Pink Floyd Releases First Single In Years To Support Ukraine [Listen]

Pink Floyd, the legendary rock band, has reassembled in order to record and release a new single in support of Ukraine.

Guitarist David Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason perform the hit "Hey Hey Rise Up," with bassist Guy Pratt and keyboardist Nitin Sawhney.

The song, however, is based around a spine-tingling refrain by Boombox's Ukrainian singer Andriy Khlyvnyuk.

Gilmour's daughter-in-law, Janina Pedan, is a Ukrainian-born artist, so the song has a special meaning for him.

He told BBC News that she was the inspiration for the single's artwork, which features the sunflower, Ukraine's national flower.

Gilmour said he was "infuriated" by the West's "powerlessness" in the face of Russian aggression, but that he supported the country's maintaining sanctions.

Roger Waters is absent from the new album; he departed the band in 1985 and has only performed with them on rare occasions since then, notably as at the Live 8 event in 2005.

CNN said the producers shot the music video for "Hey Hey Rise Up" on the same day as the recording.

It features images of anti-war rallies and destruction in Ukraine intercut with footage of the band performing.

The video begins with text indicating that Khlyvnyuk canceled a Boombox tour in the United States to return to Ukraine and defend his motherland.

Khlyvnyuk sang a World War I protest song on the single, which he recorded in front of Kyiv's St Sophia Cathedral.

Three days later, he shared the Instagram video from which his vocals were stolen.

Khlyvnyuk had a shrapnel wound and was healing in a Kyiv hospital when Gilmour contacted him, according to the band.

The band told CBS News that all revenues from "Hey Hey Rise Up" will go toward humanitarian help in Ukraine.

Reuters said Pink Floyd was created in London in the mid-1960s and was instrumental in establishing the UK psychedelic movement before releasing significant albums such as The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, and The Wall in the 1970s.

Waters left the band in 1985, and the other members of Pink Floyd didn't record together again until 1994's The Division Bell.

Following the death of keyboardist Richard Wright in 2008, Gilmour stated that he doubted Pink Floyd would ever perform together again.