Shervin Boloorian - This Is Your Time

This is Your Time: RELEASE DATE, February 7th, 2025

Single Credits

This is Your Time
Lyrics and Music by Shervin Boloorian
Inspired by poem “Let this Little Girl Win” by Manal Omar
Piano, arrangement, instrumentation and grooves: Kipper Eldridge
Persian Ney Flute: Shervin Boloorian
Vocals, Song Revisions: Shervin Boloorian
Produced and Mixed by Kipper Eldridge
Mastered by Nicky Howard
Cover Art and Design by Amber M
www.Shervinboloorian.com

This is Your Time Shervin’s Song Notes
My second single release from the forthcoming album 'Unbroken' is an original song inspired by a Manal Omar poem about picking up the pieces and starting life again after undergoing severe loss. This is a journey that millions of refugee families must walk today, including mine. My family was divided after a revolution and uprooted from the Iran-Iraq war and had to make a new life from scratch. Many refugee parents have had to sacrifice their homes, livelihoods, connections to family and friends (without a chance to say good bye) and much more.

Displacement has a heavy human cost. War, overt or covert, is not just about the tragedy of those killed but the lonely and brave path that must be taken by those who survive. The Middle East, which is the number one source of refugees in the 21st century is no exception. In the last 40 years refugees from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan have all been displaced, all having to start new lives either internally or forced to flee to other parts of the world.

I met Manal in Bali in 2018. Although Manal is Palestinian American, the words of her poem ring true for every one who has been made to feel like an outsider-especially refugee children trying to make sense of their lives, heal from the past and choose peace instead of rage or revenge, sometimes against the wishes of some of their peers. Manal is now a TED Speaker, an accomplished leader who advocates for the empowering of women as a key to peace. She is based in the Washington DC area.

The first time this song was performed in Bali in Dec 2024, I recruited a Jewish American choir leader, Dan Kohane, from my town of Ubud to arrange and lead a small choral section. Dan was originally too busy to take on another Holiday performance but when I explained to him the significance of sharing this song at a time with so much bloodshed and displacement in the Middle East, he instantly changed his mind. The result: a Palestinian, a Jew and an Iranian all united as artists and humanitarians to share a song with a message of peace that evening, and it instantly became one of my career highlights.

Kipper Eldridge’s instrumentation for this tune was inspired by the beautiful production work he admired from Peter Gabriel’s most recent album “I/0”, released in 2023. Some of my friends have compared the vibe Kipper creates to Hans Zimmer’s “Now We Are Free” from the original Gladiator movie. This doesn’t bother me at all since Lisa Gerrard is a massive musical influence of mine and I have loved her work for decades.

Originally I wrote this song after Manal had invited me to be part of a peace through music project during Covid. The project tanked and the song I wrote was dropped. I felt that there was something special about the song which spoke to my own journey and had a universal message. On my own, I came up with a new chorus and reworked a lot of the lyrics so that it paralleled my own personal experience of coming to terms with my past. Throughout the songwriting process, Manal’s poem was a key inspiration and I am honored that she gave me permission to use “Let This Little Girl Win” for the song. The iterations of change also applied to the song structure, which desperately needed simplification. Kipper came in with lots of creative advice and the song found an instant flow.

During the first part of the first verse we suspended the clicktrack to allow my voice to open the song with a sincerity to match the depth and intensity of the first lyric lines. During recording, Kipper also provided invaluable input with respect to my vocals and crafted a completely fresh arrangement that brought the new structure to life.

Kipper had me sing all the vocal parts in this song in slightly different ways, allowing me free license to come up with my own wilder sounding vocal lines, during the close of the song. Same with the harmonies, which were very unconventional. He used a lot of layering and stacking of my vocal parts so the final version sounds like a choral group in the background; a bit like a Queen song.

Like Enjoy the Silence, the video was shot in Bali, this time with spliced in footage of different war scenes from history to underscore the message of what many have to go through to rebuild their lives and find their way back to inner peace. We filmed at an abandoned amusement park in Sanur. Most of the buildings were derelict, so there was this contrast of concretized destruction on one hand and new life from the overgrowing lush green Bali vegetation on the other. I consciously decided to not include any flags or direct references to one country or another. The song is dedicated to all child refugees everywhere in the world, and victims of conflict everywhere.

The Persian Ney flute I own was in the correct key to work for this song, fortunately. Kipper again provided brilliant instruction for how I should play to match the song, interspersing the flute with the vocal lines. He pieced the parts together, to bring alive the magic of the Middle Eastern dessert through music, something he did equally well for Sting’s Desert Rose.

Music : This is Your Time
Original Song by Shervin Boloorian

Lyrics :

To all those who have gone
And all I’ve said good bye to
You are not forgotten
For my light was made purer by you
I went to fight
But fighting’s not my way
A voice whispered to me
“It was only love could save me”

No matter how broken you think you are
Whatever unspoken harm was done
No matter how deep the scar
Or how high your guard
Stay Open
Your heart was meant to shine
This is your time

So much was taken
But not my faith
By thy grace
“Khoda” has mercy
I have everything I need
To plant the first seed
Amidst all tragedies
“It was only love that could save me”

No matter how broken you think you are
Whatever unspoken harm was done
No matter how deep the scar
Or how high your guard
Stay open

No matter how broken you think you are
Whatever unspoken harm was done
No matter how deep cuts the scar
Or how high you keep your guard
Whatever this world has put you through
If anyone can I know it’s you
Stay open

Your heart was meant to shine
This is your time

Now, Now, Now, Now

No matter how broken
Whatever harm’s been done
Whomever did you wrong

Keep your heart open
Sing a song of freedom
Love won’t be undone

(There’s) No justification
For the damage you’ve taken
Life must carry on

Stay Open
Your heart was meant to shine
This is Your Time

Introducing "Unbroken" by Shervin
After sweeping three Global Peace Song Awards in 2020, Shervin returns with a transformative new album, Unbroken. Known for his ability to channel the sacred through sound, Shervin’s music speaks to the soul, awakening the inner presence within us all. His compositions transcend mere notes and melodies, becoming a call to peace and inspiration, a bridge between the human and the divine.
Unbroken is not just an album—it is an auditory journey through healing and renewal. Each track invites the listener to dive deep into the self, to face and release the shadows of past pain, and to emerge with a newfound sense of serenity and strength. This is music that nourishes the spirit, crafted with the intention of guiding us back to our essence, where true peace resides.
In a world often marked by chaos and disconnection, Shervin’s music is a much-needed remedy, a sonic salve for the weary soul. With Unbroken, he offers us a path to transcendence, a space where music becomes medicine and where every note is a step towards wholeness. Let this album be your companion on the journey to inner peace, a reminder of the divine harmony that lies within us all.

Don’t Ignore the World of the Refugee
Approximately one in three refugees and asylum seekers experience high rates of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), living with psychological scars and limited access to benefits or hostility from their hosts, whose governments often financed the conflicts that displaced them.
The life of a refugee is a journey marked by profound psychological and physical hardship often from the experience of forced displacement. For many, the trauma begins with violence, persecution, or fear that precedes that displacement. Then there is the journey that follows. Imagine what it must take for you to flee the place you have called home for generations. This type of trauma leaves a lasting scar that makes it harder to adjust wherever we land. Safety, stability, and a sense of belonging can often feel out of reach within the family unit itself because of the stressors from displacement.
Having to live with overwhelming anxiety, depression, or post-traumatic stress was a daily reality I had to grow up with. I struggled to find hope in my life and to come out of the victim mindset. Eventually I had to abandon my parents’ home at 16. Refugees life me often suffer in silence, unable to access mental health support due to cultural distancing, stigma from the new society, and a lack of resources. Extraordinary resilience is also a part of the refugee experience—the strength to keep moving forward no matter what scars we may carry makes refugees some of the bravest people you will ever meet!
Many of us had to navigate a system that often overlooked our humanity and we relied on the generosity of new friends in our adopted countries, who taught us what really matters in life. Thank you to all of you who have ever helped people like myself!
Loss, hardship, and immense courage is what has shaped the lives of many refugees. It is my hope that our institutions and leaders provide the support needed for our world’s refugees to properly heal, not feel isolated, and to empower, and honor the resilience of those who have endured the unimaginable.
Behind every statistic of an outsider who is painted often in subhuman or hateful ways, is a human being seeking the same thing every person longs for—hope, dignity, and a place to call home, where they can feel that they belong.
~Shervin Boloorian, Dec 2024