Yes this is another Bangtan 방탄소년단 song but hear me out.

So there are songs you listen to and you sit there and think “If I was lyrically talented I could have written this song” like it relates to you that much.

Ma City is that kind of song.

In this song the boys talk about their cities like Ilsan 일산, Busan 부산, Gwangju 광주 and Daegu 대구and what their cities mean to them. At first when I listened to this song I thought I couldn’t relate as I’ve moved around a lot so I don’t identify with one place and I’m not sure I’ll stay in Birmingham forever.

But I was at work and someone from London challenged that thought in my mind. Hearing them diss Birmingham and telling me London was better (as Londoners are wont to do) I was like “No I like Birmingham, it’s my kind of city and I’ve grown up here”. Then when I was walking home it hit me.

I can relate to the song!

Birmingham is ma city! For real. It’s gritty, it’s big but not too big, we have a bus system and we don’t have a subway (yay cuz those things are expensive) and I know the places to have fun. It feels comfortable in a way I can’t describe, like home basically.

I also love the accent! Yeah I know there are those who hate it but you know what screw you, it’s beautiful!

In fact when I was in Uni in Wales I was around people from the South and I liked to tease them saying they had no accent (cuz they didn’t). And then one day a guy stood up to do a presentation and he was from Liverpool. He started speaking and the happiness I felt hearing a Northern accent. It was unreal. I didn’t know I’d been missing that Northerness until that moment.

Birmingham is also multicultural. I have never been without brown people. It’s spoiled me or enriched me as now when I go places that have no black or Asian people I feel alone. I need that colour.

So yeah it’s ma city. Somehow over the years it managed to worm its way into my heart. I don’t know how but it did.

That is all 😛

Ps: I guess Rwanda is my country and Ruhengeri is ma city as well as I spent my formative years there and it is home for me. I’ve always known that but I never thought a western place would ever give Ruhengeri competition. Birmingham proved me wrong, now they both occupy the space in my heart. Cheesy but true.