Unsolicited Obama Campaign Song Goes Viral

[Hissyspit]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23036905

Unsolicited Obama campaign song goes viral
Will.i.am's ‘Yes We Can’ video getting plenty of clicks on YouTube

updated 5:34 p.m. CT, Wed., Feb. 6, 2008
LOS ANGELES - In the long history of political campaign theme songs, there has never been one quite like "Yes We Can," starring Barack Obama and a host of A-list celebrities.

For one thing, it's more than a song — it's a viral video hit with almost 1.9 million views on YouTube since being posted last Friday.

There's also the fact that the Obama campaign did not commission the song — the rapper, songwriter and producer will.i.am, frontman for the Black Eyed Peas, says he was inspired to create it while watching Obama's speech after his second-place finish to Sen. Hillary Clinton in the New Hampshire primary.

"It was as if he was talking to me," will.i.am told The Associated Press on Tuesday night as Obama and Clinton contended for the Democratic presidential nomination. "It was as if he was talking to and defending everything that made me who I am. I took that speech, and I wanted everyone else to be inspired by that speech as I was." He recorded the song and video in two days last week and hasn't heard from the campaign since — which is fine by him. "They have more important things than to be contacting me to say thank you," he said. "If they had time to call me, I'd be panicking."

The song features Obama's voice set to will.i.am's music and melody, plus vocalizations of the speech from the likes of Scarlet Johansson, John Legend, Kate Walsh, Common, Nicole Scherzinger, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Herbie Hancock and other celebrity supporters. The chorus is one of Obama's campaign slogans: "Yes We Can."

Obama is a fan of the video and recommended it to reporters on his campaign plane after he saw it Saturday. The campaign posted it on its Web site with a form so people can share it, and aides played it to warm up the crowd at an event headlined by Oprah Winfrey in Los Angeles on Sunday.

"After nearly a year on the campaign trail, I've seen a lot of things that have touched me deeply, but I had to share this with you," the candidate's wife, Michelle Obama, said in an e-mail to supporters Monday. "Sharing this video, which was created by supporters, is one more way to help start a conversation with your friends, family, co-workers, and anyone else who will be voting soon about the issues important to them in this election."

[Josiah1982]

1. is that the Jay-z song about 99 problems and a ##tch aint one? is that his campaign song?

[blogslut]

4. First off, that little incident never happened

Second, well....I shall invoke the Auntie Em rule

[LisaM]

2. It's the slogan of the UFW (United Farm Workers)

Obama co-opted it.

[DFW]

3. I prefer this song:

Go to the song box on the right and click on "Barack the Knife:"

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