Handout 2 - P!nk in the Huffington Post

“Pink Is Angry, Honest and Armed with Music” by Laura Moraski, Huffington Post, October 15, 2017

Pink isn’t your stereotypical pop star. The singer, who rose to fame in 2000, said she tried to do the “Hollywood thing” once ― for a night ― when she was 20 years old.

“It was awful,” she told HuffPost. “I walked into The Standard [Hotel], and then I walked around and I walked outside and I found the first homeless man with a dog and guitar. And I hung out with him all night and sang songs on the street. I was like, ‘I think I like you better.’”

Nearly 20 years later, she’s still doing her own thing, in her own way. That’s evident on her seventh stu- dio album, “Beautiful Trauma,” which arrived this week, marking her first new effort in five years. After all this time you’d think Pink would be used to the album release cycle, but she admits she still gets butterflies.

“I feel a little nauseous,” she said on Tuesday in New York. “Which is good. That means I still care.”

Fans already got a taste of the new record over the summer with the release of the single “What About Us.” It’s a strong pop song that showcases Pink’s vocal chops, but it also has a message.

What about all the plans that ended in disaster? What about love? What about trust? What about us?

When asked what she thinks about when she sings that song, Pink said, “I think about all my friends ... gay, straight, black, white, Mexican, women. I think about all my people. My people are human people. I’m so disappointed in government. I’m just so disappointed. And it’s hard for me not to cry at this point. It’s so overwhelming. I’ve always been a fighter and this is my weapon — is a pen. And I have ears. And so I’m angry. I’m angry about it. I’m angry. I’m angry about how people are being treated. I’m angry how women and black people and Mexican people and gay people are being treated. And I’m sick of it. And when you think it can’t get worse, it does.”

Now a mother of two, Pink says she’s worried about her kids’ futures.

“I have a 6-year-old little girl who I’m raising, and the day she figures out what kind of world she lives in is going to be the day that breaks my heart,” Pink said. “I don’t yet know how to have that conversation. I’m hoping somebody else makes a speech and teaches me before that day comes. And that’s what ‘What About Us’ is to me.” [. . .]