Concrete Angel

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"Concrete Angel" is a song performed by Martina McBride and co-produced by McBride and Paul Worley. Composed by Rob Crosby and Stephanie Bentley, the song was released in 2002, featured on McBride's 2001 Greatest Hits album. The song went on to reach #5 on the country music charts.

Spanish singer Marta Sánchez covered the song as "Cómo Un Ángel" in her album Soy Yo, released in 2002. Canadian Idol winner Melissa O'Neil covered the song on the album High Notes.

Content

"Concrete Angel" is a power ballad, centering around a main theme of child abuse. The narrator tells a story about a little girl (named Angela Carter in the music video) who's trying to deal with abuse from her alcoholic mother. Some people, including the girl's teacher, seem to notice signs of abuse, but just try to ignore it. Ultimately, the little girl is killed when her mother beats her to death in a drunken rage.

Music video

In the video, Angela Carter (Noel Wiggins), is a young girl with an abusive mother. She goes to school, where the teacher and other students ignore the bruises that she has on her body. One day a boy (played by Luke Benward) befriends her. One night Angela is talking to the boy out her window and her mother catches her and yells at her. After this fight, an ambulance and police officers are shown at her house. At the end of the video, it shows the little girl's grave, surrounded by a group of people ,including her teacher, and the little boy that befriended her. The boy, who turns out to be an angel, hugs her and they run to meet another group of children who were angels as well. At the end they run off into the horizon. During the video, Martina McBride wore a jacket with Gandalf sleeves. When the video was originally released, it featured the phone number for the child abuse hotline and encouraged viewers to report abuse.

Chart performance