Tell Me Why

Album: What You Don't Know (1989)
Charted: 97 9
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Exposé, known for upbeat dance tunes like "Point Of No Return" and heartfelt ballads like "Seasons Change," didn't sing much about politics or world affairs, but "Tell Me Why" is an exception. The song is a call for peace, asking why there is so much fighting in the world and what it accomplishes. Released as a single, it went to #9 in the US, giving them their seventh consecutive Top 10 hit.
  • Exposé was the creation of Miami producer Lewis Martineé, who wrote all the songs for their debut album and most of the songs on their second album, What You Don't Know, including this one. "I was watching the news and there were a lot of gang fights and murders and things like that, so I wanted to write something about it," he said in a Songfacts interview. "Like, why do it?"
  • Gioia Bruno, who was also in front for "Let Me Be The One," sang lead on this track. Bruno was one of the three replacements for the original Exposé, which left during the making of their first album. Bruno arrived after Jeanette Jurado, who sang lead on most of their songs.
  • The music video was directed by David Kellogg, whose credits include "Jam" by Michael Jackson and "Lies" by En Vogue. We see the three singers perform the song, intercut with scenes of inner-city decay. At one point, there's an empty desk in a classroom, following by a casket going into the ground, indicating another tragic death.

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