In the 2000s, Sarah McLachlan filmed a heartbreaking PSA for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals that featured her 1997 hit “Angel.” Ten years later, we’re still talking about it.
Appearing on Amy Poehler’s podcast, Good Hang with Amy Poehler, Sarah told Amy that the PSA raised $30 million for the organization in the first year alone. When Amy asked her if people assume that she’s “constantly fostering and adopting animals,” Sarah began to laugh.
“Oh yeah,” she said. “And also, just, you know, like, 10 or 20 letters a week about, you know, people sending me all their rescues or, ‘I’m doing this charity. I’m working with this. Can you help?’”
“It took on such a life of its own, I remember I was doing a food bank charity gig in New York eight years later and they said, ‘Can you please not play “Angel”? Because it’s so synonymous with this other charity, there’s going to be some brand confusion,'” Sarah continued. “I’m like, ‘God, are you serious?'”
Sarah told People last year that “in some ways, [the ad] brought me to a whole new audience,” even though she didn’t like it at first.
“I couldn’t watch it. It was just like, ‘Oh, God, it’s awful,'” she told People. “But it worked like a hot damn.”
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