[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GOwfCSiuGg
Back in 2008, Will.i.am’s “Yes We Can” became the unofficial anthem of then Senator Barack Obama’s campaign for President. Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign hasn’t had a similar unofficial song to inspire folks to head to the polls—until now. The same folks behind “Yes We Can” have teamed up to capture the spirit and the message of the 2012 Obama campaign with the just-released track, “Forward.”
Musician and former Rock the Vote chairman Fred Goldring says he got inspired to create another song given the closeness of the race. He decided to try “moving the needle even a little bit again with the right music (as the old saying goes in the record business, ‘a hit song can cure cancer,’ which I certainly wish were actually true).” Goldring also has two college-age daughters so he feels “the stakes in this election are just too high for them and their generation—particularly with the right’s clear mandate to roll back women’s rights. That is just an unacceptable future,” he says.
Goldring and his songwriting collaborators—who are all completely independent of the Obama campaign, any PAC or Super PAC—crafted the song using lyrics from Obama’s Democratic National Convention speech. Goldring then reached out to Ne-Yo and a slew of other amazing musical artists—Herbie Hancock, Natasha Bedingfield, Johnny Rzeznik, and Delta Rae to perform on the track.
On the song’s site, the artists say that their effort “represents the best of what American democracy is all about: people voluntarily coming together and lending their time, talents, services, and support behind a cause they truly feel passionate about.” And, the proceeds of every download of the song on iTunes are going to worthy, apolitical causes: Ne-Yo’s Compound Foundation which works to support the well-being of youth growing up in foster care and group homes, and to arts education programs in public schools.
