When a song drops on Halloween but burns brighter than any costume party, you know it’s got purpose. “Truth Over Lies” by Michellar, featuring South African vocalist Frankie El, is one of those records that hits you not just in the ears, but in the gut. It’s not built to entertain first; it’s built to awaken.
Michellar, the San Francisco-based artist who reignited her songwriting spark after a 40-year hiatus, turns raw frustration into something cinematic here, a protest song for the digital age, echoing the emotional weight of U2 and the widescreen drama of Coldplay. The collaboration was born during a songwriting retreat in Idyllwild, California, where Michelle Bond, Michael Levine, and Matthias Schmidt channeled the collective disillusionment of their time into melody and message.
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“Truth Over Lies” opens with an atmosphere of urgency, swirling guitars and steady percussion laying the ground for Frankie El’s commanding vocals. There’s this steady build that feels like a storm forming: grounded but full of voltage. By the time the chorus lands “The light on the hill, stirs us to rise. / We hold what we choose. / The truth over lies.”
You can hear that Coldplay influence in the ambient pads and soaring transitions, but there’s a rawer, more human grit underneath. Frankie El’s delivery gives the track its heartbeat, passionate but restrained, spiritual without being preachy. It’s protest music made for 2025’s fractured attention span: short lines, heavy imagery, and an emotional pulse that never lets up.
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Michellar doesn’t mince words. Lines like “Falsehoods speeding, we stopped believing” and “Trembling on shaky ground” speak directly to a world gaslit by misinformation and divided by leadership failures. Yet the song isn’t nihilistic, it’s defiant. There’s unity in the refrain, a collective voice saying, “We’re done watching in silence.”
And with Frankie El’s soulful performance cutting through the dense production, it’s not hard to imagine this song echoing at rallies, film scores, or playlists for anyone seeking empowerment in chaos. It reminds you that the fight for truth doesn’t belong to politicians or pundits; it belongs to artists, dreamers, and ordinary people who still believe words and melodies can spark revolutions.
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