Temperatures will continue to fall over the next few days

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

In her new music video, 10-year-old Mira Babal stands on train tracks, and belts out the opening line of her song “Mad for no Reason.” 

From Mira’s perspective, the moment in which we’re living is defined by anger. She said the adults in her life — teachers, coaches, family — all seem generally ticked off. 

But Mira does have a theory about how things got this way: Years of isolation during the pandemic changed our ability to talk — and listen — to each other. 

“The inspiration of that song was that COVID had just hit. And I felt like after COVID, things weren’t the same,” she said. “People let things get to them. Everybody was just being so negative.”

Mira, who lives in Minnetonka, hopes her song changes the way people treat each other, and she’s 

 with “Mad for No Reason” to make her point. 

 on YouTube, filmed under a graffiti strewn overpass. In it, she sings, plays the guitar, the keyboards and the drums. 

She wrote the lyrics and the music, too. And, at first, her words concerned her mom. 

“I would be like ‘OK. What is this?’ Why don’t you write something about homework, or friends or your sister. That’s more of a 10-year-old perspective,” said Kanika Babal. 

Mira has always been drawn to music, said Kanika. She was belting out the lyrics to “Let It Go” from Frozen before she could talk. 

But Kanika thought “Mad for no Reason” was pretty heavy stuff for a fifth grader. 

“She wanted to write the song. She feels that all the adults have some kind of an energy that she can’t relate with, whether it’s teachers, whether it’s coaches, whether it’s parents. Everyone tends to be always in a rush, always wanting to do things their way,” Kanika said. 

Listening to and writing music has been one way Mira’s found an energy to which she can relate. 

“Music was always just my thing. It would calm me down when I felt a little bit angry. It was the way I would be able to channel my anger or whatever emotions I had,” she said. 

And she works out those emotions on lots of instruments. At her house, she has a piano, a drum set, a bass and several guitars.  

Mira said she definitely gets into fights with her friends and her sister. She said disagreement is normal.

“It happens all the time. We always just like to hear each other and where we’re coming from. And we know that even if we get into an argument, and we don’t hear each other out, we can always just talk it out later,” she said. 

Mira said she hopes her song inspires adults to do the same. 

“Adults have a big part in our lives. We see if they’re being rude to each other, if they’re having an argument,” she said. “If that’s what they're showing us, then that’s going to be the influence.” 

Arts and Culture

Shows

Morning Edition

NewsPartners

Homepage

Instagram

Talking Sense

Catharine Richert

Author

You haven’t heard 10-year-old Mira Babal's latest track on the Billboard Hot 100 — at least not yet. But “Mad for No Reason” is catchy, upbeat — and a callout to the adults in Mira’s life. She wants them to stop arguing all the time. 

10-year-old Minnesota singer Mira Babal tells it like it is in ‘Mad for No Reason’

Go Deeper.

Like this?