CHOIR! CHOIR! CHOIR! INVITES YOU TO SING “ACROSS THE UNIVERSE” WITH RUFUS WAINWRIGHT
“Choir! Choir! Choir! has fashioned a profound way for people to connect and interact.”
– The New Yorker
Choir! Choir! Choir! and Rufus Wainwright invite singers from all around the world to help create an epic live video of the timeless classic “Across The Universe.”
Unveiled this morning, the open call asks singers to record themselves at home singing harmonies to The Beatles song, which was featured on their final album Let It Be in 1970. The submissions will be collected and edited together into a piece featuring Wainwright on lead vocals.
Choir! Choir! Choir! has uploaded two guide tracks (Part A – lower, Part B – higher) as well helpful instructions on their website to help guide participants through the process of recording their videos. Submissions are due by Friday, May 15 and can be uploaded directly via the same site.
“It’s really hard to watch your project be altered so dramatically in an instant. But can the virus keep us from singing together? NO! Choir! Choir! Choir! is all about creating community and building safe and creative spaces for people to enjoy so… if we can’t be together IRL, we can, and will, create some beautiful harmony to send out into the world with an epic crowd-sourced video,” says Choir! Choir! Choir! co-creative director, Nobu Adilman. “And who better to do this with than Rufus Wainwright? We’ve loved collaborating with him in the past, and have always loved his take on ‘Across The Universe.’ It’s a song we need right now, and, with Rufus on lead, and the world singing along, we can’t think of anything better!”
“Across the Universe has always been a special song to me. When Yoko asked me to perform it at Radio City Music Hall with her son Sean and Moby in 2011 raising funds for New Yorkers in the aftermath of 9/11, it sort of put me on the map,” says Rufus Wainwright. “It is eerie how the chorus ‘Nothing’s gonna change my world’ has taken a completely different meaning today. Because everything has changed for everyone in the world at the moment. I cannot imagine anything that has affected the entire world like this before, so that is why we want to create a version of this song where the entire world can participate. I have always enjoyed working with Daveed and Nobu in person and this digital collaboration is very exciting.”
Wainwright has been playing the song since the beginning of his career. His version was included in the movie I Am Sam.
This special video marks Choir! Choir! Choir!’s third collaboration with Rufus Wainwright. Their first was a 2016 performance of “Hallelujah” at the Hearn Generating Station in Toronto, ON as part of the Luminato Festival and resulted in a video that has garnered nearly 11 million views on YouTube. The second, a performance of the same song, took place at the 9/11 museum in New York to mark the end of the rescue and recovery mission. It was filmed by All Arts for Rescue Recovery and Healing: the 9/11 Memorial Glade Dedication, which is available to stream HERE.
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Choir! Choir! Choir! creative directors Nobu Adilman and Daveed Goldman have been hosting weekly Choir!ntines live on their Facebook and YouTube garnering over a million views to date from all over the world. In April, the duo raised over $70,000 for the Canadian Cancer Society as part of a one hour “sing-a-thon” they hosted in support of the organization’s Daffodil Month.
Rufus Wainwright has been posting daily videos of his songs performed at his home in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles. He has published over 50 of these daily #roberecitals #quarantunes and, to date, they have been viewed more than 1 million times. He was also the first artist to launch the Royal Albert Hall’s #royalalberthome concert series and has lent his voice to many institutions raising money for COVID-19 relief.
About Choir! Choir! Choir!
Choir! Choir! Choir! is a Toronto-based singing group led by creative directors Nobu Adilman and Daveed Goldman. The duo takes a non-traditional approach; there are no auditions, and the audience is the choir. Just show up and they’ll teach you an original arrangement to a song you love. Choir! Choir! Choir! has amassed a dedicated and passionate community of singers and a thriving international fan base on YouTube amassing millions of views.
About Rufus Wainwright
Praised by the New York Times for his “genuine originality,” Rufus Wainwright has established himself as one of the great male vocalists, songwriters, and composers of his generation. The New York-born, Montreal-raised singer-songwriter has released seven studio albums to date, three DVDs, and three live albums including the Grammy-nominated Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall. He has collaborated with artists such as Elton John, Burt Bacharach, Robert Wilson, David Byrne, Boy George, Joni Mitchell, Pet Shop Boys, Heart, Robbie Williams, Jessye Norman, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Sting, and producer Mark Ronson, among many others. His latest album, Unfollow The Rules, finds Wainwright at the peak of his powers, entering artistic maturity with passion, honesty, and a new-found fearlessness.
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