We are Conquerors

The Olympics have always had a soundtrack. Music and culture cannot be separated from the Olympic Games nor can education. Dating back to its recorded inception way back in 776 BC the Olympic Games was always more than just a competition or sporting event. A quick peek at Olympic history will show that art, poetry, literature, music and singing have always had a place in the Olympic festival. Music has always featured at the Olympic Games. Admittedly in modern times the battle for the soul of the Games is fierce. On one side are those who see the games as nothing more than a battle for medal supremacy, then there are the idealist who fight hard to retain the holistic essence of the games. Then there are the hard nose pragmatists for whom the priority is the commercial side of the games. What is not in question is the scale and magnitude of the Olympic Games. It still remains for most, not all, but a large percentage of the world’s premier sportsmen and women, the pinnacle of their sporting career. To be crowned Olympic champion is still a cherished aim.

 

 

Last Friday, the T&T London 2012 Olympic team was officially announced. A week ago the T&T Olympic Committee (TTOC) hosted a breakfast which was attended by His Excellency Professor George Maxwell Richards, patron of the National Olympic Committee. Following the breakfast, the T&T Olympic hopefuls reached out to the public during a motorcade from the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA), along Frederick Street to Woodford Square, Port-of-Spain. In keeping with the timeless tradition, Kes the band, released an inspirational song, “We Are Conquerors” for the athletes who will be going to London for the Olympics.  

 

 

Danielle Jones, manager, corporate communications at BpTT said the company wanted to do something locally and culturally relevant and were happy to partner with Kes the band for an anthem for the T&T Olympic team. In 1894, when Frenchman Baron Pierre de Coubertin organised a meeting at the Sorbonne to revive the Olympics, Gabriel Faure’s “Hymn to Apollo” was performed. In recent years songs created for the Olympics such as “Reach Out” and “Hand in Hand” by Giorgio Moroder have had an inspirational impact. Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote for the 1992 Barcelona Games, “Amigos Para Sempre” (Friends for Life). In 1996, we had “The Power of the Dream” by Celine Dion, and also “Reach” by Gloria Estefan. In Sydney, “Dare to Dream” by Olivia Newton John and John Farnham.  “Chariots of Fire” by Vangelis is another Olympic song that won many friends. The words and music of one T&T’s London 2012 Olympic songs live up to the age old Olympic tradition of inspirational and motivational Olympic music.

 

 

We Are Conquerors!