12/06/2026
The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...
12/06/2026
PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...
12/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...
12/06/2026
Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...
12/06/2026
Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...
12/06/2026
MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...
12/06/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...
12/06/2026
Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...
12/06/2026
Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...
12/06/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...
12/06/2026
Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...
12/06/2026
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...
12/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...
12/06/2026
At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...
12/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
12/06/2026
Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...
12/06/2026
SVP, Production, Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it has given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what o...
12/06/2026
For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...
12/06/2026
URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...
12/06/2026
MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...
12/06/2026
AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro
Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...
12/06/2026
Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AgentPerf from Artificial Analysis, the industry's first agentic AI benchmark, gives developers, enterprises and infrastructure providers a clear way to com...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils First-Look Images from Villaflor, Santiago Mitre's New Film
Entertainment
12 June 2026
GlobalArgentina
Link copied to ...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Cross the Boundaries of the Real World into the Spirit Realm i...
12/06/2026
A fentanyl countermeasure that adapts to combat future black-market drugs Scripps Research scientists developed a vaccine that teaches the immune system to rapi...
11/06/2026
The immense size of the tourney and its Atlantic-spanning operation also disting...
11/06/2026
Nielsen has released a new soccer fandom consumer research report, The Fans Behind The Game: FIFA World Cup 2026 Edition, examining the soccer audience in the...
11/06/2026
Telemundo will launch its FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage on Thursday, June 11 with...
11/06/2026
FuboTV Inc. has announced a distribution agreement with NBCUniversal. Fubo customers can now stream Telemundo and Universo, with NBC Sports Network (NBCSN), NBC...
11/06/2026
DAZN has announced its in-app features for FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage in Spain...
11/06/2026
Roblox has released the 2026 Roblox Digital Expression Report: Wave 4 - Sports D...
11/06/2026
FIFA has unveiled DNA, the Official FIFA World Cup 2026 Anthem, performed by A...
11/06/2026
ESPN will provide English- and Spanish-language news and information coverage of FIFA World Cup 2026 across its U.S. media platforms from June 11 through July 1...
11/06/2026
The latest product of the outstanding RIT Sports Network program, this recent grad from Long Island is carving out a promising path in broadcast engineering
In...