Pop Musik #9

Well it seems that this past week, the Olympics have overshadowed everything, especially here in London. With musical performances by the Arctic Monkeys, Emeli Sandé and British institution Paul McCartney, the opening ceremony was a rich, vibrant, epic celebration of our culture and history and I think we were all a bit impressed (surprised even) that we actually managed to pull it off.  The Monkeys, Sandé, and McCartney were all reportedly paid a whopping £1 for their performances. No, that’s not a typo, £1 – one English pound for the pleasure of performing in front of billions of people as the ceremony was broadcast worldwide.  Sandé commented -

“I got paid £1 for my work. It’s there in print and I know because I signed the contract myself. Mind you, I haven’t received anything yet! When I do, though, that £1 will be truly special. Part of what made the whole event so special was the volunteers who were paid nothing and even paid for their own accommodation. It shows how important art is.”

Combining dance, music, film, comedy, amazing special effects and pyrotechnics, the ceremony was a real triumph and should have definitely earned director Danny Boyle and actor Kenneth Branagh some form of royal accolade, a knighthood even?!

It seems Olympics fever has eked itself over every industry with musicians left, right and centre all being inspired by the games. Will.i.am and lead singer of The Script Danny O’Donoghue have teamed up on a track called ‘Hall of Fame’ which is a (nowhere near subtle) attempt at becoming an official Olympic anthem. With lyrics such as -

“Sitting in the hall of fame, and the world’s gonna know your name, ‘cos you burn with the brightest flame”

and

“You can go the distance, you can run a mile”

and

“Do it for your people… do it for your country”

There’s clearly been a big brainstorm between the two “The Voice” coaches on how they can incorporate any and every Olympic-themed reference into one song, and I think they’ve just about managed it. You may remember that the last time two coaches from “The Voice” teamed up, Adam Levine and Christina Aguilera gave us the massive summer smash “Moves Like Jagger”  which went to number in 24 different countries and was the UK’s second biggest-selling single of 2011 (behind Adele’s ‘Someone Like You’).

I’m going to hazard a guess and say ‘Hall of Fame’ may, just may, not rival the success of the ‘Moves Like Jagger’. It’s nowhere near as infectious and sounds remarkably like a U2 track, but it’s bound get an insane amount of airplay, both on TV and radio so it could be a sleeper hit.

Now, all this Olympic fever has got me distracted from the real matter at hand. The Scissor Sisters has released an instructional video to their already iconic club anthem “Let’s Have A Kiki” so it appears I have a routine to learn. Please excuse me while I lock the doors, lower blinds and fire up my smoke machine.

-Jack Murphy