Do You Hear the People Sing?

"**Do You Hear the People Sing?**" ("*À La Volonté du Peuple*" (The People's Will), in the original French version) is one of the principal and most recognisable songs from the musical Les Misérables. It is sung twice in the stage musical.

## Overview

The song is first sung in Act I by Enjolras and the other students at the ABC Cafe as they prepare themselves to launch a rebellion in the streets of Paris during the funeral procession of General Jean Maximilien Lamarque. The song is sung again in the finale as the final song of the musical. This second version, which immediately follows a number by Jean Valjean and others, is sung by the entire cast with revised lyrics, and becomes progressively louder with each stanza.

The song is a revolutionary call for people to overcome adversity. The "barricades" referred to in the song are erected by the rebel students in the streets of Paris in the musical's second act. They are to draw the National Guard into combat and ignite a civilian uprising to overthrow the government, but their rebellion eventually fails.

### Use in Various Languages

* The original French version of Les Miserables did not end with the full ensemble singing this song; It only later became the musical's finale song when it was revamped for the English-language version.
* At the special *Les Miserables 10th Anniversary Concert* in 1995, "Do You Hear the People Sing?" was sung by 17 different actors who had played Jean Valjean around the world. Each actor sang a line of the song in his own language. The languages sung were English, French, German, Japanese, Hungarian, Swedish, Polish, Dutch, Norwegian, Czech, Danish, and Icelandic.
* Another unofficial adaptation of "Do You Hear the People Sing?" is to Turkish, named "*Duyuyor Musun Bizi İşte Çapulcu'nun Sesi*" sang during Gezi Park Protests.
* In 2017 and during the 45th anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law by late president and dictator of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos, an unofficial Filipino adaptation of the song, entitled as "*Di Mo Ba Naririnig?*," was used as a protest song.
* In Chinese language speaking countries/regions, there are many dialect versions of the song. While a popular Mandarin Chinese (Standard Chinese/普通话) version - 民众呐喊  is a singable translation authentic to the original English lyrics, Cantonese - 問誰未發聲 and Taiwanese - 你敢有聽着咱的歌 versions are mixtures of dialect translation from the English lyrics and specific references to corresponding political protests (see below).

### Use as a Protest Song

There are unofficial adaptations of "Do You Hear the People Sing?" in Cantonese and Taiwanese, intended as actual protest songs; better known versions include "Asking Who That Hasn't Spoken Out" (問誰未發聲), written in Cantonese for Occupy Central with Love and Peace, and *Lí Kám Ū Thiann-tio̍h Lán Ê Kua* (你敢有聽着咱的歌) in Taiwanese Hokkien.

Aside from the aforementioned Cantonese and Taiwanese Hokkien adaptations, *The Telegraph* said that the song "has long chimed with people protesting around the world", adding that it was heard at the 2011 Wisconsin protests, the 2013 protests in Turkey, and a protest against the opening of a McDonald's restaurant in Australia in 2013. It has also been used by anti-TTIP protesters who have interrupted TTIP congresses as flashmobs singing the song.

### Use in Politics

On 16 September 2016, during his presidential campaign, Donald Trump used the song in a rally in Miami under the parody title *Les Déplorables*, a response to Hillary Clinton's controversial "basket of deplorables" label.