Billy Bragg - Saffiyah Smiles Lyrics






Angry white men dressed like Elmer Fudd
Shouting something about soil and blood
A woman of colour steps out from the crowd
Does something to make us all proud

Just like Victor Hugo told
"To love is to act" and her act was bold
Bold as love, she made her stand
And with a smile took power from the man

Oh, don't you know
We come together when Saffiyah smiles
All around the world
People come together when Saffiyah smiles

Cosplay Nazis marching in file
Hitler's haircut is back in style
Resistance on the streets of Birmingham
And with her smile she disarms the man

Oh, don't you know
We come together when Saffiyah smiles
All around the world
People come together when Saffiyah smiles

This is what solidarity looks like
This is what solidarity looks like
This is what solidarity looks like
This is what solidarity looks like
This is what solidarity looks like
This is what solidarity looks like

This is what solidarity looks like
This is what solidarity looks like
This is what solidarity looks like
This is what solidarity looks like





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Billy Bragg Saffiyah Smiles Comments
  1. S.... ....

    So many awesomely cool women - we need more people like them

  2. m.... m....

    Head butt the slut!!

  3. b.... ....

    The woman of colour who makes you so proud turned out to be a racist antisemite !, then again she’d be welcome in today’s institutionally racist Labour Party , you’re full of shite

  4. N.... G....

    What you saying don't complain white people just let them rape your children.

  5. A.... ....

    1:40 Resistance on the streets of Birmingham---Against the promotion of homosexuality in schools.

  6. F.... T....

    Two sides to a coin racism comes in backgrounds so its not just black and white.

  7. K.... C....

    Hey Billy you know the Labour mp for Rotheram that said up to 1million young mostly white working class girls that were repeatedly gang raped,beaten pissed on,dangled from balconies, dowsed with petrol,branded with irons,had their tongues nailed to tables and guns put to their heads by mostly Pakistani men,well Billy are you gonna write a song about that? Maybe that's what this EDL guy was so miffed about eh?

  8. s.... ....

    See here for the life of Saffiyah ...nice...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safiyya_bint_Huyayy

  9. s.... ....

    'Bridges not walls' - written on a wall to keep the plebs out. Betrayer Bragg.

  10. M.... C....

    Billy lived in barking which is now 99% non white and is a very dangerous place to live, so billy now lives in Dorset which is 99% white and has made a career out of lecturing white working class people who live amongst crime and murder to be tolerant. Come back to barking billy have a look at what immigration and diversity has done to the town where my grandparents and my parents met...you absolute cockwomble

    M.... C....

    I am a white British person and I can tell you that the above statement is bull shit. OK its a socially deprived area and to be fair if I could afford to live in Richmond or Putney I would move, but it is not foreigners who have made it socially deprived. The place is pretty much a vast council estate full of people on low incomes which means the town centre is full of betting shops, pay day loan companies and chicken and chip take away shops.

    M.... C....

    Barking is 58.30% white 15.92% Asian and 19.98% Black it is not 99% non-white at least use correct statistics if you are going to be ignorant.

  11. m.... ....

    Hes a fucking idiot traitor, arse licking lefty cunt

  12. w.... ....

    Watch out Saffiyah, sounds like this mockney Fauxcialist wants to penetrate you with his priveliged white dick!

  13. w.... ....

    Watch out Saffiyah, sounds like this mockney Fauxcialist wants to penetrate you with his priveliged white dick!

  14. w.... ....

    Watch out Saffiyah, sounds like this mockney Fauxcialist wants to penetrate you with his priveliged white dick!

  15. w.... ....

    Watch out Saffiyah, sounds like this mockney Fauxcialist wants to penetrate you with his priveliged white dick!

  16. p.... p....

    Yeah signal that virtue

    p.... p....

    Of course. Load of bollox innit

  17. R.... ....

    I was very racist as I grew up in an isolated Canadian town but I moved to the city and found a beautiful Indian women who changed my perspective

  18. j.... w....

    Sure Billy, if she's female and brown-skinned she's gotta be right about everything

  19. M.... M....

    Who is she ?

  20. A.... H....

    small minded people the lot of you.

  21. S.... H....

    I prefer Morrissey to Bragg any day, both music and attitude.

    S.... H....

    Though sadly these days you will be called a racist for doing so.

    S.... H....

    @Sheep Slayer Yes - but I really don't care. Leftist music sucks.

    S.... H....

    I agree, I was a huge smiths fan and still think Morrissey is the greatest poet of the 20th Century and possibly the 21st (remains to bee seen).  Gotta love the specials though, although at their height they were protesting against real injustice and right wing politics, not today's pseudo pretend far right that the left keep banging on about.

    S.... H....

    @Sheep Slayer Well I'm actually just beheading-phobic and rapo-phibic.

  22. J.... S....

    Billy Bragg back in form. Love from the Liffly Estate in Barking.

  23. s.... ....

    Lots of "IS" missing in the lyrics images after 2:25. "This what" instead of "This IS what"

  24. M.... C....

    Is this song about the Templars and Britain first.

    M.... C....

    Safiyah is name of a woman in the Quran, who Muhammad raped. Another victim, Zainab, killed him.

    M.... C....

    The Butcher Of Benghazi. Libya indicted me because I'm too stupid to delete my incriminating emails?


    First of all, congrats on your account name ?

    Secondly , I didn't realise Mohammed was murdered by a woman ?

  25. E.... E....

    Tis u! lots fault manchester, sri lanka, September the 11th and the inevitable backlash of Breivik christchurch and co happen in the 1st place! Nothing to " Billy Bragg about!" Not that that ever stops u lefty piety twats from ever questioning ur narcassistic sense of moral superiority tho eh? As long as its some other poor sucker dying for ur facebook virtue signalling i suppose? Sad really

  26. E.... E....

    this is what fake news gimps listen too!

    E.... E....

    Got an issue? Have a tissue!
    *L O L*

  27. G.... ....

    you are being bred out of your homelands which millions of your ancestors shed blood to protect. Pakistani Muslims and islam are steadily demographically over taking the UK. Billy Bragg and his lefty, plastic working class voice is full of shit. it's simplistic, idealistic bullshit detached from the reality of human nature. I can recognise the injustice to the native people and I'm half pakastani.

  28. B.... S....

    When love means giving up who you are, your culture, history, heritage, Freedom and your children's future.

    I'd rather hate🖕

    B.... S....

    A culture of hate isn't worth keeping.

  29. M.... M....

    The EDL are manipulated by outside forces... so are the Islamic extremists, ordinary people get caught in the middle of the game.. mass media turns it into a meme. Billy plays his role to perfection with crap songs. Divide and rule has always been the game... no solidarity there.

    M.... M....

    A lot of solidarity mate, in the face of hate and ignorance such as you have just attempted to express!

    M.... M....

    @Damian McNairney shut up paddy balls

  30. C.... S....

    I´m so in love with that smile.

  31. j.... m....

    As a mixed race English/ Irish/British Indian atheist teenager i say respect to you billy Bragg !!! Yooooour deeeceeeent xx

  32. n.... ....

    How do you do a double thumbs up ?

    n.... ....

    Well, for openers, you'll have to pull at least one of them out your arse to begin with.

  33. w.... ....

    I think Billy needs some fuck'n sleep, coffee, or energy pills to wake the F up! He sounds tired and lackluster.

  34. G.... ....

    The (smug) smile of terrorism. She must have been like "We killed your people and now i break the minute of silence because i can".

    G.... ....

    Blaming 1.8 billion people for the actions of thousands... Okay. Totally seems fair.

    G.... ....

    Let’s look at the definitions of Muslim and terrorist.

    Muslim: One who follows an Abrahamic faith bearing similarities to Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Sikhism founded by Muhammad bin Abdullah in modern day Saudi Arabia.

    Terrorist: One who attacks another verbally or physically based on political beliefs.

    G.... ....

    @ViVe TV There is nothing Abrahamic about Muhammad,he broke 4 of the 10 commandments, beheaded poets, and e.g. violated the lessons of The RAPE or Dinah: *_Saffia is name of a girl in the Quran who Mohamet raped. Another one, Zainab, whose family was killed by Muhammad before her daily rapings, killed Muhammad.

    Adolph called Islam "The most fascistic religion...most compatible with our Reich" and the earliest Naazis, the Strasserists, were FARRRR-left. BILLY BRAGG IS a rape-apologist and a Strasserist terrorist. By the way, if you're "open borders" in USA -- in favor of continuing the status-quo of allowing the ORGANIZED CRIME of another nation to DECIDE whom gets into the USA, you are PRO-SEX-SLAVERY because they gangrape girls as young as 10 and bring them across the border saying "You can pay $200," then once in usa they say, "Now you owe an extra $800, an you will work it off being FORCED into prostistution earning $10 per man, and we will keep the other $80 that each man pays us to use you." GOOD COMPANY YOU LEFTIES KEEP THERE, you fukkin Strasserist Nomenklatura FRAUD. Nice that *_Chomsky, half of Hollywood, Michael Moore, Bernie, etc all PRAISED the Democratically-elected (thus DEM-Socialist) Venezuelan government with many claiming it wa "finally socialist done the right way," ...until it wasn't, and it wasn't CONVENIENT for the MSM Gleichschaltung to remember that...when all the Lefties THEN said, "Oh but we are DIFFERENT from the Venezuelans, we'll do socialism the right way," FAKES. Hitler & Goebbels ALSO praised Karl Marx...until Weimar socialism failed & when the German public already blamed Marx/Weimar, Hitler & Goebbels THEN said, "Oh but that was the WRONG TYPE of socialism, and Strasserists (FAR LEFT Nazi leaders) are the wrong type; Marx and Strasser are GLOBAL INERNATIONAL socialists, and we are NATIONAL socialists."_* You and your are just PARROTING that tactic Hitler/Goebbels used, as well as today's Left usage of Gleichschaltung, Volksveratter, Nomenklatura, points 11-25 of Hitler's "25 point plan," and DOZENS MORE Strasserist/Hitlerist tactics -- LEARN HISTORY, dumbfuck, such as who the Strasserists were, and read the Quran & Hadiths.

    G.... ....

    @The Butcher Of Benghazi. Libya indicted me because I'm too stupid to delete my incriminating emails? moron

  35. M.... C....

    the guy in the hi vis says ‘get outa here’

  36. T.... d....

    Thank you!

  37. k.... w....

    someone should have punched it in the face ..see if it kept on smiling

    k.... w....

    If someone did that the EDL would be in prison violence isnt a good option ye dumb fuckwit

    k.... w....

    they cant put everyone in prison ...fucktard

  38. b.... m....

    Is the album called "white people are bad people of colour are good"

    b.... m....

    Ya got that

    b.... m....

    Coming up on Britain's Next Top Victim, Brian Maidment!

    b.... m....

    Taking Idiots to a new level, there Brian!

  39. M.... C....

    You can learn more from his songs then from all holy books together

    M.... C....

    Ha ha
    Lefty vegan twat

    M.... C....

    Sufiyah was the name of a girl in the Qran -- who Mohamet rapped. Yo cn lern LOTS aot whom the Leftists invited in byy reading...their OWN holy books, ya illiterate low IQ'ed Marxian gunt.

  40. P.... ....

    Truly dreadful song.

    P.... ....

    @Pat come out ye black an tans?

    P.... ....

    Blue-Eyed Boy

    P.... ....

    @Pat man from the daily mail

    P.... ....

    Fun in the Sun

    P.... ....

    @Pat go on home british soldiers

  41. M.... L....

    Beautiful

  42. W.... ....

    Such an out of touch, sneering and pretentious champagne socialist.

    W.... ....

    You closet racists

    W.... ....

    @jay mistry I genuinely feel bad for you folks of mixed ancestry. It's a truly devilish thing to condemn an entire human being to a life without roots. Not even being disingenuous, it must be awful.

    W.... ....

    @Wyndham Some people do well enough in their life they don't need to desperately appeal to the actions of previous generations to create a sense of self worth.

    W.... ....

    @UCA8bwAFIw_AzTHA0ytjwkzg Yes that is a deep human need. I completely acknowledge that. But the idea that idrntification should be based on something as arbitrary as race makes no sense. Theres more genetic variation within racial groups than between them. You can form an identity based on shared values with your fellow man.

  43. M.... L....

    A woman steps out from the crowd would have been, oh so very much better. What is that 'colour'? She has red hair and blue eyes? Green eyes, red cheeks? Come on, it might seem like a little but it's not. You just were wrong when you called her a 'woman of colour' she is a woman who aint deemed white.

  44. r.... s....

    Beautiful and brave.

  45. W.... S....

    Lux Interior (RIP) & Poison Ivy in the Up Next list saved me from this train wreck of a song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9p8g37L8p4

  46. T.... ....

    Brilliant. Should be an obligatory tune for every kindergarden and school in entire world!!!
    Thank you Mr Bragg.

    T.... ....

    TheElectro11000 you're actually fucking nuts.

    T.... ....

    We actually listened to this in English class in Norway.

  47. D.... ....

    Move over Billy, Generation Z are coming!

    D.... ....

    and the sad thing is...most of them will never have heard 'Bold as Love' or know where Billy nicked the phrase from. :-/

    D.... ....

    Goatman333 where did he get the phrase from?

    D.... ....

    Im gen Z and we are all marxist anarcho scum you cant fight solidarity fuckwit

  48. B.... B....

    Billy Billy Billy we love Billy .

  49. c.... ....

    the best edl moment was when the good people of liverpool chased them out their city to yakity sax :) democracy won that day :)

    c.... ....

    @Norman Rogers the IRA wer good men im scouse an I reckon der good

    c.... ....

    @Skinny L The IRA'They are cowardly shit house's.PLANTED bombs and run away..At least the Islam terrorist stay and blow themselves up for their cause.

    c.... ....

    @Norman Rogers yeah but then they die which weakens their force in that logic the brit army are the biggest cowards in europe they sit in their own country and bomb other from planes the IRA are good fighters good people theh want a 32 county ireland and they will get it you dont call someone a coward because they are efficent at fighting thats stupid

    c.... ....

    terrorists can never be good people as they use violence to achieve their goal and hurt innocents with it. also yes we use the technology we have to keep soldiers safe while bombing the enemy......... how dare we use rifle and tanks rather than spears and clubs.i also seem to remember when the IRA killed a bunch of soldiers who were trying to rescue and move injured people encase of a 2nd bomb detonation.

    c.... ....

    The best Islam moment (related to this song,, as Sufiya was the name of a girl Mohammet rapped) was when another girl he rapped -- after killing males of her family -- who was named Zainab, poisoned him when she tired of the daily rappings.

    Ironically for Billyy at 1:31, Aolph called Mohamet "the most ascist prophet...whose religion is the most compatile with our Reich," and the original Nzis,, Stressarists, were FARRRRRR left. Offshoots of Marxism.

  50. J.... O....

    Surface level garbage.

    J.... O....

    Up the RA

  51. i.... ....

    She was wearing a Specials shirt too. Can you be more serendipitous than that?

    i.... ....

    Perhaps... Saffia is name of a girl in the Quran who Mohamet rapped. How serendipedous is THAT? Another one, Zainab, whose family was killed by Mhamet before her daily rappings, killed Mhamet. How serendepidous is 1:31 when you consideer that Adolph called Islam "The most fascistic religion...most compatible with our Reich" and the earliest Naazis, the Strasserist, were FARRRR-left?

    i.... ....

    @Father Muhammad Goldstein, O.B.E., Vizconde de Acapulco She did not choose her name unlike you

    i.... ....

    @John John You seem to be lacking something called "a coherent point." Is that the best rebuttal you can muster?? "wahhhhh, prease stop deriding my Bacha Bazi masters, or else I'll... I'll go to my Crying Room if you Trigger me again using facts. Only FASCISTS use disgusting...those disgusting things called facts. Stop reminding me of reality, that's a FASCIST tactic, you sicko!"

    i.... ....

    @Pat Micucci She was given her name, it was not her choice or do you know better

  52. d.... ....

    Writes about Brexit...writes about the oiks......still dodging one of the major issues though.....terrorism.

    d.... ....

    Meanwhile Tories dodge every issue but terrorism

    d.... ....

    What is Billy the fucking BBC? He's a song writer and completely entitled to write about whatever he wants. He doesn't write songs about loads of things that matter to me, like machining tolerances on cylinder heads, why the fuck should he? I'm pretty sure you won't like it but if you want a song about terrorism put "Lowkey Terrorist" into a youtube search

  53. S.... P....

    This song makes me smile :-))))) Kudos to Billy!

    S.... P....

    Ye dafty

  54. D.... L....

    I prefer Morrisey.

    D.... L....

    Morrisey is both in tune and in touch, BB was always fake

    D.... L....

    Brian Jones what a load of bollocks. BB has always been true to himself and decades later still stands by his principles. Morrissey never got involved with politics musically or otherwise, except perhaps for that foolish Uniion jack episode.

    D.... L....

    ''Morrissey never got involved with politics'?? what a dumb bastard you are

    D.... L....

    Brian Jones: Apart from the odd lyrical pun, explain..

    D.... L....

    proves my point, pissstain

  55. D.... L....

    This woman is a far Left agitator who deliberately disrupted a minute's silence in remembrance of victims of terrorism at an EDL demonstration. She did this knowing the English Defence League would have no option but to speak out, and of course the bias (Left leaning) press were there to take the resulting photo.

    Fortunately, the police saw what she'd done and she was subsequently arrested. Sadly, it didn't stop Billy Bragg and the BBC from siding with someone who is essentially a trouble maker. The "smile" if you look, is really a smirk. She knew exactly what she was doing.



    D.... L....

    Dr. Lanark. Man, I'm not into English politics, but everyone speaking out against you has been awful about it. Your comment was well thought out and expressed your opinon in a fair and non-agressive (or at least less agressive) way. Everyone else just seems to be full of salt.

    D.... L....

    I dont hate or dislike this lady, but she was a trouble maker and was detained by police. Billy on the other hand is as fake and dumb as they come

    D.... L....

    Yes! We are here to take your country from you. Allah Hu Akbar!!!

    D.... L....

    Dr. Lanark, you are a liar. Even Stephen Yaxley-Lennon admitted as much. It's an attempt at a smear because the EDL were shown up for what they are. Anyone who disbelieves me, click on the link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWct2BQWRrE

    D.... L....

    Dr of what? Hate and blindness?

  56. M.... S....

    What a wonderful woman.

  57. K.... B....

    This is what solidarity looks like! Love this!

  58. M.... P....

    Thanks for the great show in Boulder last night!

    M.... P....

    so jealous, I'm from Denver, and if I were home I wouldn't have missed this show either

  59. n.... ....

    Excellent premise/excellent melody/excellent lyrics !

  60. c.... a....

    Name of girl ?

    c.... a....

    Saffiyah

    c.... a....

    Saffiyah Khan from Birmingham.

    c.... a....

    Sleeping dogs HOPE

  61. M.... ....

    http://www.englishdefenceleague.org.uk/billy-bragg-the-edl-and-that-smile/

    M.... ....

    Let's skip the red herrings.
    The English Defence League have never claimed they defend the English Language.
    Let's hear some criticism of the arguments in the article rather than pirouetting around the edges pointing fun at its language. 
    Or are their arguments unanswerable?

    M.... ....

    It's quite clear anyone who approaches the people attending EDL rallies is safe to do so.
    Anyone who were to attempt the same stunt and as a member of EDL were to approach the counter demonstration would be meet in a very different manner.

    The women is privileged to be living in a western society. Should this country become more like, say a moderate Islamic country like Iran for instance, then her rights would look very different, as would her choice of clothes.

    Billy Bragg is a well known Socialist. He has an opinion, yet can never point to a place where his form of socialism works.

    The people of this country are again fighting for freedoms people of other countries can only dream of.

    The left do not want diversity, that would allow different ideas to be discussed without the need to call those that disagree with you, a racist, fascist and so on.

    Wanting a free speech for yourself, does not mean extinguishing free speech for others, yet this is exactly what is happening in the UK and the wider World.

    The girl and Bragg are professional agitators, the wider community couldn't care less about them. Nor should they.

    They do not represent anyone that I know personally, and I suspect Bragg has made just enough money though out his life to make being a Socialist very comfortable for him.

    He's entitled to his view, but his view is not held by the majority. If it were, there'd be very few demonstrations against Immigration, and Islamic Immigration in particular, and he'd be at number 1 in the charts every week, and he'd be a far richer Socialist than he is now. Maybe as rich as his hero Hugo Chavez. And he'd be able to afford to live in Cuba.

    M.... ....

    EDL is far-right neo-nazi group. Your argument is invalid.

    M.... ....

    Paul Collings paragraph 2
    “The woman is privileged to be living in a western society”?
    She was born in this country.

    M.... ....

    Myrmecia
    “Yes she is smiling but what does that mean, exactly”?
    It means hope over fear against Right Wing racist fascists.
    ✊🏾KTF✊️

  62. R.... R....

    Lame AF

    R.... R....

    I reckon its well hevy

  63. M.... B....

    Hi Billy come back to Italy

    M.... B....

    Brilliant. Should be an obligatory tune for every kindergarden and school in entire world!!!
    Thank you Mr Bragg.

  64. p.... p....

    Amazing as ever Billy