Pink Floyd comes together to record song for Ukrainian relief efforts

A reunited Pink Floyd released a new song Friday — its first since 1994 — to raise money to help the Ukrainian people after Russia’s invasion.

Proceeds from “Hey Hey Rise Up” will go to Ukrainian humanitarian relief efforts, Pink Floyd said in a statement.

The song includes Pink Floyd members David Gilmour and Nick Mason and features vocals from Ukrainian singer Andriy Khlyvnyuk of the band BoomBox.

The track uses vocals taken from an Instagram post of Mr. Khlyvnyuk singing the Ukrainian patriotic song “Red Viburnum In The Meadow” in front of Kyiv’s St. Sophia Cathedral.

Pink Floyd called “Red Viburnum In The Meadow” a “rousing Ukrainian protest song” written during the first world war. The title of the Pink Floyd song is borrowed from the last line of the patriotic song, which translates to “Hey Hey Rise up and rejoice,” the band explained in the statement.

Mr. Gilmour, who joined BoomBox on stage in London in 2015, said in the statement that the Instagram video was “a powerful moment that made me want to put it to music.”

Mr. Khlyvnyuk had ended his U.S. tour and returned to Ukraine.

Mr. Gilmour said he called Mr. Khlyvnyuk while writing the song and spoke to the Ukrainian singer, who was in the hospital recovering from a mortar shrapnel injury.

“I hope it will receive wide support and publicity. We want to raise funds for humanitarian charities and raise morale,” Mr. Gilmour said in the statement. “We want to express our support for Ukraine and, in that way, show that most of the world thinks that it is totally wrong for a superpower to invade the independent democratic country that Ukraine has become.”