An Eco-Lyrical Delineation of Environmental Songs: A Study of T.Y Bello’s “The Land is Green” and Michael Jackson’s “Heal the World”

The paper examines the lyrics of songs composed about the environment through the application of linguistic tools of eco-linguistics. The paper explicates the underlying meanings of utterances embedded in the lyrics of two musicians: a Nigerian named T.Y Bello and an American named Michael Jackson. The paper sets out to show how these two artistes represent the world in their songs. The two songs are: The Land is Green (2008) and Heal the world (1991). T.Y Bello's “The Land is Green” was released in 2008 in a debut album, Greenland which took two years to develop. T.Y Bello earned herself a Nigeria Music Award as well as a Sound City Award because the Album. She describes the album as a journey of her everyday life. Her music is an embodiment of family, love and nation. The song can best be described as song written to motivate Nigerians, and to liberate them from a place of despair to a place of hope. Michael Jackson's “Heal the World” is from his album Dangerous, released in 1991. In a 2001 Internet chat Jackson said he was most proud to have composed and its release followed the creation of the Heal the World Foundation, a charitable organization which was designed to improve the lives of children. An organization meant to teach children how to help others. The use of language in the songs is critically examined in the paper to shed light on how the world is represented in the songs.