The Change Starts With You
Award winning Dancehall Queen Ce’Cile unveils ‘Make A Change’ an exciting new music and multimedia campaign, designed to assist, inspire and motivate African citizens and all people of African descent from across the diaspora to participate in solving the issues they care about while becoming more active contributors to their communities.
Popular music reaches all people – no matter their ethnicity or income; music is the ideal medium to mobilize action. In the past, major music events to support African concerns have been located far from their intended beneficiaries. For the first time, an international multi-media and multi-faceted music project led by Ce’Cile and award winning film and music creative director Christopher Grey will take place in Africa for Africans.
The campaign launches with the 2012 release of the rousing and heartfelt new single, ‘Make A Change’ in Kenya and digital platforms across Africa (incl. Tanzania, Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa). The song represents a first time ever collaboration among the cream of Jamaica’s most popular recording artists: Ce’Cile, Alaine, Christopher Martin, Sherieta Lewis, Mavado, Gentleman and LUSH. Individually, these artists and their music are hugely popular worldwide and across Sub-Saharan Africa so performing as a group have a massive combined reach. Leading with the inspirational chorus, “Look at me, look at you, look at us, what we can do, make a change”, the song written by the multi talented Jamaican star Ce’Cile Charlton was inspired by her experiences after performing in Kenya as a response to the the drought emergency in the horn of Africa and combines the talents of all the performers to create a beautiful combination of sounds, styles and voices. The original song with its captivating message is produced by Ben Bazzazian and destined to be an extremely popular release. All proceeds from sales of ‘Make A Change’ will be donated to charitable causes, focusing on efforts to create new or support existing initiatives to improve healthcare, education, famine relief, clean water initiatives, youth economic development and opportunities for African citizens, especially young people. The artists and producers have donated their creation and along with other personalities and artists from music, film and fashion will lend their combined efforts to bring awareness to all the supported initiatives.
The songs distribution is specifically designed for the African market, ‘Make A Change’ will be released in digital form only, primarily through mobile phone downloads. This will allow people of all financial means to own the song and thereby contribute to the campaign causes. Major international stars linked with the initiative will also simultaneously promote the campaign through social media. The Make A Change campaign leads towards a filmed and televised concert in Nairobi, Kenya, and other events are planned in Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa and Jamaica, which will feature the Jamaican stars who collaborated on the song alongside many international stars and popular local artists. The show includes featured live satellite and videotaped contributions from significant international personalities in music, film and politics. The network broadcast will be aired in markets worldwide.
The campaign will also feature a novel technology using specially branded updatable USB keys which will be preloaded with the ‘Make A Change’ single, videos, remixes, photos, interviews, and the live Make a Change concert. With this exclusive technology, every time users plug the USB key into a computer connected to the internet, they immediately receive new and updated content related to the campaign and its activities. For example, stories about how the activities and contributions have made a difference in the lives of everyday Africans. The USB, as well as the Make A Change website, will feature links to all the charitable partners’ and sponsors’ websites and merchandise. The Make A Change Campaign merchandise includes:
- ‘Make A Change’ donated songs featured on an updatable USB Key by additional artists
- ‘Make A Change’ charity album including other exclusive remixes of the ‘Make A Change’ single.
- A large format ‘Make A Change Book’ of artistic photography shot in various exotic locations with contributions from major international stars of Fashion, Film and Music. .
- T-shirts and Fashion Accessories by International and African designers also featuring a range designed and donated by legendary designer and founder of Biba, Barbara Hulanicki.
The Make A Change Project works alongside major aid organizations, local community leaders, development experts, corporations, media houses and tv networks to utilize existing channels to support efforts in the focus areas of healthcare, education and economic development to raise awareness and provide avenues for citizens to ‘Make A Change’. For more information visit www.makeachange12.com