OneRepublic have released an uplifting video for their song “Better Days,” one month after they put out a call to fans around the world to collaborate with them by sharing images of their experience during quarantine.
The visual directed by the band and Josh Ricks is for a song OneRepublic wrote during a two-week quarantine after returning from their European tour.
In the video, it also says that the band received thousands of submissions in under a week, which they used to create the “Better Days” music video to “show everyone’s resilience in the middle of this global pandemic.”
The video shows people from every corner of the globe, from first responders and essential workers to ordinary folks, all working to fill their days while coping with not being able to be with their loved ones. That footage is interspersed with news reports about the spread of COVID-19, and shots of empty beaches, city streets and New York’s Times Square as frontman Ryan Tedder sings, “Oh, I know that there’ll be better days/ Oh, that sunshine ‘bout to come my way.”
The video earned the band praise from fans, with one user commenting on the YouTube video: “This is why I respect OneRepublic. Even If you don’t like them, at least they use their fame to raise millions of dollars. God, they really make me have better days.”
Another user highlighted the contributions from fans as well, writing: “Can we just appreciate those persons who send them these videos? They are so inspiring.”
OneRepublic and Interscope Records have pledged to donate a portion of the proceeds from “Better Days” streams through September to MusiCares’ COVID-19 Relief Fund.
