Margo Price has teamed up with Mavis Staples and Adia Victoria for a powerful new collaboration. Released today (July 8), “Fight to Make It” is a timely, energizing anthem for the marginalized and oppressed.
Co-written with her husband and fellow accomplished singer-songwriter Jeremy Ivey, Price’s latest track pushes back against the widespread and longstanding gender, race and class divides within the U.S. and beyond. Last year, Price debuted the song with a live performance at Newport Folk Fest 2021, featuring accompaniment by the Resistance Revival Chorus.
“It’s about Amelia Earhart, Rosa Parks, and anyone out there who’s gotta fight to make it,” Price told the crowd.
A vocal advocate for equality, Price chose to release a studio version of the track now as a response to the Supreme Court’s controversial overturning of Roe V. Wade, a landmark ruling which protected an individual’s choice to have an abortion within the United States.
“Every day I see more of our rights stripped away in America. The right to reproductive health in this country has become a luxury for the wealthy,” Price says in a statement. “The United States has a higher maternal death rate than any other developed country. Black women in particular experience maternal mortality at a rate two to three times higher than white women. Tennessee now has stricter abortion laws than the Taliban. This should not be a political issue, or a religious issue, this is a human rights issue.”
Margo Price Fight to Make It Artwork
The track’s harmony-driven, retro gold sound appropriately echoes that of the 60s and 70s, when these social movements towards equality were making historic strides. Elevated by Staples and Victoria’s unmistakable and mind-blowing vocal talents, “Fight to Make It” offers up a much-needed rallying cry for anyone who feels as though their voices are being actively silenced.
Price says that collaborating with Staples and Victoria felt like a natural choice, reinforcing the song’s message of defiance, perseverance and the power in unity.
“When we stand together and sing together we are stronger. Massive thanks to my friend Adia Victoria for joining me and our mutual hero, the legendary Mavis Staples for adding the wisdom and strength of her voice. Her art and activism have long inspired me and I’m grateful for her contribution to the song.”
Listen to “Fight to Make It” below:
Margo Price ft. Mavis Staples and Adia Victoria, “Fight to Make It” Lyrics:
You can’t win on the very first try
You got to learn to fall before you fly
They say a woman’s place is in the home
Before she disappeared she proved them wrong
You gotta fight to make it
You gotta fight to make it
You gotta fight to make it
Yes you do
For some it’s hard to understand
What it’s like to be born with a losing hand
How a dark skinned girl from poverty
Could change the world from a Bama bus seat
I remember sitting on my daddy’s lap
I was four or five or something like that
I’ll never forget what he said to me
Honey you can be anything you want to be
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