ESPN Combines Soweto Gospel Choir and U2

This is just in from my pals at ESPN. I'll likely write something about it, but you saw it here first, folks. It's very hot news for any fan of U2:

ESPN Launches 2010 FIFA World Cup “One Game Changes Everything”

Network’s presentation to include U2 and Soweto Gospel Choir

ESPN’s unprecedented coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup will include U2 and South Africa’s own Soweto Gospel Choir. These Grammy Award-winning groups will be featured in a series of spots which will be woven into the network’s comprehensive coverage of this month-long event.

Commencing June 11, the network’s coverage will use specially recorded music by Soweto Gospel Choir recorded and filmed in South Africa, with music and live concert footage from U2’s record breaking concert at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., in October 2009. This collaboration will appear in every program throughout ESPN’s presentation of the 2010 FIFA World Cup including soccer highlights, match and studio coverage.

“ESPN is thrilled to bring U2 and Soweto Gospel Choir together to tell our FIFA World Cup stories,” said Seth Ader, ESPN senior director, sports marketing.

“This inspiring creative project with U2 and Soweto Gospel Choir will provide a distinctive, original voice to our coverage of the first FIFA World Cup to take place on the African continent,” said Jed Drake, ESPN’s executive producer, 2010 FIFA World Cup. “By integrating this content throughout both our production and marketing efforts, we will more fully engage fans and enrich their experience of this great event.”

An initial series of four TV spots, set to the music of U2, will run April through June, and underscore the historic importance of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The first of the four, Robben Island, began airing April 7 across ESPN’s networks.

• Robben Island communicates the historic nature and importance of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, through the prism of soccer. This spot was filmed on location at Robben Island off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa. It is the site where eventual South African President Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for decades, alongside other political prisoners, during the country’s apartheid era. (Set to U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name” with Soweto Gospel Choir).

• UNITED conveys the passion for the FIFA World Cup that unites disparate cultures (set to U2’s “Magnificent”).

• The Power of 10 celebrates the honor and burden that comes with wearing the most sacred jersey number in soccer (set to U2’s “Out of Control”).

• Passion captures the excitement that the FIFA World Cup invokes—highlighting the documented “baby boom” that occurred nine months after Germany hosted the 2006 event (set to U2’s “Desire”).

* These additional spots will roll out from now throughout the days leading up to the first kick. To learn more about the campaign visitespnmediazone.com.

ESPN Inc.’s 2010 FIFA World Cup Coverage in the United States

South Africa 2010 will be ESPN’s seventh FIFA World Cup and coverage of the event promises to be the most comprehensive in company history. ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC will air all 64 matches live and in high definition. ESPN360.com, ESPN’s signature broadband network available in 41 million homes, will feature live English-language simulcasts of matches on ESPN and ESPN2. ESPN Mobile TV will show 46 matches. ESPN Deportes, the Spanish-language all sports network, will air up to 40 matches in Portuguese live in the U.S., and ESPN Radio will broadcast all 64 matches.

Additionally, ESPN will present 2010 FIFA World Cup television studio programming from site in South Africa, offering U.S. sports fans the most comprehensive news and information coverage throughout the month-long soccer showcase. Studio coverage of the quadrennial global event will includeSportsCenter segments, a nightly World Cup Live program, and prematch, halftime and postmatch shows, with additional studio programming and World Cup-branded segments, totaling more than 65 hours of coverage, originating from two sets in and around Johannesburg.

ESPN Coverage of Past FIFA World Cup Events:

Germany 2006 – All 64 matches live and in high definition

Korea/Japan 2002 – 58 ESPN and ESPN2 matches live (6 tape-delayed broadcasts on ABC)

France 1998 – All 64 matches live on ESPN (27), ESPN2 (23) and ABC Sports (14)

USA 1994 – All 52 matches – ESPN (41) and ABC (11)

Mexico 1986 – 15 matches on ESPN (U.S. cable television rights)

Spain 1982 – 7 matches on ESPN

Young Journalists at ESPN Last Week

Last week when I went to ESPN to listen to the Soweto Gospel Choir, I wasn't alone. Three students from Youth Journalism International came along, as did a new YJI editor and my YJI co-founder (www.youthjournalism.org). Here's a picture of us in front of the big display at ESPN that shows the flags of all the countries involved in the FIFA World Cup this summer. At the top, which is not pictured, is a countdown clock showing the remaining days and hours until the first game. ESPN not only knows how to treat us visitors (very nicely), they also know how to fire up employees. Pictured are, from left, Katie Jordan of Bristol, a YJI alum who is now lending a hand as an editor (avid readers may remember her from her many years writing for The Tattoo); Becca Lazarus, Kiernan Majerus-Collins, Laquandria Fenn, Steve Collins and yours truly. The kids did a great job writing about the Soweto Gospel Choir, especially since they were so mesmerized that it was hard to take notes, and especially since it was Becca and Laquandria's first reporting adventure. I have to say thanks here to ESPN for always treating my students with respect and kindness. The pieces the kids wrote, as well as something by an English boy, Patrick Hinton, about life on a military base, today in The Tattoo international teen newspaper. (www.ReadTheTattoo.com)

Soweto Gospel Choir Brings Harmonies to Bristol

Okay, dear readers, I promised you'd hear it here first. Listening to the choir, I couldn't keep still -- the music demands that you move. Afterward, I talked to one of its singers. Stirring, powerful music, lovely people. I wish everyone could have been there. Here's what I wrote for Thursday's edition of The Bristol Press (www.bristolpress.com) about it:

BRISTOL -- The Soweto Gospel Choir served up gorgeous South African harmonies and impressive choreography to about 200 appreciative ESPN employees in the company cafeteria Wednesday.

“I thought it was absolutely outstanding, spiritually moving, uplifting and inspirational,” said Ty Frison, studio director. “It kind of took me back to my Baptist days, growing up in the church.”

The choir stopped between East Coast gigs to deliver a powerful 30-minute performance, singing in English and also in some of South Africa’s many dialects.

John A. Walsh, executive editor at ESPN, stood in the throng in the cafeteria and soaked in the music.

“Four 12 years, the company has been working on the challenge of diversity in the workplace and seeing gradual success from year to year,” said Walsh. “But never in those 12 years have we experienced such an energizing, enjoyable and entertaining presentation of the case for diversity.”

ESPN Senior Vice President Jed Drake, who introduced the choir, is coordinating the company’s effort to cover the World Cup in South Africa this summer.

Along with the games, the coverage will feature authentic South African music and highlight the diverse people and customs of the country.

Claude Mitchell, coordinating music director at ESPN, said the Soweto Gospel Choir will be featured prominently in the World Cup coverage.

“We’re incredibly fortunate to be able to get the choir here,” said Jed Drake, senior vice president and executive producer. “Every once in a while, things work out.”

Sipokazi Nxumalo, a lead singer in the choir and its narrator, said the group had seen ESPN on television and was honored and humbled to come to the campus to perform.

She said the choir members have “a family bond” and come from different parts of South Africa, though 90 percent now live in Soweto.

They tour about nine months a year, Nxumalo said, and sometimes get lonesome for South Africa and its climate.

“Sometimes, it’s so far from home,” she said. They’ve learned, though, in five years of touring in the United States, to bring “our big jackets and our warm clothes.”

Though they don’t all speak the various dialects that they sing in, she said they easily learn them through the music.

“It just flows and comes naturally,” she said.

The choir has a four-piece band, but most of the time, Nxumalo said, they use only drums for accompaniment.

“We prefer our audiences to hear the beauty of our harmonies,” she said.

Nxumalo said American audiences are their favorite because of the warm response the people give to the music.

“They’ve always treated us well,” she said.

Nxumalo and about two dozen other professional singers, two of them playing djembe drums, filled the cafeteria space with music.

The Soweto Gospel Choir has toured internationally for years, Drake said, and was featured on the Grammy-award winning Peter Gabriel song, “Down to Earth,” that is part of the soundtrack for the 2008 movie “Wall-E.”

Drake told the gathered employees that the choir would give them “what may be one of the most spectacular performances we’ve had on our campus, ever.”

No one disagreed.

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Will ESPN Be Like Church Tomorrow?

South Africa's Soweto Gospel Choir (www.sowetogospelchoir.com) is coming to perform and make friends at ESPN tomorrow. The choir will be providing some of the music that ESPN will use in its coverage of the FIFA World Cup, which will be held in South Africa this summer. I'm pretty excited since my pals at ESPN kindly invited me to come over, give a listen, talk with the choir and write about it. Don't worry, I'll be sure to soak it all in and report back to you.

ESPN Employees Have All the Fun

As if there weren't enough great reasons to want to work for ESPN -- their office chairs are really comfortable, for one thing -- here's another:

ESPN, which is making a big push to cover the FIFA World Cup this summer with authentic South African music and other cultural treats, is bringing the Soweto Gospel Choir to sing in their ESPN Cafe at lunchtime on Wednesday, just to get the locals here fired up so they can fire up the viewers about South Africa and the World Cup. I wrote this about it for Tuesday's Press (http://www.bristolpress.com/):

Bringing their vocal harmonies northward, South Africa’s Soweto Gospel Choir is making a special stop at ESPN Wednesday.
The choir’s work will be some of the music featured during ESPN’s coverage of the FIFA World Cup this summer, said Claude Mitchell, coordinating music director for ESPN.
“They’ll have a fairly prominent role,” said Mitchell.
Mitchell said ESPN identified the Soweto Gospel Choir early on in its World Cup planning as a source “to represent the local sounds of South Africa and Africa in general.”
ESPN will incorporate “a lot of authentic African music” in its presentation of the soccer games and other programs throughout the monthlong World Cup championship, Mitchell said, including jazz, pop, urban, hip hop, reggae and rock and roll.
“I would hope that a lot of it’s going to be new” to viewers, Mitchell said, and “highlight the pageantry and emotion” of the World Cup.
According to Mitchell, the Soweto Gospel Choir combines traditional American Baptist gospel sounds, with traditional African music and pop influences.
The choir, which will perform in the company cafeteria around lunchtime, sings in some South African dialects – the country has about a dozen – and performs much of its music in English, as well, he said.
Much of their catalog has a religious bent, but Mitchell said the choir also draws from music traditionally used to cope with hardships and also from protest music.
“They also do covers of pop tunes,” said Mitchell. “It’s kind of all over the place.”
Mitchell said ESPN will use work from the choir’s catalog, but is also talking with them about the possibility of new songs specifically for the World Cup event.
ESPN is bringing the choir to Bristol to help build excitement among the staff for the World Cup and to give the choir a chance to get to know ESPN.
Coverage of the World Cup is a company-defined top priority for ESPN this year.

Soweto Gospel Choir coming to ESPN

I just heard from my pals at ESPN that the Soweto Gospel Choir will be coming to ESPN to perform next week. That is something I won't miss. More later, but you heard it here first!