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Projects and Partners
Global Music Stars Come Together to Sing for a World Without Borders "You know I know the truth Citizens Of The World Project Overview
Background “Citizens of the World” is a song, a video documentary, a marketing campaign and an international humanitarian vision. Written by Flying Machines, an emerging New York based rock band, “Citizens” was recorded and filmed at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles, February 22-26, in six different languages and in collaboration with four international superstars: Khaled (Algeria/France), King Sunny Ade (Nigeria), Kailish Kher (India) and Cheng Lin (China), whose cumulative worldwide record sales are at 73-million to date. This unique collaboration began with the vision of Bassam Abdallah, CEO of Equus World, a multinational business enterprise dedicated to creating products and media that build bridges between people and cultures. Abdallah’s vision and philosophy was and continues to be the driving force behind the inspiration and project. The LA session was spearheaded by multi-platinum music and media producer Spencer Proffer, who produces and directs Flying Machines’s career. It will kick off Flying Machines’s global journey to perform with these beloved stars in their home countries during 2010 and beyond. All the action was caught on camera by acclaimed filmmaker and screenwriter Harry Winer. Equus World reached out to the creative and lauded team of Proffer and Winer to realize the project. They in turn brought in the international connections and musical expertise of Dawn Elder, a veteran producer of ground breaking global artists and media. Together these artists and producers have created a new way of sharing music and media in the 21st century. The Vision “EQUUS-WORLD is developing a global vision,” says Bassam. “Our dream is to show that the links between cultures are greater than their differences. We can create media and events that build bridges between people and societies.” The “Citizens” project delivers on this vision, starting with an extraordinary line-up of artists. The Artists As writers and musicians, Flying Machines are world class. With their classic, guitar-driven, hyper-melodic sound and powerful vocals, they have what it takes to deliver the emotional force of Bassam’s vision. Since Flying Machines’ debut CD was released in late 2009, the band has soared, earning critical raves, diehard fans and even a coveted role as the featured emerging artist promoting the new Fender phone with T-Mobile. Flying Machines’s song “On a Whim” was the key promotional driver for USA Network’s number-one program Psych, and soon shot to the top of Yahoo’s Launchcast network from fan response. Flying Machines recently won Grand Prize in Converse Shoes’ highly competitive “Get Out Of The Garage” contest to find the best new band in America, culminating in a headline performance at the 2010 South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas. Khaled has transcended his origins as Algeria’s greatest singer in the rai genre, loved for his winning candor about love and life and his heart-stopping voice. Over a 30-year career, Khaled has risen to become the most celebrated Arab singer of his time. His live recording 1, 2, 3 Soleils remains the top-selling Arabic-language album worldwide, and his hits “Aisha” and “Didi” have brought him worldwide sales topping 46-million units. For just as long, King Sunny Ade has been a pioneer of Nigeria’s juju sound, a heady mix of percussion, electric guitars, and traditional Yoruba vocal harmonies. Ade was one of the first African singers to win a following in Europe and America, and 28 years after his watershed Island release Juju Music, he remains one of the most in-demand African performers on the contemporary world stage. Cheng Lin is the voice of modern China. This luminous singer and virtuoso of the erhu (Chinese violin) made her sensational debut in 1981 when she was just 13. Lin was recently named the most influential singer in China’s history in recognition of her two most successful hits “Little Horn” and “Xin Tian You.” Her last album sold 12-million units in China and neighboring territories alone, bringing her sales total to over 25-million units in China. As a new century begins, Kailash Kher has stolen the spotlight in India. He leads a juggernaut band, creates music for a steady stream of Bollywood films (singing in fourteen languages), and he even served as an irresistibly charismatic judge on Indian Idol, a platform that quickly made him one of the most talked-about celebrities in South Asia. These artists are more than just pop stars, or even legends in their homelands. They are genuine citizens of the world. The Artistic Team Harry Winer and Spencer Proffer have led intertwined careers in film, television and popular music.Winer has been working in the motion picture and television industry for 25 years. He has directed feature films, produced and directed mini-series, movies for television and over fifty hours of series television to great acclaim. Proffer has directed, produced and supervised all aspects of music for over 100 motion picture and television projects, with many of these projects earning Oscar, Golden Globe, Emmy nods along the way as well as having produced numerous gold and platinum recordings with well known worldwide artists.Dawn Elder is a composer, producer, director, artist manager and creator of over 1000 events and over 100 recordings. e work spans all media platforms and has involved many international legends from Santana, Sting and Stevie Wonder to Khaled (Algeria), Mory Kante (West Africa), and Kazem al-Saher (Iraq). Winer, Proffer and Elder share a fierce dedication to creating high power humanitarian entertainment. The Plan The artists and production team met in Los Angeles on February 22 to record and film together. In LA, the guest artists worked together in the studio, adding their voices and musical instruments to the recording, and then rendered individual lead vocals in Arabic, French, Chinese, and Indian and African languages. Winer and his team chronicled the week in LA as part of documentary for worldwide broadcast. Winer has directed a video of “Citizens of the World,” centered around a performance on the rooftop of the Capitol Records tower. This clearly delivers the message: the US, Africa, China and India coming together in song at the heart of the world entertainment industry. And that’s just the beginning. The team of Proffer, Winer and Elder hope to travel with the artists to their home countries where they will produce and film live concerts and events featuring evolving arrangements of “Citizens of World.” Winer plans to film Flying Machines performing along with Khaled, Cheng Lin, Sunny Ade and Kailash Kher in settings as “iconic” in their home countries as the Capitol Tower is in the US. Bassam sees the entire “Citizens” project creating “an unprecedented link” between monuments of musical and visual entertainment: Hollywood (America), Bollywood (India/Asia), Nollywood (Nigeria/Africa) and the Arabic film and music industries. Click here for a Buzzine Bollywood article
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