Song written by Ricky Wilde & Kim Wilde.
Twelfth track on the album Here Come the Aliens. The track features backing vocals by Frida Sundemo.
Live performances
‘Rosetta’ was performed live during the Here Come the Aliens Tour in 2018 and 2019 and during the Return of the Aliens Tour, with Ricky Wilde singing the parts of Frida.
Kim about ‘Rosetta’
Rosetta was a space craft that went on a ten year mission to catch a comet, to find out more about life on earth and inspired this song. I asked Frida Sundemo, who we’re huge fans of, and she said yes and did the duet with me for this song, which questions about the meaning of life. Why are we here? It doesn’t really come up with any answers, but I think asks some really good questions. (1)
There’s a song on my album called ‘Rosetta’, it’s about the satellite that started in 2004 and was on its way to the comet Tschurjumow-Gerassimenko for ten years. Its mission was to find out more about the origin of mankind. In the song it’s about not having to go so far to find out that information. The answers about mankind are to be found here, on earth. Our character is shown through the way we handle our planet. And when we are really observed by aliens – and I do have that feeling – then they will be shocked. (2)
Credits
Drums: Jonathan Atkinson
Guitar: Neil Jones
Keyboards, guitar: Ricky Wilde
Piano, keyboards: Stephen Power
Backing vocals: Kim Wilde, Ricky Wilde & Frida Sundemo
Interview sources
(1) Track by track video, YouTube, 23 March 2018
(2) “I was there in the Eighties, but I still remember”, Galore (Germany), May 2018
Lyrics
Bigger than a mountain high,
Core of ice over two miles wide,
Spinning millions of miles away,
Tell us all about the human race.
Tell us from where we’ve come and who we are.
Are we the dust of a distant star?
Does it really matter that we’re here?
Is our irrelevance a thing we fear?
Tell me who you are..
What is your destiny?
Are you still a star still shining?
Or are you burning up and running out of time?
Can love redeem your soul?
Tell me what you believe in.
What is this precious thing called life?
Tell me who you are… who you are…
Walking down this busy street,
Strangers passing next to me.
Knowing this is all a game,
In our bones we’re just the same.
And all the answers we’re searching for,
Are deep inside our icy core,
We need a journey deep inside,
To understand why we’re alive.
Tell me who we are..
What is our destiny?
Are we still a star still shining?
Or are we burning up and running out of time?
Can love redeem our souls?
Tell me what you believe in.
What is this precious thing called life?
Tell me who we are.. who we are..
Tell me who we are.