It is a summer day in Stockholm 1990, when Donald Forsberg leads a child’s choir on the famous main stage at Skansen. As part of celebrating the UNICEF family day, the song –”An Earth for All” is performed – one of Forsberg’s own compositions that he has written on request by Swedish UNICEF.

 
After the performance, the audience cheers, and the sponsors are happy. Donald Forsberg appreciates the positive feedback he gets for both his composition and the arrangements. But after that, ”An Earth for All” ends up in a drawer.

Almost 25 years later, the summer of 2014, Donald Forsberg finds the song again by accident.  Dwelling about what is happening in the world, he gets inspired to reach out again with the songs message. A message about the necessity for peace, and for protecting our environment. A protest against a world of grown-ups that act in self-interest, forgetting the coming generations’ right to inherit a sustainable world.

At his home in Visby, Sweden, he spends days with his guitar, rearranging the melody and rewriting most of the lyrics. The result is a new song that gets the name “Our Earth”. Forberg lets a few friends listen to it, and is encouraged to contact the producer Rune Gardell. When Gardell listens to “Our Earth” he sees the potential, and helps arrange a recording with a local child’s choir and three lead vocals. 

While the recordings are taking place at Sandkvie studio in Visby, Donald Forsberg happens to watch an UNHCR-documentary about the girl Ella, six years of age, living in a war torn area. The girl is traumatized, and has lost her speech after a shell shock. Forsberg is deeply touched, and ponders the many parallels between the girl’s situation and the core message in “Our Earth”.

        

 Forsberg sits down to adjust the melody, and adds a line to the lyrics: “To those of you that rule the world, stop for a moment and pick up the child that cries…” The producer Rune Gardell listens to the new lyrics, and gives the added line a key role in the arrangement.

The new version of “Our Earth” is finally recorded in its original language Swedish. The composer Danne Attlerud is then asked to translate it to English, and a couple of months later, the choir and lead vocals are gathered again in Sandkvie studio. Their excellent performance is now available as the English version -”United”

”United” wants to address the conditions for sustainable life on Earth. It is about caring for our limited resources, seeing the equal value of all humans sharing this planet, and creating conditions for peaceful coexistence. Most of all, “United” is about the younger generations non-negotiable claim to inherit a world in livable condition.

 ”Keep your fingers away from the hazardous buttons”. Stop even thinking about it. This planet isn’t yours to rule and to use, but to pass on to future generations in better shape than you received it.”