Please Don't

Album: Here Lies Love (2010)
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Songfacts®:

  • This is the first single from Here Lies Love, a concept album by former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne and English DJ Fatboy Slim about the life of the ex First Lady of the Philippines Imelda Marcos and her relationship with a servant from her childhood. The album features 22 guest vocalists and on this track American electronic/indie rock singer-songwriter Santagold is the artist behind the mic.
  • Marcos and her husband, Ferdinand Marcos, were the First Lady and President of the Philippines from 1965 until 1986 when the pair were overthrown in a popular revolt. They fled to Hawaii, where Ferdinand Marcos died three years later. Outside the Philippines Imelda is often remembered for symbols of the corrupt extravagance of her husband's political reign, such as having over 3000 pairs of shoes. In the mid 1990s she was found guilty of corruption, however her conviction was overturned on appeal.
  • Speaking to BBC 6 Music, Fatboy Slim explained: "It's a story-telling thing, like Evita, but coming at it from a different angle in that it tells the untold story that people didn't know about Imelda Marcos. It's not just about the shoes."
  • The album was adapted into a Rock musical directed by Alex Timbers that premiered at The Public Theater in New York City in 2013. It won five prizes at the following year's Lortel Awards for Off-Broadway productions.

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