The songs of Hamilton have been stuck in our heads since the Broadway musical was made available on Disney+ last summer. The Tony-winning show from Lin-Manuel Miranda has had its second wind of having a huge cultural moment since first debuting on the stage in 2015. It has become the inspiration for a YouTube music number adapted by North California physician Dr. Andrew Liu, who wrote a new version of “My Shot” to educate the public about getting their COVID-19 vaccinations.
The doctor, who practices in Vacaville, California, decided to remix one of the popular big numbers from Hamilton and create a music video to promote the importance of vaccines to make the COVID-19 pandemic a distant memory. He recruited his wife, Dr. Tuong-Vi Ha, and six other local healthcare workers to reimagine “My Shot.” Check it:
Physicians… they get the job done. It’s a super impressive video complete with new raps and lyrics to the song from the award-winning musical about Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. They cleverly trade out the metaphorical “shot” of taking a chance with the two literal shots in the arms they hope everyone will decide to make an appointment to get done once it becomes locally available to them. The song switches out “young, scrappy and hungry” for ”down, tired and angry” to describe medical workers’ deposition following a year of treating 124 million cases worldwide and 2.73 million deaths. Here's another standout line:
I’m past patiently waiting. I’m passionately smashing misrepresentation. Every shot’s an act of affirmation. I’m standing in the way of casualties and sorrow. For the first time, I’m thinking past tomorrow.
Dr. Andrew Liu and Dr. Tuong-Vi Ha are apparently huge musical theater fans who decided to band with emergency medicine doctors Dr. Tony Berger, Dr. Heidi Ladner and Dr. Fernando Silva, as well as doctors of infectious medicine Dr. Raul Macias Gil and Dr. Amanda Thornton, to make the video. It took about three months to record, shoot and edit it with the help of a local filmmaker amidst their busy schedules, per The LA Times.
Liu also called the team behind Hamilton to get permission to use the tune of “My Shot” for the music video and was given their blessing. Neither Lin-Manuel Miranda nor other members of the Hamilton cast have commented on the “My Shot” adaptation publicly, but over 100 thousand people have viewed the video that encourages citizens to be part of the vaccine rollout.
The video passionately makes the argument for the COVID-19 vaccine with explanations from medical professionals and proof of medical trials and effectiveness for the leading vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna. Following Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda is getting ready to release another musical this summer In The Heights. Here’s to dancing in the streets and buying tickets to in-person showings of Hamilton once vaccines continue to be administered around the globe.
