The Miracoulous Love Kids — a non-profit organisation that served as Afghanistan’s only school of music for war-torn, poverty-stricken girls and young women until August 15, 2021 — have joined together with rock legends ROGER DALTREY of THE WHO and BRIAN WILSON of THE BEACH BOYS for a new rendition of Brian’s immaculate soul hymn ‘LOVE & MERCY’.
The song was recorded as a fundraiser to benefit The Miraculous Love Kids. Donations can be made at their website, www.miraculouslovekids.org
BRIAN WILSON – Lead Vocals
ROGER DALTREY – Lead Vocals
THE MIRACULOUS LOVE KIDS – Guitars and Vocals
JON BUTTON – Bass
GARY GRIFFIN – Keyboards
BRIAN MACLEOD – Drums
“This is quite a feat for girls from such harrowing beginnings — war, poverty, discrimination, and threat of childhood marriage,” MLKs founder and director LANNY CORDOLA says. “ ‘LOVE & MERCY’ is one of Brian’s most poignant musical statements about the human condition. The melding of BRIAN, ROGER, and the girls is a sound divine. An honor of the highest magnitude and a dream come true for the girls and I. These are world-class musicians with world-class souls.”
ROGER DALTREY said in a statement to THE MIRACULOUS LOVE KIDS: “You don’t have to thank me for doing this. I’m really passionate about how you are being treated. You are the future of your country. Please make it better. You really can. And music will play a big part in that…you’ll see.”
Over the last year, some members of THE MIRACULOUS LOVE KIDS and their families have been able to resettle to parts of the United States. Four remaining girls and their families were scheduled to fly out of Pakistan on February 5, 2025, but that came to an abrupt end when President Donald Trump signed an executive order to suspend the resettlement program in the U.S. The girls and their families, who have been learning how to assimilate and become self-sufficient, are devastated.
If they are denied the chance to resettle to the United States or another Western country, the Pakistani government will deport them back to Afghanistan, where music-making females are subject to persecution, imprisonment, and even punishment by death.
“We have faced many trials, tribulations and challenges before and somehow, someway we shall get through this,” Lanny says.
For THE MIRACULOUS LOVE KIDS, the arrival of the Taliban in Kabul on August 15, 2021, changed everything. The guitar lessons, the recordings, the videos, and the hope for a better life — all gone in a flash.
Their instruments destroyed, their dreams shattered, these post-9/11 children had never experienced the harsh rule of the Taliban in their lifetime. It was a disruption like no other. The fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban continues to resonate and claim new victims. At the end of 2022, the group banned women from working in local and foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs). No one can say how much worse the oppression against women and girls in the country will get, but it doesn’t look good. (Source The Who)
