Jen Armstrong (vegan): Sing for the Defenseless, Part 1 of 2

Based in Yorkshire, United Kingdom, Jen Armstrong is a professional musician who frequently performs at public and private events, teaches singing and writes her own songs. Many of Jen’s songs express the agony of the animal-people in the livestock industry. Jen calls on humans to recognize the reality of where their food comes from and make necessary changes in order to live a cruelty-free lifestyle. She has used her musical talent to become a powerful voice for helpless, innocent beings, such as in “Only One Life.”

Jen eloquently expresses the terrible suffering which occurs behind the closed doors of the slaughterhouses in “What Hell Is Like.” “Don't know what it was I did To end up in a place like this. I've heard that there is love somewhere up above Outside the hell this is. No one cares that I am me I'm just a number on a sheet. Just something to use, until I'm no use A commodity. I'm dying Struggling for air Here crying And no one even cares.”

Let’s listen to a song written and performed by Jen titled “What’s It Gonna Take,” which asks a question of utmost importance for so many compassionate people like Jen. “Poison in the river, poison in the sea. Moving swiftly and silently, suffocating all that lives and breathes. Fire in the forest, fire in the trees. Burning quickly and violently, taking every life so greedily. What's it gonna take to make the people see? Our Earth is at a breaking point because of you and me. We take it all for granted, the birds and the bees. What's it gonna take to change society? Consumers have the power, consumers have the say. But we're so greedy. We don't need it. But we've been taught to want it anyway.”

Like many people, Jen’s life has changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but for her there was a silver lining. “And because I've started focusing on my health and cooking and yoga and trying to get into meditation and walking and running with my dogs, just experiencing nature, going into nature, just making time for all those things. It's really helped me mentally and physically, which of course then it’s helped my music as well. So I just feel better, I’m healthier.”