“Fight Song”

Fight Song

1.      Jot down ten words in the song that you are sure you are know. 

2.      Guess what the song is about.

3.      Draw pictures of things they hear mentioned in the song

 First, watch the YouTube video below. Next, read the story. 

Everybody’s Fight Song

Rachel Platten had a dream: She wanted to be a professional singer and songwriter. For 12 years, she tried to make her dream come true. She wrote a lot of songs–but not one was a big hit. She traveled from city to city and sang in clubs–but sometimes there were only 20 people in the audience. She made CDs of her music–but she didn’t sell many.

“Maybe,” Rachel thought, “I should give up.” She was tired of driving around the country in her mom’s old car. She was tired of singing in clubs from 1 AM to 4 AM. She was tired of eating cold cereal for dinner. She was 32 years old. Most of her friends had jobs, houses, and children. What did she have? She had 120 songs that nobody wanted to hear.

Rachel had to make a decision: Should she give up, or should she keep trying? For a year, she thought it over. She decided to keep trying. “I’ll keep singing,” she decided, “even if only five people come to hear me. I’ll keep writing songs, even if I never have a hit.” She wrote a song about her decision. “I don’t really care if nobody else believes,” she wrote in the song, “because I’ve still got a lot of fight left in me.” She called the song “Fight Song.”

Vocab

jot sth down

— phrasal verb with jot UK ​ /dʒɒt/ US ​ /dʒɑːt/ verb [ T usually + adv/prep ] -tt-

to write something quickly on a piece of paper so that you remember it:

I carry a notebook so that I can jot down any ideas.

Volunteer

зголошуватися

volunteer, report oneself, apply, claim

пропонувати

offer, propose, suggest, proffer, put forward, volunteer

hear mentioned чути згадане

 After the song became a hit, thousands of people wrote Rachel. They emailed, sent letters, and wrote on Twitter and FaceBook. Your song helped me when I was going through chemotherapy for cancer…when I lost my job…when I didn’t have money to pay the rent…when I went through a divorce…when I had postpartum depression…when I moved to a new city…when I got hurt in a car accident. Everybody’s story was different, but they were all the same in one way: Rachel’s song helped them through a difficult time.

Rachel Platten wrote “Fight Song” to help herself. But the song has helped thousands–maybe millions–of other people, too. Now it is not just Rachel’s fight song. It is everybody’s fight song.

Story: Copyright © 2015 Sandra Heyer.