If there’s a superhero in you and you feel like you have the power to save the world, then this is your playlist. Grab your cape and mask, and let the action begin!
Here’s a look at some of the most inspiring superhero theme songs out there, as well as songs written and performed by some of our all time favourite bands and musicians who feature on these superhero movie soundtracks.
Superman Theme – John Williams (1978)
“Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith first. The trust part comes later” – Man of Steel (2013)
Williams conducted the London Symphony Orchestra to record the Superman soundtrack, made up of three main components: a fanfare, a march and a love theme. The structure of the theme contributes to the emotional power of the song. Director Richard Donner was unable to contain his excitement and ruined the first take of the original recording session for the film’s theme by shouting: “Genius! Fantastic!”
The Superman theme was nominated at the 36th Golden Globes for Best Music (Original Score) and won a Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.
Ghostbusters Theme – Ray Parker, Jr. (1984)
“We came, we saw, we kicked ass!” – Dr. Peter Venkman
“Ghostbusters” was recorded by Ray Parker, Jr. in 1984 and reached Nº1 on Billboard Hot 100 and reached Nº2 on the UK Singles Chart, staying there for three weeks. Parker only had a few days to complete the song. He was inspired by a cheap commercial on TV and thus, wrote a pseudo-advertising jingle for the movie soundtrack.
It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Music (Original Song).
Spider-Man Main Title – Danny Elfman (2002)
“With great power comes great responsibility” – Uncle Ben
Sony released Danny Elfman’s Original Motion Picture Score for Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man in June 2002. It fuses traditional orchestration, ethnic percussion and electronic elements. It was nominated for Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television, or Other Visual Media at the 45th Grammy Awards.
The Hulk Theme – Danny Elfman (2003)
“Hulk Smash!”
Danny Elfman composed the soundtrack to Ang Lea’s film adaptation of the Hulk, released in 2002. Allmusic’s review states: “Elfman tried to fuse his own quirky, often tense style, with a more overtly serious, droning sound that feels more akin to the work of Hans Zimmer.”
The Incredibles Theme – Michael Giacchino (2004)
“I never look back, darling, it distracts from the now” – Edna Mode
Michael Giacchino scores his first Pixar film, The Incredibles, in 2004. It’s a fun track that mixes spy/adventure music from the 60’s with fun jazz music. The theme won several awards for Best Score and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.
The Dark Knight Trilogy Themes – Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard (2005 – 2012)
“It’s not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me” – Bruce Wayne
Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard co-composed the soundtracks to The Dark Knight Trilogy, which includes Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight rises (2012), however Howard did not return to complete the score of the third film of the franchise. Regarding his departure, he said: “I just really felt that I had made what I felt like I could contribute to the series, and I always felt that Hans was the mastermind of those scores. I mean, they really sounded the way they sounded because of him. His conception of the scores was really brilliant. It’s not that I didn’t add a lot, I did, but I don’t think I added the aspects of the music that really defines the character of those movies”.
The score of The Dark Knight (2008) won the Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.
Iron Man Movie Theme – Ramin Djawadi (2008)
“Iron Man – That’s kind of catchy. It’s got a nice ring to it” – Tony Stark
The Iron Man Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was composed by Ramin Djawadi and released in May 2008. The Iron Man main theme song for the Jon Favreau’s 2008 adaptation of Marvel Comic’s Iron Man has been described by AllMusic as a “slow-built menace of Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard’s work on Christopher Nolan’s Batman franchise and dials an industrial army that utilizes crushing percussion, huge strings, and a symphony of distorted guitars, that echo Metallica’s concerts with the San Francisco Symphony, minus the vocals.”
Captain America: The First Avenger Theme – Alan Silvestri (2011)
“This isn’t freedom. We’re holding a gun to every citizen’s head and calling it security” – Captain America
Composed by Alan Silvestri and released in June 2011, the Captain America theme has been deemed by Jonathan Broxton of Movie Music UK as “one of the most enjoyable scores of the summer for one single reason – it’s fun… much like the film it wears its heart on its sleeve and has a simple intent: to excite you, to entertain you, and leave the experience smiling.” Allmusic have reviewed it as: “appropriately stoic and expansive… both familiar and iconic… it’s enjoyable and effective, but not groundbreaking, which pretty much sums up the score as a whole”.
Here’s the extended playlist:
Don’t have Creation 5? Download it from the App Store!
YouTube have revealed their list of the most played music videos of 2014 (so far) and Katy Perry’s ‘Dark Horse’ is the clear winner – by a sweet 100 million views! Sitting pretty in second place are the sexy twosome – Shakira and Rihanna with their over-the-top video for “Can’t Remember to Forget You”. Shakira appears twice in the list as does Latin heart throb Enrique Iglesias.
1-Katy Perry, ‘Dark Horse’ ft Juicy J (494,834,900 views)
Katy Perry’s Dark Horse music video is the clear favourite to be the year’s top clip, with almost half a billion views since February! The clip sees Perry as an Egyptian queen with supernatural powers. The video has sparked quite a bit of controversy though among the Muslim community as Perry uses her powers to disintegrate a man wearing a pendant with the word Allah on it. “Blasphemy is clearly conveyed in the video, since Katy Perry (who appears to be representing an opposition of God) engulfs the believer and the word God in flames,” wrote Shazad Iqbal in an online petition to have the video banned. Many similar petitions submitted to the website change.org have been met with counter-calls from YouTube to keep the video online in the name of “free expression”.
2-Shakira, ‘Can’t Remember to Forget You’ ft Rihanna (358,925,042 views)
Shakira and Rihanna’s sexy video is only 100 million views behind at 360 million views. This video also caused quite a scandal for showing the two girls writhing around together on a bed and smoking cigars. A columbian politician released a statement saying that the video should be banned for promoting tobacco and lesbianism, the New York Daily News website reported.
3-Shakira, ‘La La La (Brazil 2014)’ ft. Carlinhos Brown (264,211,400 views)
This video ranked high on this top 10 for three reasons: 1) It was one of the official World Cup songs, 2) It’s Shakira (she now has 101 million fans on Facebook) and 3) It’s a great video clip, the best of the World Cup ones, and you even get to see Shakira’s football skills!
4- ‘We Are One (Ole Ola)’ [The Official 2014 FIFA World Cup Song] (Olodum Mix) (218,498,700 views)
Another World Cup song by Pitbull feat. Jennifer Lopez & Claudia Leitte – this powerhouse trio is enough to rank up some hefty views, even without the influence of the World Cup. The song received positive reviews from critics, but also some negative reactions from Brazilians due to its lack of Brazilian ‘feeling’. To remedy that, another version was created and the music changed slightly to fit Afro Brazilian group Olodum’s style of drumming. It didn’t do that well commercially but did reach the top-twenty in a few countries including Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, France and the World Cup’s host country Brazil.
5-Enrique Iglesias, ‘Bailando’ (Español) ft Descemer Bueno, Gente De Zona (230,758,500 views)
This song is the Sound of Summer 2014 – at the top of numerous Latin charts it’s heard everyday on the radio. For a song that is mostly in Spanish, it’s interesting how it has become such a big pop hit. Perhaps Enrique is just the ultimate ambassador of the cool and smooth vibe. Or perhaps it’s because the song is so damn happy and feel-good that it cuts through all the clutter and sets your hips swaying…? Enrique himself told Billboard’s executive director of Latin content and programming, Leila Cobo, “Of all the songs I’ve written in Spanish, there’s something about this song, the more I listen to it, the more I seem to like it. There’s something addictive about this song.”
6-The Chainsmokers, ‘#SELFIE’ (187,011,580 views)
This video and song perfectly captures our cultural obsession with selfies. It might soon be relegated to a pop culture footnote but for now it shows no signs of dwindling. The Chainsmokers are Drew Taggart and Alex Pall and they recorded a demo of the track and uploaded it to Soundcloud and Instagram. It went viral and was picked up by Steve Aoki’s Dim Mak Records. Ok, so it was helped by TheAudience – a marketing firm that specialises in social media, but nonetheless no one can deny that it became a ‘viral sensation’.
7-Iggy Azalea, ‘Fancy’ ft Charli XCX (187,050,600 views)
This song has spent the majority of the summer to date at Nº1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It is the song of the summer. From Memorial Day to Independence day Fancy was downloaded 1.3 million times – that’s a record for a six week period. According to Billboard, since Memorial Day “Fancy” has a cumulative audience of 1.03 billion “listener impressions”. Fancy that.
8-Frozen Soundtrack, ‘Let It Go’ (291,127,574 views)
The worldwide phenomenon that is the Frozen soundtrack – many have been surprised at the incredible success of this soundtrack. “When a musical grosses a billion dollars at the worldwide box office and features an inspirational album, why should we be surprised?” asks Glen Brunman, former head of Sony Music’s soundtrack unit. The time that the movie was launched made the ‘weather’ a key player in it’s success. With freezing temperatures, most Americans were confined to their homes and the album became a soundtrack to more than a movie. Disney fans have posted more than 30,000 versions of the song to YouTube with a combined total of more than 150,000,000 views.
9-Jason Derulo, ‘Wiggle ft Snoop Dogg’ (155,308,309 views)
What a great combination Derulo and Snoop Dog make! This track, lifted from the hugely successful ‘Tatoos’ album sees Jason and friends surrounded by bikini-clad girls enjoying a party at a huge mansion – it’s not difficult to understand it’s success!
10-Enrique Iglesias, ‘El Perdedor’ ft. Marco Antonio Solís (130,772,069)
The second single from Enrique’s album ‘Sex and Love’ – the song is the opening theme of Mexican telenovela ‘Lo Que La Vida Me Robó’. It’s the 5th time one of Enrique’s songs has been chosen as an opening theme of a telenova. According to reports, Enrique wrote this song eight years ago and was just waiting for the right time to approach Marco Antonio Solís, one of his biggest idols, to ask him to put his vocals on it. The music video, released in January 2014 was directed by Jessy Terrero and also features a guest appearance by televonela star Sandra Echeverría.
Don’t have Creation 5? Download it from the App Store!
Album covers have sadly become a lost art in the twenty-first century. Stemming from the international standardization of MP3 in the early 90’s, to the iPod revolution in the early 2000’s, to the rise of today’s download and stream-friendly platforms like iTunes, YouTube and Spotify, album covers have regretfully been reduced to the size of a stamp and are only truly cherished by a small minority of people.
This will explain why some of the best and most iconic album covers date back to the 60’s and 70’s – a time all music lovers associate as the ‘glory’ years; a time when everything to do with music was treasured at its face value; a time when album covers captured “the dreams, hopes and fears of a music-loving generation” and when studying the sleeve was part of the whole-rounded experience of owning an LP.
Here are our picks for the 20 greatest album covers of all time. We review our favourite 10 in date-release order.
1. The Velvet Underground – “The Velvet Underground and Nico” (1967)
The bright yellow banana that graced the cover of The Velvet Underground and Nico’s debut album has become one of the most recognised pieces of pop artwork ever, crafted by the most popular pop artist ever, Andy Warhol, who also produced this 1967 protopunk album. The original album cover was interactive, telling fans to “peel slowly and see” and allowing them to peel back the banana skin sticker that revealed a pink banana underneath. Part of the reason behind the album’s delayed release was because manufacturers found it hard to pull-off the sexually charged effect of peeling the banana.
Although the album saw no commercial success, the band eventually became a cult favourite in the decades after The Velvet Underground broke up. Today, the album has become a rare collector’s item and an emblem of the protopunk genre.
2. Cream – “Disraeli Gears” (1967)
Created by Australian artist, Martin Sharp, the cover of Cream’s “Disreali Gears” album has become an icon of spiralling fluorescent movement of the 60’s. Sharp combined Victorian elements and loads of “flower-power” roses and feathers with a publicity photo he had been given by Eric Clapton. Sharp attempted to capture the sound of the psychedelic music in the cover, which he described as a “warm, fluorescent sound”, by first drawing the cover in black and white and then colouring it in with fluorescent, eye-stinging, colours.
3. The Beatles – “Abbey Road” (1969)
Those who believed Paul McCartney’s death myth in 1967 analysed the cover of Abbey Road. They believed that McCartney has been replaced by a dopplegänger and interpreted the picture as a funeral procession, with John Lennon as the preacher (dressed in white), Ringo Star as the mourner (dressed in black), George Harrison as the gravedigger (dressed in denim) and Paul McCartney as the corpse (walking barefoot). They also believed that the license plate in the background read 281f, symbolising McCartney’s death at the age of 27 (when the album came out) and making people think the message was intended to represent McCartney turning 28, had he not died. All of the latter was pure coincidence. The Beatles shot the cover of the album on August 8th, 1969 outside of Abbey Road studios.
The cover is the most recognised album cover in pop music history and has been parodied several times. Today, Abbey Road is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the London area.
4. The Rolling Stones – “Sticky Fingers” (1971)
“Sticky Fingers” was The Rolling Stones’ first album for Atlantic Records, which provided them with the budget to mass-produce their cover art with an actual zipper. Designed by Andy Warhol, the zipper on the album’s cover could be unzipped to reveal white underwear with the Rolling Stones’ tongue logo plastered on it. Nobody seems to know who exactly was the man in the underwear, but it wasn’t Mick Jagger’s crotch, contrary to the popular myth.
5. Pink Floyd – “Dark Side Of The Moon” (1973)
The design of the iconic album cover for “Dark Side Of The Moon” represents three elements; the band’s stage lighting, that comes through via the prism of light, Richard Wright’s request for a “simple and bold” graphic design, and a triangle to symbolise thought and ambition, a subject that comes through in the album lyrics. The initial inspiration for the album cover art was a black and white photo of a prism on top of some sheet music, with a colour beam going through it. Storm Thorgerson, George Hardie, and the team at Hipgnosis, took these initial ideas as a starting point and eventually came up with the iconic prism-and-rainbow design set against a black background.
6. Led Zeppelin – “House Of The Holy” (1973)
Inspired by the ending of Arthur C. Clark’s novel, “Childhood’s End”, which portrayed several hundreds of naked children wandering the earth, Led Zeppelin’s artwork for their “House Of The Holy” album has become one of the most iconic and most mysterious album covers of the 70’s. Produced by the design firm Hipgnosis, the cover was shot on the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland. Audrey Powell, who designed the cover, photographed two children, a brother and sister, over the course of ten days at dusk and at dawn. The children were to originally be tinted in gold and silver but the hand tinting accidentally went wrong. Powell explains: “when we hand-tinted it, the airbrush artist, by accident, put a kind of purple tinge onto them. When I first saw it, I said, “Oh, my God.” Then we looked at it, and I said, “Hang on a minute, this has an otherworldly quality.” So we left it as it was”. The siblings were later multi-printed to create a small army of 11 children.
7. The Sex Pistols – “Never Mind The Bollocks Here’s The Sex Pistols” (1977)
According to Steve Jones, the album’s title, which was originally going to be titled God Save Sex Pistols, was taken from two fans who would always say the phrase “never mind the bollocks” to one another. Due to the album’s indecent use of language, the police filed an obscenity case and tried to prosecute Virgin Rercords for displaying it on their shop shelves. The Sex Pistols and Virgin Records were found not guilty after their lawyer, Queen’s Council John Mortimer, produced expert witnesses who could demonstrate that the word “bollocks” was a legitimate Old English term originally used to refer to a priest, and which also meant “nonsense”, in the context of the title.
Art director of the Sex Pistols and designer of the album cover, Jamie Reid, explains: “I saw Punk as part of an art movement that’s gone over the last hundred years, with roots of Russian agitpop, surrealism, dada and situationism”.
The cover became a blueprint for punk design.
8. The Clash – “London Calling” (1979)
Pennie Smith captured one of the most iconic pictures in rock music history, while taking pictures of the Clash at New York’s Palladium in September of 1979.
Simonon explains: “we weren’t getting any response from them [the audience], no matter what we did. I’m generally good-natured, but I do bottle things up and then I’m like a light switch, off and on, and it can be quite scary, even for me, when I switch, because it’s very sudden. Onstage that night I just got so frustrated with that crowd and when I go to the breaking point I started to chop the stage up with my guitar”.
…Talk about rock n’ roll!
9. Nirvana – “Nevermind” (1991)
The naked baby floating underwater on Nirvana’s “Nevermind” album is one of the most eye-catching album covers of all time. According to photographer Kirk Weddle, the image was “a fluke”. Kirk completed the shoot at a public pool in Pasadena in Southern California, after convincing his friends to use their four-month-old baby boy for the cover, of which the original concept was to capture an underwater birth. Kirk explained: “the mom was on my left, and blew a puff of air into the child’s face… then we dunked him in and, bang bang, pulled him out. We did it twice and that was it”. The fish hook and dollar bill were added by the record label’s art department as finishing touches. Indeed, “the baby has a platinum album”, says Kirk. Today, Spencer Eden, the infamous naked baby, admits: “It’s kind of creepy that many people have seen me naked… I feel like the world’s biggest porn star.”
10. Santana – “Corazon” (2014)
Santana’s unique cover art for the latest and very first all-Latin music album “Corazon” was designed by art collective Boa Mistura, who is based in Madrid and works on public art pieces and developing projects in South Africa, Norway, Berlin, Sao Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro. Full of bright colours, this album cover is a beautiful eye-catcher.
11. Frank Sinatra – “In The Wee Small Hours” (1955) / 12. The Beatles – “Revolver” (1966)
13. King Crimson – “In The Court Of The Crimson King” (1969) / 14. The Who – “Who’s Next” (1971)
Animated music videos, including cartoon, motion graphics, 3D, lo-fi and hand-drawn animation, have become a big hit throughout the MTV Generation. The animated style has become a go-to for artists on tour who don’t have time to appear for shoots, who don’t want to appear in their own clips, who have a tighter budget, or even artists who simply choose animation for stylistic purposes.
By putting together a playlist of some of our favourite animated videos, including promos by Queen, Bjork, Gorillaz and Daft Punk, we honour the talented designers and illustrators behind some of the craftiest and most colourful music videos in our digital modern age.
The videos are featured in date-release order, following the evolution of digital animation.
Dire Straits – Money For Nothing (1985)
‘Money for Nothing’ was Dire Straits’ most successful single, peaking at Nº1 for three weeks in the US. Taken from their hugely successful 5th studio album ‘Brothers in Arms’, the song won a Grammy for the Best Rock performance. The album proved to be the band’s crowning glory selling more than 25 million copies worldwide. It was also the first album to sell a million copies in the new CD format. The music video featured early computer animation illustrating the lyrics and was one of the first uses of computer-animated human characters – it was considered ground-breaking at the time of its release. When MTV Europe launched in 1987 this was the first video they played which contained the appropriate line ‘I Want My MTV’! The video was awarded “Video of the Year” (among many other nominations) at the third annual MTV Video Music Awards in 1986.
Leave Me Alone – Michael Jackson (1987)
The music video for ‘Leave Me Alone’, directed and produced by Jim Blashfield and Paul Diener, combines stop motion animation and weird imagery, including shrines to actress Elizabeth Taylor, tabloid videos of MJ’s personal and public life, a nose being chased by a surgical scalpel in reference to Jackson’s plastic surgery, all of which compliment the song’s paranoid feel towards the paparazzi and the media. The video won Best Short Film Music Video at the Grammy Awards in 1990 and Best Special Effects at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards. It also received 6 nominations for Video of The Year, Viewer’s Choice, Breakthrough Video, Best Editing and Best Art Direction. After MJ’s death, Rolling Stone referred to the track as “Jackson’s most monumental song”.
Innuendo – Queen (1991)
‘Innuendo’ immediately shot to Nº1 in the UK Singles Charts in 1991. It is the lengthiest of Queen’s songs ever to be released as a single. The music video, directed by Jerry Hibbert and Rudi Dolezal, inspired by George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, has been described as one of the band’s darkest and most moving works. The use of live action with stop motion animation, eerie plasticine figurines, montage and illustrations, accommodates Queen’s prog-rock, heavy metal, flamenco and rock opera sound of the early 90s. While Freddie Mercury is drawn in the style of Leonardo da Vinci, Brian May is drawn in the style of Victorian print, Taylor in the style of Jackson Pollock, and Deacon in the style of Pablo Picasso.
Hold me thrill me kiss me kill me – U2 (1995)
Written for the ‘Batman Forever’ soundtrack, the American top 20s smash was nominated for a Golden Globe. Inspired by the world of comic books, it was only fitting that the band members of U2 would appear as cartoon superheroes and villains performing in Gotham City in the animated video clip. Directed by Dave King, the video also uses clips from the third installment of Tim Burton’s Batman film series.
Paranoid Android – Radiohead (1997)
The animated music video for ‘Paranoid Android’, created by Magnus Carlsson, is drawn in a simplistic style, using bold colours and clear, graphic lines. It features Robin, the character from the Swedish animated series ‘Robin’, and his friend Benjamin setting out into the world, running into EU representatives, bullying pub patrons, and featuring a prostitute, two men kissing, a drug addict, deranged businessmen, mermaids and an angel who plays table tennis with Robin. The video is indeed bizarre and hard to figure out!
Freak On A Leash – Korn (1999)
The animated music video for the late 90s funk-metal sounding track, ‘Freak On A Leash’, directed by Todd McFarlane, contains a mixture of animation and live performance footage. The video combines “special effects and clever camera moves in the live action portion of the video”, while it follows the journey of an accidentally-fired bullet travelling out of the animated cartoon realm and into the real world, damaging property and flying around the members of Korn, before it makes its way back into the animated world. The video received awards for Best Editing and Best Rock Video at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards and also won a Grammy Award for Best Short Music Video in 2000.
One More Time – Daft Punk (2000)
The music video animation in Daft Punk’s dance-pop classic track ‘One More Time’ later appeared in the 2003 Japanese animated film ‘Interstella 5555: The 5tory of 5ecret 5tar System’. The video, directed by Kazuhisa Takenouchi under the visual supervision of Leiki Matsumoto, illustrates a pop-band made up of blue-skinned aliens performing a song on their home planet, while a bizarre force approaches it.
Californication – Red Hot Chilli Peppers (2000)
‘Californication’ is still one of the band’s most popular songs. The animated music video, directed and produced by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, has over 110 million views on YouTube. The video takes the form of a video game, which intercuts with live-action footage of the band performing. The game is filmed from a third-person point of view of each of the band members, all of whom are on different adventures within the game. Eventually, the band members end up turning back from 3D computer-generated avatars into their real selves, as the message on the screen reads ‘Game Over’.
Feel Good Inc. – Gorillaz ft. De La Soul (2005)
The alternative rock song, ‘Feel Good Inc.’, by the British virtual band Gorillaz, won Best Pop Collaboration at the 2006 Grammy Awards, Best Breakthrough Video and Best Special Effects in a video at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards. Directed by Jamie Hewlett and Pete Candeland, the music video mixes CGI with two-dimensional animation to create a textured and layered effect, with Japanese-inspired colours, textures and tones. The animated video’s main themes approach the issues of intellectual freedom and the media-induced dumbing down of mass culture.
Wanderlust – Björk (2008)
Björk has said that ‘Wanderlust’ is about “being in the state of something and almost knowing you’re never going to find it”. The strange and uncanny animated music video, directed by Ecyclopedia Pictura, presents us with a kaleidoscopic vision, by using a mixture of animation, large-scale puppets, live action acrobatics, miniature clay figurines and CGI. The video also uses pillarboxing – an effect that occurs on widescreen displays when black bars are places on the sides of the image, shrinking the original image and placing it in the centre of the widescreen frame. The video won Best Art Direction, Best Alternative/Indie Video and Video of The Year at the 2008 UK Video Music Awards. It was also nominated for Best Special Effects.
Heartless – Kanye West (2008)
Kanye West teams up with director Hype Williams, for a vibrant tribute to Ralph Bakshi’s 1981 film ‘American Pop’. It features rotoscope animation (a technique in which animators trace over footage, frame by frame, for use in live-action and animated films) and references several scenes and background from the film. The video was William’s first animated clip. ‘Heatless’ is one of the best-selling singles of all time, selling 5.5 million digital copies in 2009, alone.
Strawberry Swing – Coldplay (2009)
Coldplay’s sweet melody, with afro-pop influences and alternative rock vibes, became a top 5 hit in several European charts. The music video for ‘Strawberry Swing’, directed by Shynola, features stop motion animation, with frontman turned superhero Chris Martin lying on the ground against animated chalk drawings, as he rescues a damsel in distress. The video was nominated for Best Animation at the MTV Video Music Awards 2009 and for Breakthrough Video at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards.
Get Busy Living – Goldfish (2010)
Goldfish are know for their stylistic and comedic animated music videos, most of which have connecting stories, use recurring characters and which usually feature pop culture references. The music video for ‘Get Busy Living’, directed and animated by Mike Scott, was the official video for Goldfish’s first single from their self-titled album.
The Shrine – Fleet Foxes (2011)
Sean Pecknold, brother of Fleet Foxes frontman Robin, directed the haunting animated music video for ‘The Shrine’. It’s an eight-minute long video about a carnivorous antelope “travelling across a hostile, fantastical landscape”.
Miss Atomic Bomb – The Killers (2012)
Director Warren Fu fuses the two mediums of animation and live-action shots to bring to life a heartbreaking love story in the animated music video for ‘Miss Atomic Bomb’. The video has been characterized as “the epic companion to Mr. Brightside”, as it continues the love triangle depicted in the latter video, released in 2004. Actress Izabella Miko and actor Eric Roberts re-adopt and re-enact their roles from the ‘Mr. Brightside’ video and approach the story from a different point of view.
Don’t have Creation 5? Download it from the App Store!
21-year-old British pop singer-songwriter/acoustic-guitarist, Lewis Watson, is a name rising to the global skyline. The YouTube sensation-turned prolific iTunes chart topper, has released five EP’s and an album since his 2012 debut, and has built a following of over 100,000 Facebook likes, 70,000 Twitter followers, five million YouTube views and five million Spotify streams. Watson’s album “The Morning”, released on July 8, is charged with powerful melodies and has storytelling qualities that tremble with sensitivity, charm, honesty and maturity.
Lewis chose our Sunday Sessions this week!
The Oxfordshire-born troubadour began his road to stardom at the somewhat tardy age of 16, when he was given a guitar for his 16th birthday and began uploading his tunes on YouTube. Watson soon landed a deal with Warner Bros after releasing his first EP “BTW”. The charming boy-next-door, with his folk-rooted sound, is indeed “something quite special”. Having yielded singles such as “Calling”, “Even If” and “Stay”, toured with the likes of Birdy and Benjamin Francis Leftwich, and having already achieved success in the States and Australia, Watson is sure as hell ready for the big leagues.
How exciting! You just released your debut album “The Morning”! How do you feel right now? Thank you! Yeah, it’s a bit wacky but amazing… still pinching myself, really.
Before the release of your first album, you released 5 EP’s in the space of two years, and were already rising up the charts worldwide. Did you ever expect such great success so early on in your career? Never, I didn’t expect any ‘success’ full stop, to be completely honest. My outlook on life (which is a terrible one!!) is that if you don’t expect anything, you won’t be disappointed. I wish that wasn’t how I looked at things but it’s all I can do! I have been so overwhelmed with everything up to this point and I think I like it that way.
You picked up music relatively late in your life. What was it that sparked your desire to follow music as a career? And how did you get so good so fast?? Haha, thanks! I’ve always been a big fan of music and I think that anybody who loves music would love to create it. For me, the tipping point was that music started meaning more and more to me with every song I listened to. Lyrics started to really resonate with me and I couldn’t stop wanting to give it a go. I always thought the guitar would be a lot harder than it was – although it’s quite tough! – I thought it’d be impossible. I just found that the more I played guitar, the more I wanted to improve and so I dedicated all of my time to it.
You’ve collaborated with some very talented artists on your EP “Some Songs With Some Friends”: Gabrielle Aplin, Kimberley Anne and Hudson Taylor. What did you take away from that experience? That I have some super talented mates! It was a joy being in the studio with them and, being a big fan of all of their music, it was an honour that they’d want to jump on a track with me.
Out of all the countries you’ve been to and out of all the shows you’ve played, which was your favourite city and what was your most memorable moment? Probably Sydney Opera House in Australia (obviously…) I played 3 nights there with Birdy and I just felt so welcome. I was the support and, although a few people had bought tickets because I was there, it wasn’t my crowd and I was pretty scared to play to that many people who didn’t know me. It went so well, though! Everybody seemed to be really into it (or pretending at least) and I went away feeling very grateful. Not only is Australia a lovely country but the people are brilliant.
What can we expect from a live show and what’s the funniest/craziest thing that’s happened to you on stage? I’m a fairly nervous (babbling) performer when it comes to speaking and in-between song jokes, etc. However, I’m lucky to have a great band and I do have a great time playing the songs and that’s all that matters, right?
How did you feel when you first heard your song play on the radio? It was crazy! I remember I was on a bed in a Manchester hotel on tour with Gabrielle Aplin when Zane Lowe played my song “What About Today’. I had no idea he was going to play it and I got very warm. Chuffed.
Do you think you could ever get used to hearing an audience sing your lyrics back at you? Never. Those lyrics were written by me, for me, and to think that other people are singing them for their own reasons is amazing. I’m paraphrasing but Dave Grohl once said ‘50,000 people can be singing my lyrics back to me and it’s for 50,000 different reasons’ (or something like that) and that blows my mind… (Not quite 50,000 for me though, Dave)
What do you do when you get writer’s block? I just stop writing. It’s a horrible feeling but getting frustrated because you can’t write is worse. It really puts you off writing and that’s super bad. Just stop, have a cuppa, read a book, watch a film, listen to some music, etc. and come back to it.
In order of importance, which has had the biggest influence on your success: creative ability, live performance, social media, radio play, passion and drive? Nothing can beat passion and drive – there are extraordinary examples of that every day in the news and stuff. I’d say with 100% certainty that I’d do this forever, even if I knew that it wouldn’t be my career and I think that has had a massive influence on my career so far.
Social media has definitely helped me capitalise on that but I think that I had to have it in the first place for it to be as effective! Live performances, radio play and creative ability have helped a lot too (of course) but the passion and drive is the main thing I think!
What has been your biggest challenge yet and how did you overcome it? The biggest challenge for me was the thought of anybody listening to my music to be honest. At the start, I was terrified of what others thought and I almost stopped because of it. All I did to overcome it was to bite the bullet and do it. I knew that I wanted to do this and if people didn’t like the stuff I could’ve just deleted them!
A lot of young artists are independently releasing their material and promoting it on social media platforms. Having sailed those waters yourself, do you have any advice for them? It’s terrible but don’t expect anything to happen immediately. If it does, amazing and congratulations but chances are that it won’t. It could take 10 years but good music will always rise to the top!
So, you have 5 EP’s and 1 album tucked in the bag, and you probably have a whole lot of festivals to attend this summer. What happens next? Write the next record; tour, tour, tour; record the next record. Rinse and repeat! (Hopefully)
Jennifer Lopez first began her rise to the heights of the Hollywood hills in 1986, at the tender age of 16. Born to Puerto Rican parents in the Bronx on July 24, 1969, and with a taste for the limelight, “Jenny from the block”, worked her famous butt off to become a successful actress, dancer, singer, producer, fashion designer and author.
Although her first film role in ‘My Little Girl’ (1987) didn’t quite make the cut to kick-starting her career, her taste of fame propelled her to work harder and to dream bigger. Lopez won her first dance role in Janet Jackson’s music video ‘That’s The Way Love Goes’ in 1993, followed by a series of screen and film roles including ‘Nurse On The Line: The Crash of Flight 7’ (1993), ‘My Family’ (1995), ‘Money Train’ (1995), Francis Ford Coppola’s comedy drama ‘Jack’ (1996), starring Robin Williams, and ‘Selena’ (1997), for which she was nominated Best Actress at the Golden Globes, and was consequently moved up the show biz ladder.
Yet the 90’s were only the beginning for JLo.
Thanks to her sky-high profile following the success of her role in Steven Soderbergh’s 1998 film ‘Out of Sight’, starring George Clooney, JLo was offered a modeling contract with L’Oreal as well as a recording contract with Sony records. She then released her debut album ‘On The 6’ (1999), instantly reaching the top 10 on the US charts, earning her a Grammy nomination for Best Dance Recording and two nominations at the Latin Grammy Awards.
The gorgeous Latin Icon has since released 7 studio albums, almost all of which were as successful as one another, certified Gold and Platinum. She has also starred in numerous blockbusters, including ‘Maid in Manhattan’ (2002) with Ralph Fiennes, ‘Shall We Dance’ (2004) with Richard Gere, ‘Monster-In-Law’ (2005) with Jane Fonda, and ‘What To Expect When You’re Expecting’ (2012) with Cameron Diaz.
JLo has had more than a few successes in her extensive career:
• She became the first Latina actress to earn more than $1 million for a film role (‘Out of Sight’). • She became the first person to have a Nº1 album (‘J.Lo’) and film (‘The Wedding Planner’) in the same week. • ‘J to tha L-O! The Remixes’, released in 2002, became the first in history to debut at Nº1 on the U.S. Billboard 200. • Her fifth studio album ‘Como Una Mujer’ (2007), produced by her then husband and father of her twins, Marc Anthony, received the highest first-week sales for a Spanish album in the U.S. • JLo has sold over 75 million records worldwide and has an accumulative film gross of over $2 billion. • She is the highest paid Latin star, with a net worth of $250 million, and is deemed the most influential Hispanic celeb in the U.S. • She received the Legacy Award at the 2010 World Music Awards for her contributions to music. • She has won 6 ALMA Awards, 3 American Music Awards, 3 Billboard Music Video Awards, 4 Billboard Music Awards, 8 Billboard Latin Music Awards, 3 Brit Awards, 2 MTV Music Video Awards… the list goes on.
So, happy 45th Birthday, JLo, and congratulations on your many successes – you are sensational! Oh… and by the way, you look fantastic!
See a mashup of JLo’s funniest moments >>
See a 10-track playlist of JLo’s top Billboard Hot 100 hit charts based on actual performance in release-date order >>
Don’t have Creation 5? Download it from the App Store!
Starlite Festival, the biggest cultural festival in southern Spain this summer, celebrates its third year in Marbella, alfresco under the stars. If you’re into music, fashion, art, film or simply want a good night out with entertainment, exquisite food and cocktails then you just have to check it out.
Situated in the La Cantera, Nagüeles area, a massive auditorium ‘’Auditorio Marbella’’, tucked away in the mountain, with remarkable views over the Andalucian coast, will be open every night from July 23 – August 23, with a fantastic line-up of international stars. It’s quite simply the best venue we have ever seen. Not only do you have views to Africa and Gibraltar but you are well and truly ensconced ‘inside’ Marbella’s iconic mountain – La Concha. You also get a great view of the stars – and not just the ones that will be singing!
After the success of the two previous summers of hosting the Starlite Festival in Marbella, the international music event is back for another season with a top line up of international artists. Now in its third year, the Starlite Festival has become one of the most eagerly anticipated in Spain and last year’s highlights saw performances from international stars, including Enrique Iglesias, Jamie Cullum, Buenavista Social Club and Alejandro Sanz. The organisers of this year’s series of concerts have made sure that there really is something to suit all musical tastes.
Good Vibrations
The Beach Boys, celebrated for having sold tens of millions of albums and singles and for having changed the musical terrain for every pop act since, kick-off the action-filled month with plenty of good vibrations. Their 2013 release of “Sounds of Summer” certified triple platinum and marks The Beach Boys’ positively assured comeback. To continue the band’s iconic legacy, Mike Love, Bruce Johnston (Grammy-winning songwriter), Christian Love, Randell Kirsch, Tim Bonhomme, John Cowsill and Scott Totten, will be rocking the stage on July 23.
La Vida Loca
Two nights later, on July 25, Grammy-award winning and multi-platinum recording artist, Ricky Martin, will be performing live. After a two and a half year break from the music industry, the Latin pop legend has come back with a bang, with the worldwide release of his second World Cup single “Vida” (2014). If you haven’t seen Ricky Martin live yet, it’s perhaps time to live la vida loca. Here’s your chance to see one of the leading musical icons of our time!
Pet Shop Boys
Playling on July 30 are the English electronic pop duo, consisting of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, who together have sold more than 50 million records worldwide. They are also listed as the most successful duo in UK music history by The Guinness Book of Records. If electro pop is your thing, you probably know all about them.
The Divas
Starlite officially introduces the show Divas: Marta Sánchez and Gloria Gaynor. On August 6, the two Pop Queens, both with dance floor Nº1’s, will ensure that the whole audience dances the night away to their multiple hits. Sánchez is known for her multiple hits “Soy Yo”, “Get Together” and “De Mujer a Mujer”, and is regarded as one of the best Spanish female voices and one of the biggest stars in Spain of the last decade. Gloria Gaynor, mother of the mythical song “I Will Survive”, made a name for herself in the mid 60s, has since won a “Legend” award at the Monte Carlo World Music Awards, and was honoured by the Grammy Awards Museum in Los Angeles in 2010. Don’t miss you opportunity to see two international music Divas own the stage while they get the party started.
King of Latin Lovers
Julio Iglesias, the man who has earned his title as King of the Latin lovers for becoming the best-selling Latin artist in history, takes the stage on August 13. Julio, Marbella’s very own international superstar, is the only international artist to perform in three consecutive editions of Starlite… and to sell-out every time! The ladies here sure do love a little bit of crooning by the old style Spanish sweetheart.
What’s New Pussycat?
August 17 sees Sir Tom Jones perform a selection of his biggest hits, including “It’s Not Unusual”, “Kiss”, “Delilah”, “What’s New Pussycat”, “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again” and “If I Only Knew”, and songs from his two latest albums “Praise & Blame” and “Spirit In The Room”, for his last show in Spain this year.
Celebrate the Good Times
The awesome foursome, bringing only the best in funk, jazz and party anthems – Kool & The Gang. The Grammy-award winning band with seven American Music Awards, 25 top ten R&B hits, nine top ten pop hits, 31 golden and platinum albums, has sold over 70 million albums worldwide and influenced the music of its following generations, take the stage on August 19.
Sanz is back!
On August 22, multi Grammy winner Alejandro Sanz – known for his collaborations with Shakira and Alicia Keys – is back to perform for his second consecutive year at Starlite, his only live show scheduled in Spain for 2014. Once again, this should be a sellout!
The Starlite Gala, hosted by Antonio Banderas on August 9, is an international charity platform that was born in 2010. All proceeds will go the charities Lagrimas y Favores, Niños en Alegría, CUDECA and Caritas.
Enjoy the summer festivities! We’ll see you there!
Summer season has an abundance of encyclopedic festivals, ranging from music and film, food and yoga, to UFO Festivals and Wife Carrying Championships. Whatever you’re into, it’s out there… somewhere. We looked into some of the wackiest and unusual festivals organized this summer, some of which have become tradition in many places, attracting thousands of people from across the globe on an annual basis.
Boryeong Mud Festival is a mucky one that celebrates the healing properties of the local mud. The international phenomenon of the South Korean mud wonderland attracts a whole range of people who wish to take part in a Mr. Mud competition, mud wrestling, mud racing and mud boot camp (whatever that means?). As for the more “well groomed” festival-goers, they can opt for mud facials, body painting, pottery, soap-making, or lounging around and catching those rays of sun on the sandy beaches. Who wouldn’t want to participate in sliding, wrestling, massaging, and take photos whilst getting filthy in mineral-rich mud?
Aside from the muddy affair, Boryeong has a pop and hip-hop music line-up, parades, other cultural performances and fireworks on opening and closing night.
Jae-Sang Lee, Director of Korea Tourism Organization, says, “The most distinctive point of the Festival is to create a united place where people from all over the world come together, meet and interact with strangers and are able to break down walls of age, nationality, race and have fun together and leave with memories and new friends.”
Officially known as Fiesta de Santa Marta de Ribarteme, Spain’s Festival of Near-Death Experiences is similar to that of Mexico’s Día de los Muertos. The festival is held in Galicia, a region that had been somewhat isolated from the influences of Spain’s Catholic traditions for many centuries, and that developed a belief in witchcraft and evil spirits. Galicia has held on to its legacy, and continues to practice its primitive rituals. Santa Marta de Ribarteme (the sister of Lazarus who was brought back from the dead by Jesus), and the pilgrimage, is done in honour of Las Nieves’ patron saint of resurrection.
Despite the somewhat morbid processions, that involves those who claim to have had a near-death experience in the past year parade the streets whilst being carried sitting upright in their coffins, the afternoon fades into a wild evening of celebrations, filled with fireworks, brass bands, gypsy music, and street vendors selling religious memorabilia. After all, it’s a festival that celebrates life, not death.
Esala Perahera involves elephants, incense, drumming, and dancing, in honour of the Buddha’s tooth relic. The legend dates back to 1,700 years ago, when one of the Buddha’s teeth was stolen from his funeral pyre and smuggled into Sri Lanka. Today, the relic is stored and exhibited in the Temple of the Tooth, Dilada Maligawa, in Sri Lanka.
The festival is composed of a 10-day parade, with Hindu deities and elephants covered in beautiful silk costumes. A “water cutting” ceremony through the Mahaweli Ganga River is also held, as a ritual to divide the pure and the impure and to honour the water god for a fruitful year ahead. A goblet of that water is saved and used in the tree-planting ritual that marks the start of next year’s festival.
Filled with great intensity and colour, Esala Perahera is a great visual feast, a place for snapping shots and Instgramming pics.
“Nude Olympics, red dusty camping, thorny African scrub, oh, and lots of South African bands jamming in the veld”. Oppikoppi is South Africa’s largest music festival, with over 20,000 attendees. It showcases hip-hop, jazz, EDM, metal, soul, rock n’ roll and kwaito (a South African spin on house music and remixing tribal rhythms).
Like Burning Man and Nowhere Festival, with its “hippy, survivalist” feel, Oppikoppi is held in the middle of nowhere, near the Kruger National Park, on the African continent’s greatest nature reserve.
Like Roskilde, the festival hosts competitions, where winners can get passes to next year’s festival. The Dustbowl Olympics include Box Car Races, the Boom Street 500 Naked Dash (where no clothes are allowed but shoes are obligatory), Running of the Bewilderbeats (where you must wear a costume) and the Wil(d)abong Surf Classics (some sort of sand surfing game).
Although boiling hot days and freezing nights are memorable enough, witnessing the wildlife in Kruger Park will (hands-down) be an experience of a lifetime.
Obon is Japan’s most religious holiday and is somewhat similar to Asia’s Hungry Ghosts festival or Mexico’s Día de los Muertos. It is a place where spirits are lured back to their loved ones with lanterns, candles and dance. The festival is based on the Buddhist belief that the gates to Heaven and Hell open on the 15th day of the 7th month, allowing spirits to visit the living world.
Although the island is populated with around 250,000 people, almost 1.3 million people attend the event every year. Families come to visit ancestors’ graves with flowers and offer food and lanterns to many homes and altars. One of the most stunning rituals is the releasing of “toro nagashi” (floating lanterns) into the oceans, rivers and lakes, to carry the spirit of ones ancestors back to the afterlife. Many temples have candle-lit ceremonies, as fire is used in purification ceremonies.
Awa Odori takes place between August 13th and 15th at Tokyshima on Shikoku Island where there is street-dancing and an outburst of colour and culture. This part of the festival originated in 1586, and came with strict ancient rules: you can dance in the streets only on those 3 days, samurais can only dance at home with the doors closed, and no dancing is permitted at temples or with swords or masks. At Awa Odori, the two traditional forms of dancing are “Nagashi” (beautiful and calculated dancing in the daytime) and “Zomeki” (wild and unpredictable dancing at night).
Mount Hagen Cultural Show is a tribal gathering of feathers, mud and masks. “Unity in Diversity” is Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) motto. With an abundance of rare animal species, 841 documented languages, jungly rainforests and coral reefs, PNG (located practically off the map) is not a place for faint-hearted travelers, but a place for thick-skinned adventurers seeking to soothe their cultural curiosity.
Mount Hagen Cultural Show, held annually on the third weekend of August, is one of the biggest tribal gatherings (singsings) in PNG. Over 100 tribes share their cultural traditions, such as customs, dancing and music. They disguise themselves with anthropomorphic body paint, intricate headdresses, shell jewelry, boars’ tusks, skirts made from plants and fur, etc., and express themselves through music and dance. The tribe that receives the loudest applause from the crowd is the one that wins.
The World Bog Snorkeling Championships was included in the World Alternative Games, a list of strange outdoors events. Llanwrtyd Wells, in Dolycoed, was originally a tourist attraction for those seeking a health retreat, due to the medicinal qualities of the region’s sulfuric springs.
For you adventurer’s out there, who like to try new things and don’t mind getting extremely dirty, or for those of you who just aren’t good enough to enter the Olympics for swimming, then bog snorkeling is just for you! All you need are fins, a mask, snorkels and whichever kind of swimsuit tickles your fancy (from sexy Speedos, to a wetsuit or a costume).
Of course, the other requirement is to know how not to drown. From the beginning to the end of the 60-yard stretch of bogland, flipper power is the only way forward – no conventional swimming strokes are allowed (eg. crawl, breast stroke, butterfly). How about that? Knowing how to swim isn’t even a requirement!
The La Tomatina revolution is a wacky tomato throwing tradition held in the streets of Buñol, Spain. Over 30,000 people join in the food fight, launching and crushing over 130,000 kg’s of ripe and juicy tomatoes at one another. Although the tomatoes are the main event, La Tomatina is a week filled with a diversity of festivities, including the celebration of Buñol’s patron saints, the Virgin Mary and St. Louis Bertrand, along with a bunch of music, street parades and fireworks. With tradition comes more tradition – a gigantic paella is served on the eve of the main event, in preparation for battle.
No doubt, the festival is a shameful waste of food… so organisers have dedicated themselves to cultivate a special variety of inedible tomatoes solely for the annual event.
Evidently, like any festival that could get out of hand, some ground rules have been established: • To avoid injuries, tomatoes have to be squashed before throwing. • No other projectiles except tomatoes are allowed. • Participants have to give way to the trucks and lorries. • T-shirts must be worn throughout the festival. • No tomatoes can be thrown after the second shot fires. Inside La Tomatina Watch this video in Creation 5
The Air Guitar World Championships gives every one a chance at being a rockstar! No guitar is required; therefore no learning or mastering of an instrument is required either. Throughout the four-day event, workshops on how to best exaggerate picking motions are held, including demonstrations from previous world champions.
“Make Air not War” is the festival’s mantra. Apparently, the championships are held to promote world peace and, according to the promoters of the event, “wars end, climate change stops and all bad things disappear, if all the people in the world played air guitar”.
Due to the popularity of the festival, first hosted as a joke, the air guitar movement has travelled the world and competitions are now hosted across the globe.
Lisdoonvarna, a small rural community in Ireland, is the place that holds a one month-long mystical matchmaking festival, designed for people to find their soulmates, with the hope that they’ll catch the magical “luck of the Irish” bug. Call it the real life Match.com or the non-virtual form of Tinder; it’s a fun festival of dancing, drinking, betting, flirting, and “playing”. The festival originated over 150 years ago during the Great Irish Famine, when emigration from the farms accelerated and families would pay matchmakers large dowries to find wives for their young men.
Willy Daly, author of the book “The Last Matchmaker”, and member of Lisdoonvarna’s community, is known today as the king of the matchmakers. He is also known as “the horse whisperer of matchmaking”.
The festival, “Europe’s Biggest Single’s Event” attracts men and women from all over the UK and Europe. With one too many pints and cupid’s arrow ready to strike its prey right through the heart, perhaps Lisdoonvarna is where someone will find their great, great love.
If you are already using the Creation 5 Media App, don’t forget that you can expand your music collection by downloading any videoclip that appears in the article! Here’s how: 1. Open the video in Creation 5 – click the ‘Play this video in Creation 5’ link, you will be redirected to the app where the video will begin playing. 2. Press and hold the video title and choose DOWNLOAD from the options. That’s it! You can now find the video in your ‘Favorites’ folder. 3. Press and hold the video title and choose SHARE. If your friends don’t have Creation 5, they will be directed to the App Store where they can download the app for free!
Don’t have Creation 5? Download it from the App Store!
Today we are celebrating greatness, it’s Nelson Mandela International Day – Nelson Mandela would have been 96 years old today.
The UN General Assembly unanimously approved this day back in 2009. It was created as a way to honour Mandela and inspire others to carry on his efforts to “take responsibility for making the world a better place, one small step at a time,”.
In Johannesburg people are marking today with charitable acts in honor of the former president. Organizers have urged people to perform acts of charity for 67 minutes, symbolizing Mandela’s 67 years of public service. People are picking up litter, cooking at homes for the elderly and donating food, blankets and other basics to the poor.
Mandela died at 95 years of age on December 5, 2013, so this is the first time the day has been celebrated without Mandela. He was respected around the world for fighting minority rule in South Africa. After spending 27 years in prison he was released in 1990 by Mr De Klerk, South Africa’s last white ruler. He then went on to become the country’s first black president in 1994, a position he held until he stepped down in 1999.
In honour of Mandela’s birthday we have put together a musical tribute.
Eric Bibb – Mandela is free
Eric Bibb is an American-born acoustic blues singer-songwriter. He moved to Europe in 1970 and currently lives in Helsinki, Finland. Eric is a great guitar player and has a rich and soulful voice. His tribute to Mandela is soulful and inspiring. “Courage and Vision cannot be in prison”.
Hugh Masekela Bring Back Nelson Mandela
Hugh Ramopolo Masekela is a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, composer, and singer. In 1987, this was a huge hit for Hugh Masekela, it became an anthem for the movement to free Nelson Mandela. At that time, the mere mention of the name ‘Mandela’ meant the song would be banned in his home country.
Hugh continues Mandela’s great work and is involved in several social initiatives. He serves as a director on the board of The Lunchbox Fund, a non-profit organization that provides a daily meal to students of township schools in Soweto.
Jive Soweto (El Rey David) Sipho Mabuse
Mandela loved music and dance and used it to unite people. South African music mpaqanda music (soul stew, zulu jive) is one of the most joyful in the world. It’s a testimony to the enduring nature of the human spirit that the most joyful music should come out of a country that has been beset with hatred, injustice & prejudice.
African Hymn – Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Choir, ZA
The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) choir has 55 members made up of students and alumni, all from different walks of life. Since its inception in 1994 the choir has gained a reputation for its unique ability to successfully interpret both Western and African repertoire.
Freshlyground – Doo Be Doo
Freshlyground is a South African Afro-fusion band, formed in Cape Town in 2002. The band members come from South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Their musical style is a harmony of traditional South African music (such as kwela and African folk music) with blues, jazz and a bit of indie rock. Doo Be Doo comes from their very successful album Nomvula, released in 2004. The initial success of the album was largely due to the feel-good ‘Doo Be Doo’, which enjoyed significant play on local radio.
The Specials – Nelson Mandela
Jerry Dammers: how I made Free Nelson Mandela: “The song said what I wanted it to say very clearly. At the time, there was a huge amount of opposition and propaganda directed against Mandela. Margaret Thatcher had described his party, the African National Congress, as a “terrorist organisation”. But in the days just after punk, record companies would never have refused to release something on the grounds it might be controversial. At the time, there were these two enormously influential record pluggers called Ferret’n’Spanner. They were big Specials fans and pushed the track at radio stations. If they hadn’t liked it, I don’t know if it would have been played on Radio 1……The concert at Wembley to celebrate his freedom was amazing. He went from being in prison to being mobbed. When he came on stage, the standing ovation lasted 10 minutes.”
This beautiful track was written by fellow southern African artist Dorothy Masuka and first released by Miriam Makeba in 1957 when she still lived in South Africa. It was released in the US in 1967 on her studio album of the same name, it peaked at Nº12 on Billboard. The song was originally written and sung in the Xhosa language – the song’s title means “touch touch” in English.
Under African Skies – Paul Simon
Taken from Paul Simon’s 7th studio album, Graceland, which won the 1987 Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Paul Simon uses a galloping 4/4 time signature to tell the story of two musicians and how their earliest memories shaped themselves into the music they create. “Under African Skies,” is also a documentary by filmmaker Joe Berlinger made for the 25th anniversary of the Graceland album.
So happy birthday, Madiba. We will hold on to your memory, and try to live up to your legacy. Thank you!
Google have put together a wonderful doodle with lots of Mandela’s inspiring quotations: “No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion.”
Don’t have Creation 5? Download it from the App Store!
Nile Rodgers, co-founder of 1970’s disco-funk-soul band, Le Chic, has worked and collaborated with some of the most talented artist of the past and current generations, and has established a name for himself by producing a myriad of hit songs for the likes of Sister Sledge, Diana Ross, David Bowie, Madonna, Duran Duran, and Daft Punk.
Take a brief look into the long history of timeless music, written and produced by the incredible hit-making genius, Nile Rodgers.
Le Chic – “Good Times” (1979)
Le Chic, formed by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, released many hit songs, including: “Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah) (1977), “Everybody Dance” (1977), and “Le Freak” (1978). “Good Times” (1979) was the lead track on Le Chic’s 1979 album Risqué, and was regarded as one of the most influential songs of the era. It has since become one of the most sampled tracks in the history of music.
Perhaps you’ll recognise musical influences, similarities, or samples, in Queen’s timeless tune “Another One Bites The Dust” (1980), The Sugarhill Gang’s famous “Rapper’s Delight” (1979), Daft Punk’s base-heavy electronic track “Around The World” (1997), and Blondie’s hit single “Rapture” (1980).
“Good Times” reached Nº1 on Billboard’s R&B singles for 1979 and is ranked at Nº229 on Rolling Stone’s list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Sister Sledge – “We Are Family” (1979)
Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards co-composed and produced Sister Sledge’s 1979 album “We Are Family”, which bore 3 massive hits – “He’s The Greatest Dancer”, “Lost In Music” (a disco classic) and “We Are Family”. The song in question went to Nº1 on the US R&B and Disco Charts in 1979, peaked at Nº2 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart and was certified Gold.
Diana Ross – “I’m Coming Out” (1980)
“I’m Coming Out” was co-written and produced by Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers, for Diana Ross’ comeback Platinum-certified album “Diana” (1980). The track became the legendary Motown singer’s second hit single. Partly written with Ross’s gay fan-base in mind, the lyrics held another meaning for Ross as she was in the process of leaving Motown Records at the time. The song peaked at Nº5 on the US Charts and has been pinpointed as an unofficial gay pride anthem.
INXS – “Original Sin” (1983)
“Original Sin” was written by Michael Hutchence (keyboard) and Andrew Farriss (vocals) and produced by Nile Rodgers. The track features on INXS’ fourth album “The Swing” (1983). In 1984, the song reached Nº1 in Australia and became an international hit.
David Bowie – “Let’s Dance” (1983)
David Bowie hired Nile Rodgers to work on his 1983 album “Let’s Dance” after meeting him in a nightclub and talking to him about music. The collaboration was successful amongst a younger audience and resulted in the broadening of Bowie’s fan-base. The track became Bowie’s best-selling single reaching Nº1 in the UK, US and in many other countries around the world. Due to the success of Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” album, the British singer-songwriter attempted to cater to his new fans, not knowing who they were or what they wanted, and consequently suffered creatively in his next two albums.
Madonna – “Like A Virgin” (1984)
“Like A Virgin”, written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly and produced by Nile Rodgers, was the key instrument in shaping Madonna’s new image as a pop culture icon, and the trigger to setting her long-lasting career in stone. Rodgers altered her previously synthesized sound by using the same live musicians as the ones he used in his Chic albums. The song became Madonna’s first Nº1 single on Billboard Hot 100, topped the charts in several countries across the world, and sold over twenty million records. Madonna’s invincible, sexually unashamed and confident persona had a huge influence on the younger generation at the time.
Duran Duran – “The Reflex” (1984)
The success of Duran Duran’s biggest selling hit “The Reflex” had a lot to do with Nile Rodgers experimental use of sampling and funk. Despite “The Reflex” being their eleventh single, it was their second and final one to top the UK’s Singles Chart at Nº1. The track also became Duran Duran’s first single to hit Nº1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Rodgers went on to produce their “The Wild Boys” single, their 1986 album “Notorious” and numerous tracks on their 2004 album “Astronaut”.
Sister Sledge – “Frankie” (1985)
Written by Denise Rich and produced by Nile Rodgers, the single was released on Sister Sledge’s 1985 album “When The Boys Meet The Girls”. The sisters suggested the song to Rodgers, who refused to produce it upon hearing it, claiming he hated it. After singing it over and over again for a week, Rodgers went back to them, insisting they record it.
The single became a hit, reaching Nº1 on the UK Singles Chart and dominating for four consecutive weeks. On Sister Sledge’s side of the world, the single didn’t do as well. It was ranked at Nº75 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart and at Nº32 on the Billboard R&B Chart.
Grace Jones – “I’m Not Perfect (But I’m Perfect For You) (1986)
“I’m Not Perfect (But I’m Perfect For You)” was released as the first single on Grace Jones’ eighth studio album “Inside Story” (1986). The song, co-written by Bruce Woolley and produced by Rodgers, became Jones’s biggest-selling hit and was her last to enter the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. The song is recognised for its exceptional vocal performance and complimentary classic guitar riff. The music video features cameo appearances from Jones’ friends, including Andy Warhol (only a few months before his death), Nile Rodgers himself and fashion designer Tina Chow.
Daft Punk – “Get Lucky”
Co-written by French house music duo Daft Punk, Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers, “Get Lucky” was the lead single from Daft Punk’s fourth studio album “Random Access Memories” (2013). The disco-funk song reached the top 10 on the music charts of over 32 countries and has since sold in excess of 9.3 million copies. “Get Lucky” was the song that received the most amount of streams in one single day since the birth of Spotify and won Grammy Awards for Record of The Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.
