Three Candles, One Truth: Rachael Sage Turns Grief Into Light

"Nexus (Acoustic)" takes a revolutionary song and reduces it to its essence before inviting a bunch of strangers to reconstruct themselves.

Three candlesticks are burning. Everyone is quiet. Then Rachael Sage enters the scene holding her acoustic guitar with the help of The Sequins behind her, so the calm starts to shake.

This isn't a return single or a victory anthem. Rather, it's a wake that becomes a joyful event in the course of the song.

"Nexus" was created as a comment on the death of Nex Benedict, a nonbinary child who was beaten by his peers while grownups didn't try to help. The original song had a strong impact. However, the acoustic version filmed by Nick Clark is a bit different. A crowd of people appears on the platform and is writing their suffering on pieces of cardboard. "Fear the world." "Broken glass in my heart." The language isn't softened in this video and that was the right choice.

But then a transformation occurs. Rachael on stage puts on drag makeup almost performed as an act of rebellion. The art becomes something else entirely. "You are the answer," says Sage as he leaves the scene and enters the masses, no longer an artist but simply a person who finds light in a world filled with darkness.

Sage has been composing music for many years, but now the meaning of survival is simply the presence of a caring community.