Sounds of Music and Olympic Dreams

Music has been an important part of the modern Olympic Games ever since they began. While sport portrays physical beauty and harmony: the harmonies and melodies of music seem to arouse nearly every aspect of human emotion. The two come together in a perfect combination at the Olympic Games.

 As a shared language of human being, music has the capacity to bear Olympic understanding and memories that become the common inheritance of people around the world. We may have forgotten the names of the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games medallists, but we are still touched by its theme song “Hand in Hand.” We may fail to recall the excitement of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, but few can forget Bjork's performance of “Oceania” at the Opening Ceremony. Successful pieces of Olympic music that combine the Olympic spirit and the host country’s special nature are treasured gifts to human history. 

With the 2008 Olympic Games drawing near, we cannot help asking: with what kind of Olympic music is Beijing going to impress the whole world?

Four Rounds of Solicitation Campaign

We must wait for the answer to be revealed in April when the theme song for the 2008 Games is announced, according to Wang Pingjiu, division chief of the Culture and Ceremonies Department of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG). However, after four rounds of worldwide song solicitations for the 2008 Olympic and Paralympic Games, organized by Wang’s department, we may be able to get a glimpse of what is in store with Beijing 2008’s Olympic songs.

In Wang’s opinion, a successful Olympic song should be easy for ordinary people from various cultural backgrounds to identify with and to understand. It should reflect the Olympic spirit but also the deep cultural legacy that is China and the hospitality of the Chinese people. To achieve these goals, BOCOG has undertaken the largest Olympic song solicitation campaign in Olympic history.

After discussions and communications with Chinese musicians and professionals, BOCOG began its first round of Olympic song solicitation on April 15, 2003. Within half a year’s time, 304 songs were submitted, although Wang admitted that not many met the organizers’ expectations. Too much emphasis was placed on the word “Olympic” by composers and lyricists: at the expense of the music.

With more professional musical communities joining as organizers, the second round of Olympic song solicitations began on December 1, 2004. Forums with composers and lyricists were held so “they could understand that a good Olympic song need not repeat Olympic slogans or ‘One World One Dream,’” said Wang. More than 470 musicians took part in the forum and have reached a common understanding of Olympic music. The organizers received 3,562 letters and 7,631 e-mails inquiring about the campaign, and 430 songs, including 24 from abroad, were received.

Based on experience gleaned from the first two rounds, a “professionals and amateurs” policy was adopted for the third round, held from January 1 to June 1, 2006. Organizers invited 76 professional musicians and 24 record companies to write songs for the Games instead of waiting for submissions. As a result, 794 songs and more than 8,000 lyrical works were received. Of these, 362 were written by professionals.

The fourth round of Olympic song solicitations—the final round before the Games—highlighted outstanding songs selected during the previous four years but organizers continued their quest for more and better Olympic musical compositions. During this round, more than 40,000 lyrical works and 1,700 songs were submitted to the organizers. Top musicians from home and abroad were invited to participate in the campaign: they responded by submitting more than 1,500 songs, some of which have become popular among the people.

Stories behind Outstanding

Olympic Songs

Songs of the 2008 Olympic Games are being selected from more than 3,000 candidate songs collected from professional and amateur composers over the past four years. Among them, “I am Star” for the 2008 Olympics volunteers and “Light the Passion, Share the Dream” for the torch relay will be used during the Games. “Forever Friends,” created by Giorgio Moroder and Kong Xiangdong, seems to be a strong candidate of the theme song, which according to Kong, is intended to “unveil the common feelings of the people.

According to Emil Chow (Zhou Huajian), composer and performer of “I am Star,” he created this song especially for the volunteers in the first place.

“When I started to compose this song in the second half of 2006, I decided to write a song for Olympic volunteers instead of an Olympic theme song. I think volunteers are great and worth praising.” This easy-to-learn song quickly spread throughout the country, inducing more people to participate in the volunteer programme. But when Chow finished the melody, he still wasn’t satisfied with its lyrics: so he invited highly acclaimed Hong Kong lyricist Albert Lam (Lin Xi) to join in creating the song. “It was very coincidental that he called me the very moment when I thought of him, and he soon accepted my invitation.”

In addition to creating a song for the Games’ volunteers, Chow also plans to act as the honorary head of the Beijing Olympics Volunteer Chorus. He says he has been doing volunteer work since middle school and is more than willing to do more for the Games. “I’m thinking about a detailed plan to encourage more people to participate in the chorus so we can spread the Olympic spirit far and wide. I hope the song will bring people’s hearts closer.”

In his opinion, the Olympics is not only a sporting event. It must involve mass participation.

“Everyone can contribute, in a big or small way. You can help by being an interpreter, by carrying luggage for people or even by simply showing people around. I can speak English, so at least I can do little things like showing foreigners where wash rooms are,” Chow said with a laugh. “I will be happy if I can do more. I hope the song will encourage more people to do voluntary work.”

Chris Bao (Bao Bida), composer of the torch relay song “Light the Passion, Share the Dream,” said he decided to write this song after a visit to Beijing in 2006, when he was impressed by people's passion for the 2008 Olympics. He said that creating an Olympic song is a great honour for every musician. He heard many of the candidate songs before he sat down to write and felt he should create a song with a more international flavour.

“Of course, Chinese elements are indispensable. And the song should convey China’s willingness to welcome the whole world.”

Though Bao finished writing the song within an hour, he spent a great deal of time preparing to compose. Before sitting down to write the music, he watched many DVDs about the Olympics.

“I wanted to unleash great energy and passion from the beginning of the song,” Bao said. 

After Huang Xiaomao was asked to write lyrics for the torch relay song, he began to read stories about the past Games torchbearers.

“The torch and flame are always eye-catching during torch relays, but what attracts me the most is the torchbearers.” He said he was moved by their strong sense of honour.

Huang was in Moscow when Beijing was bidding for the 2008 Games and also went to the Athens 2004 Games, where he was moved by the athletes who were interpreting the Olympic spirit. “I cherish this rare opportunity to do something for an Olympic Games that will be held in my home country.”

The idea of creating a candidate Olympic theme song for the 2008 Games first occurred to Kong Xiangdong, composer of “Forever Friends,” as early as Beijing’s successful bid in 2001. He first discussed it with Giorgio Moroder, his co-composer for the song, in 2005. Moroder had created two Olympic theme songs, including the famous “Hand in Hand” for the Seoul 1988 Olympic Games. They have known each other for more than 10 years, and “Forever Friends” is their third collaboration.

Kong believes theme songs are important for conveying the Olympic spirit. Since the 1984 Olympics, the theme song has played an increasingly indispensable role and has gotten a lot of attention around the world as “Hand in Hand” was such a hit. In his opinion, two things are required for a successful Olympic theme song:

“It should be easy to understand and should reflect the most common feelings of all the people of the world. The music should flow well and its words should be simple and beautiful. National characteristics should be reflected in the song. For example, Korean musical elements were used in ‘Hand in Hand.’ This time, we have used Chinese music from ‘Liu Yang River’ instead of ‘Jasmine,’ because the latter has been overused, and we want to bring some novelty to the world.”

Before beginning his work, Kong introduced Moroder to many Chinese folk songs, which inspired him. He said the composers’ cooperation progressed smoothly. The song has strong artistic appeal and is easy to for people to sing. “We hope it will be an Olympic song popular worldwide.”