The Miraculous Love Kids — a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization that served as Afghanistan’s only school of music for war-torn, poverty-stricken girls and young women until August 15, 2021 — have joined together with Brian Wilson and Roger Daltrey for an updated rendition of “Love & Mercy.” Written by Wilson for his 1988 solo album, a previous version of “Love & Mercy” served as the first song and video released by The Miraculous Kids in 2018.
“This is quite a feat for girls from such harrowing beginnings — war, poverty, discrimination, and threat of childhood marriage,” MLKs founder and director Lanny Cordola says. “‘Love & Mercy’ is one of Brian’s most poignant musical statements about the human condition. The melding of Brian, Roger, and the girls is a sound divine. An honor of the highest magnitude and a dream come true for the girls and I. These are world-class musicians with world-class souls.”
“You don’t have to thank me for doing this. I’m really passionate about how you are being treated. You are the future of your country. Please make it better. You really can. And music will play a big part in that…you’ll see,” Daltrey says.
The pair recorded the song in Los Angeles, London, and Islamabad with Cordola and Sarmad Ghafoor producing. The video was filmed on location throughout Pakistan by Sham Kazmi.
Over the last year, some members of The Miraculous Love Kids and their families have been able to resettle to parts of the United States. Four remaining girls and their families were scheduled to fly out of Pakistan on February 5th, but that came to an abrupt end when President Donald Trump signed an executive order to suspend the resettlement program in the U.S. The girls and their families, who have been learning how to assimilate and become self-sufficient, are devastated.
If they are denied the chance to resettle to the United States or another Western country, the Pakistani government will deport them back to Afghanistan, where music-making females are subject to persecution, imprisonment, and even punishment by death.
Earlier this year, The Miraculous Love Kids collaborated with Sia for a reimagining of the singer’s 2016 hit single, “Unstoppable.” The video behind the song featuring The Miraculous Love Kids recently surpassed 100,000 views on YouTube.
For The Miraculous Love Kids, the arrival of the Taliban in Kabul on August 15, 2021, changed everything. The guitar lessons, the recordings, the videos, and the hope for a better life — all gone in a flash.
Their instruments destroyed, their dreams shattered, these post-9/11 children had never experienced the harsh rule of the Taliban in their lifetime. It was a disruption like no other. The fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban continues to resonate and claim new victims. At the end of 2022, the group banned women from working in local and foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs). No one can say how much worse the oppression against women and girls in the country will get, but it doesn’t look good.
Lanny managed to catch the last commercial flight out of Kabul not knowing what was in store as he had already booked the fare to Pakistan to renew his visa before the Taliban moved in. He immediately went right to work, relentlessly chasing every possibility he could to get his students and their families out of Afghanistan.
“They’re my girls,” he told one reporter. “I’ve been like a father to them. I don’t want to be safe right now. I want to get them out of that place.”
Additional artists The Miraculous Love Kids have collaborated with include Sammy Hagar, Tom Morello, Blake Shelton, Joe Walsh, Jeff Tweedy, Nancy Sinatra, and others.