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Dear Mr. President

"Dear Mr. President" is a song by Pink featuring the Indigo Girls, and was recorded for Pink's fourth album, I'm Not Dead. Pink said that the song is an open letter to the President of the United States, George W. Bush, and that it is one of the most important songs she had written. She stated that it would never be released as a single in the United States, because it was too important to be perceived as a publicity stunt. It has since been released in Europe, Australia, Canada, and the UK. The video of her performance live from Wembley Arena has also been added to the VH1 line-up of videos.

Content

The song was written by Pink and Billymann. Pink came up with the idea to ask the Indigo Girls to join the recording of the song. According to an interview, they "believe in the song. An open letter to the president, that's what we needed." During an interview with an Australian radio station, the Australian girl group Young Divas asked Pink what she was thinking when she wrote "Dear Mr. President". Pink stated that she wrote the song on Martin Luther King Day in 2005. "I read The New York Times every day, and watch the news. And I was completely disgusted with it. I just felt like....I just needed to write a song."

When I'm Not Dead was released on April 5, 2006, "Dear Mr. President" attracted considerable attention. Most of the discussion concerned Pink's statement that the song was intended for United States President George W. Bush. The song's format is a series of questions for the President, specifically pertaining to how he really feels about controversial issues such as war ("Let me tell you about hard work/Rebuilding your house after the bombs took them away"), homosexuality ("What kind of father might hate his own daughter if she were gay?") --this can also be viewed as Vice President Dick Cheney not accepting gay rights when his own daughter is a lesbian,-- The homeless ("What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street"), reproductive rights for women ("What kind of father would take his own daughter's rights away?") and drug abuse ("You've come a long way from whiskey and cocaine"), and asks "when you look in the mirror are you proud?", and the war in Iraq ("How do you feel when a mother has no chance to say good-bye?").

In an interview with MTV News Pink stated she hoped Bush heard the song and that "[he] is proud of the fact that we live in a country where we can do things like that, where we can have dissent, talk, communicate and share our opinions." After she performed the song on Jimmy Kimmel Live on April 11, 2007, she thanked Jimmy Kimmel for letting her sing it, telling him that many radio station DJs had been told they couldn't discuss the track if she was a guest, and that she wasn't allowed to perform it on other U.S. television shows.

After her loss in the Georgia 4th District Democratic primary on August 8, 2006, Cynthia McKinney played the song to her supporters in lieu of a concession speech and sang along.

The song was used during the closing of the fourth season final of the television series The L Word.

Release

In Belgium an acoustic version of the song was released as a downloadable single in late 2006. The single was recorded at a showcase for Q-music, a Belgian radiostation. It held the number-one spot on the Ultratop 50 Chart for four weeks, becoming the first download-only song to reach number one. It reached number one in Austria, the top five in Switzerland and Germany (where it was certified gold) and the top forty in the Netherlands and New Zealand.

In February 2007 Pink's official UK website reported that "Dear Mr. President" and "Leave Me Alone (I'm Lonely)" would be released as a download single in the UK. However, in June 2007 it was announced that the song would be released as an import single in the UK. It will be released on July 30 in the UK. Sony BMG Music in Australia announced that "Dear Mr. President" would be the sixth single from the album in that country, and would be released to radio on June 11. "Dear Mr. President" was released in Australia on July 7, 2007, according to sonybmg.com.au. The single was released in a special two disc part commemorating Pink's I'm Not Dead Tour in Australia — part two had space for the part one disc and contained dates of her record-breaking Australian tour and milestones for the album I'm Not Dead. "Dear Mr. President" peaked at number five.

While "Dear Mr. President" was not released in the United States, many American radio stations have begun to play the song, mainly Boston's Kiss 108 and Mix 98.5, and New York's Z100, however both stations stopped rotation of the song in less than a month. Also notable is that the track has surfaced onto the AllAccess MediaBase adds page, indicating it may be going for adds soon (no specific release date has yet been announced, however).

Video

Like the video for "Leave Me Alone (I'm Lonely)", the "Dear Mr. President" music video is a live video, but it differs from the "Leave Me Alone (I'm Lonely)" video in that it includes the live vocal. It is from the performance of the song during Pink's I'm Not Dead Tour in London at Wembley Arena. The performance was featured on the tour DVD Pink: Live from Wembley Arena. Pink is in front of the stage with her backing vocalists and an acoustic guitar, singing the song. On the big screens images are shown of George W. Bush, coffins with American flags over them (pointing to soldiers that have died during the War in Iraq) and more. Those images are also shown on the left and right side of Pink's head during the song.

The video debuted at number four on the German version of MTV's Total Request Live on May 3, 2007. It is shown with German subtitles in Austria and Germany and with Czech subtitles in Czech Republic. In Australia, the video is not shown on Network Ten's G-rated morning music video show Video Hits First, regardless of whether it is in the top 10 of the ARIA Charts or not. It recently began showing on its sister show Video Hits, which is PG-rated and screens at a later time (10:00am AEST). Despite this, it is shown on other music video shows, such as Eclipse (Seven Network, also PG-rated), and rage (ABC, G-rated after 6:00am).

On November 12, 2007 VH1, a U.S.-based video music channel, began introduced the song into their video rotation.

The video can also be seen on Yahoo!Launch, with French subtitles.

Track listings

UK EP single

released: March 12, 2007

"Dear Mr. President" – 4:33
"Leave Me Alone (I'm Lonely)" – 3:18
"Dear Mr. President" (live at the I'm Not Dead Tour) – 4:45
"Leave Me Alone (I'm Lonely)" (live at the I'm Not Dead Tour) – 4:44UK download single

released: March 12, 2007

"Dear Mr. President" – 4:33
"Leave Me Alone (I'm Lonely)" – 3:18Dutch CD single

released: April 16, 2007

"Dear Mr. President" – 4:69
"Dear Mr. President" (live at the I'm Not Dead Tour) – 4:45Belgium CD single

released: December 21, 2006

"Dear Mr. President" – 4:33
"Dear Mr. President" (live at the I'm Not Dead Tour) – 4:45
"Leave Me Alone (I'm Lonely)" (live at the I'm Not Dead Tour) – 4:44Belgium CD maxi

released: December 21, 2006

"Dear Mr. President" – 4:35
"Leave Me Alone (I'm Lonely)"
"Dear Mr. President" (live at the I'm Not Dead Tour) – 4:45
Live from Wembley trailer (DVD trailer)

German CD maxi single

released: April 27, 2007

"Dear Mr. President" – 4:33
"Dear Mr. President" (live at the I'm Not Dead Tour) – 4:45
"Leave Me Alone" (I'm Lonely) – 3:20
"Who Knew" (live from Wembley Arena) – 3:29
"Dear Mr. President" (live from Wembley Arena) (video) – 4:45
Live from Wembley trailer - live from Wembley Stadium Austrian CD single

released: April 27 2007

"Dear Mr. President"; 4:33
"Dear Mr. President"(live from Wembley Arena, London); 4:45Australian CD single version 1

released: July 7, 2007

"Dear Mr. President"; 4:36
"Who Knew" (live from Wembley Arena) – 3:30
"Dear Mr. President" (live from Wembley Arena) – 4:46
On the Road with Pink (video) – 9:43Australian CD single version 2

released: July 7, 2007

"Dear Mr. President"; 4:36
"U + Ur Hand" (live from Wembley Arena) – 4.41
"Dear Mr. President" (live from Wembley Arena) (video) – 4:53
Live from Wembley trailer (video) – 0:59Russian CD Single/Compilation

"Dear Mr. President"
"U + Ur Hand"
"Who Knew"
"Stupid Girls"
"Long Way To Happy"
"I'm Not Dead"
"Leave Me Alone (I'm Lonely)"
"Conversations With My 13 Years Old Self"
"The One That Got Away"
"Nobody Knows"
"Centerfold"
"I Got Money Now"
"Fingers"
"Runaway"
"Trouble"
"Cuz I Can"
"Get This Party Started"
"Family Portrait"
"God Is A DJ"
"Dear Mr. President" (live from Wembley Arena)

Charts

Chart (2006/07)	Peak position
Australian Singles Chart	5
Australian Airplay Chart	1
Canadian Hot 100	55
Ö3 Austria Top 40	1
Belgium Singles Chart	1
Czech Republic Airplay	2
German Singles Chart	3