Citizens Of The World
Global Music Stars Come Together to Sing for a World Without Borders
"You know I know the truth
Embrace the innocence of youth
So let's all stand up, and raise our hands up
I've got to let you know, we are citizens of the world
No matter where we go, no borders on our soul
We are citizens of the world"
Citizens Hero Music Video produced by Spencer Proffer. Song co-written, produced and arranged by Spencer as well.
“Citizens of the World” is a song, a video documentary, a marketing campaign and an international humanitarian vision. It was highly lauded by press and the media business around the world. The performers, Pangea, consist of Capitol/EMI hot new artists, Flying Machines, (US), who created the song with Proffer and arranged by him in collaboration with four international superstars: Khaled (Algeria/France); King Sunny Ade (Nigeria), Kailish Kher (India) and Cheng Lin (China). All these artists had cumulative worldwide record sales of 73 million to date. The artists sang in five different languages, produced at Capitol Records Studios in Hollywood by Spencer Proffer. In these times of great conflict between people of divergent cultures, this unique collaboration is to show that the links between cultures are greater than their differences. Through the interviews and music captured in the CITIZENS documentary we see how these artists created not only great entertainment, but a new way of sharing music and media in the 21st century. By these artists coming together from around the world they prove the point expressed in the song - “no borders on our soul”: there truly are no borders that separate us when an opportunity is presented for us to come together to create something of beauty.
The Wall Street Journal opened the curtain on the Citizens story for the world by posting a feature article on the enterprise. The Huffington Post premiered M17 band Flying Machines’ English language version of “Citizens” with an embedded player and free download.
The public’s reaction was overwhelming to the message of uniting cultures through music. For quite some time, the story reigned as the #1 most popular and commented on feature in their entertainment section. Here is a sample of some of their reader’s comments:
"I was super impressed by this video and song. It really points to a raising of consciousness in the universe when ideas and concepts like these show up in popular culture. We are on a new path as a race, and I hope one day, everyone feels this way about themselves and their fellow brother and sister. Truly inspired and inspiring. Kudos to everyone involved."
"Fantastic video, song and concept of a statement today. Fun to watch and listen to. These artists are super and seems like they and the producers want to make a difference in the world with this song and music. I am a big believer in this concept. We are all citizens of the world. I think this is my anthem now ! Congratulations to you all."
"I love this and I am a huge fan of the Flying Machines. Their sound is original and their music is memorable. I haven’t felt this way about a band’s music since the Rolling Stones and Beatles."
"This is going to be a great vehicle for getting other types of music and cultures to an American audience. I will post this article everywhere, but you guys should be the international agents and managers to put this everywhere and send it to their fans… it would quadruple overnight!!!! it needs to be heard!"
CITIZENS OF THE WORLD, brings together musicians from around the globe to unite humanity through music. This tells the story of people from different cultures and belief systems sharing a common interest and acknowledging one another as a global family. A distinction with the We Are The World initiative is that World brought together American superstars and took it out to the globe. Here, we brought international superstars and bonded them together with our US band, Flying Machines for the mantra that MUSIC binds cultures/people and this is a new way of joining hands.
Like the Buena Vista Social Club and Gipsy Kings years ago who shook it up with something different, Citizens has an equally powerful world appeal and message.
The Citizens of the World enterprise kicked off with a major feature article in the Wall St Journal talking about the game changer vision and execution of this enterprise. Fender Musical Instruments has the video on its site home page (www.fender.com) and is eblasting the video to over 1 million fans. Fender gets 180,000,000 hits and 2 million uniques monthly.
Yahoo Music debuted the video on its front page in a solid, high profile campaign that was embraced and accoladed worldwide.
Spencer produced a 26 minute documentary, behind the scenes making of Citizens . It was aired throughout the United States in fall on 2010 on the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) - independent television stations throughout the United States that reached 100 million viewers. In addition to the PBS national body of Television stations, the documentary was selected to air numerous times over the next two years on a regular program called Strictly Global airing Friday nights from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm PST. This is through a competing body of 37 public broadcast television stations with a further domestic television reach of 40 million households, and at least 20 other countries/ Here is a link to the 26 minute Special. The log line read:
“Citizens Of the World, featuring artists who have sold over 73 million units worldwide, from AFRICA, CHINA, INDIA AND ALGERIA, surrounding American emerging band Flying Machines, has been accepted as part of this season’s content, presenting fresh, relevant English-language international content including news, documentaries, cultural programming, dramas, films & mysteries, music and sports."
Here is a snipped from the PBS documentary on the project featuring an interview with Spencer.
