Giants

Album: Without Fear: The Complete Edition (2020)
Charted: 12
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Songfacts®:

  • Written amid a time of turmoil and uncertainty during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, "Giants" is about letting go of the past and facing change together.

    We used to be giants
    When did we stop?
    Just say the word and I'll be yours
    You know I never forgot


    Dermot Kennedy is looking back nostalgically at more innocent times, but knows we cannot go back. Instead we must be brave, seize this new beginning and collectively make it better.
  • Kennedy wrote in an Instagram post: "Walking into an unknown future together can be beautiful just as much as it is scary. As events have unfolded over the last few months and have at times felt hopeless, this song has carried me through as a reminder that the future is still full of hope and there is opportunity in the darkness and a brighter future can await."
  • According to Kennedy, he took inspiration for the song from Leslie Dwight's 2020 viral poem, "What if 2020 isn't canceled?" It reads:

    What if 2020 isn't canceled?
    What if 2020 is the year we've been waiting for?
    A year so uncomfortable, so painful, so scary, so raw
    that it finally forces us to grow.
    A year that screams so loud, finally awakening us from our ignorant slumber
    A year we finally accept the need for change.
    Declare change. Work for change. Become the change.
    A year we finally band together, instead of
    pushing each other further apart.
    2020 isn't canceled, but rather
    the most important year of them all.
  • Dermot Kennedy wrote the song with Stephen "Kaz" Kozmeniuk and Scott Harris. The same pair also helped the Irish singer pen his breakthrough singles "Outnumbered" and "Power Over Me."

    Kaz produced the track.
  • The animated video, created by Trizz Studios and directed by Oriol Puig, takes its cues from nature. Kennedy explained:

    "Nature has long been a recurring influence for my music and to celebrate and explore the scale and beauty of the natural world with this video felt instinctive.

    In this time of great uncertainty and as we are forced to acknowledge how fragile and complex life is, the journey this video takes is important figuratively and physically. Change is inevitable and necessary but also challenging. A new world and a new beginning underpin the message of the song and this video."
  • Dermot Kennedy told Billboard the inspiration for the song came from "the idea of letting go of the past and looking towards the future with a feeling of optimism and hope, instead of dread and fear."

    He added: "I applied that idea to my own life with this song when I wrote it, and then it just felt like a good message to put out into the world this year."

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