Girl in the Picture (Napalm Girl)
2003 · Flying Snowman YAN-2003-01 · Belgium
- Artist
- Yanah
- Title
- Girl in the Picture (Napalm Girl)
- Release
- The Girl in the Picture / Plus de larmes
- Year
- 2003
- Label
- Flying Snowman # YAN-2003-01
- Format
- CD · Single
- Country
- Belgium
- Genre
- Singer Songwriter · Singer Songwriter
- Primary theme
- Post-War
Annotation
Belgium singer/songwriter Yanah, born Nathalie Vangronsvelt on 12 July 1978, released the song "The Girl in the Picture" (Flying Snowman Records # YAN/2003-01) which as can be seen from the front cover photo, was a reference to Nick Ut's Pulitzer Prize winning photo of a naked nine year old, Kim Phuc, running from a napalm attack - chemical weapon Napalm B - a jellied gasoline mixture, with polystyrene, benzene, and gasoline. Declared a war-crime since 1980, the US government extensively used this weapon during the Vietnam conflict, dropping 388,000 tons on Indochina between 1963 and 1973. (1) (2) (3) The narrator describes the moment captured in the famous photo, immediately after the attack: "running, naked child... arms swung out wide to relieve the pain". The narrator notes the impact of the photo, "she can burn your mind, she is the girl in the picture".
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
About the artist
Yanah is a Belgian singer whose 2004 debut album "The Girl In The Picture" (Flying Snowman Records) opens with "The Girl In The Picture (Napalm Girl)", about Phan Thi Kim Phuc, the child in Nick Ut's 1972 photograph; per the artist's own materials the song's profits went to Kim Phuc's foundation for child war victims. She contested Belgium's 2004 Eurovision preselection and played Belgian festivals that year. [Source: Discogs; the artist's own pages; antiwarsongs.org]