The powerful title track ‘Rising Phoenix’ written and performed by George Dorman (known as georgetragic), Toni Hickman and Keith Jones, and written and produced by Daniel Pemberton was released on streaming services on Thursday, 20 August.
The artists, who all have a disability, form part of the artist collective Krip Hop Nation. Krip Hop Nation is led by Leroy F Moore whose mission is to shine a light on the talent, history, rights and marketability of Hip-Hop artists and other musicians with disabilities. (Artist profiles link in Notes to Editors)
The song is available to download from all major digital service providers. This includes Spotify, Apple, Amazon, Deezer, Google Play, Tidal and more.
Premiering the accompanying lyric video on social media today, British band Coldplay said, “Performing at @Paralympics 2012 with @Rihanna, Jay-Z & @Paraorchestra was one of our proudest moments.”
BAFTA Award Winning Trunk Animation produced the lyric video – https://youtu.be/v5gS3FVQ7Ns
The song is the title track from the Netflix documentary RISING PHOENIX to be released on 26 August globally, which tells the extraordinary story of the Paralympic Games. From the rubble of World War II to the third biggest sporting event on the planet, the Paralympics sparked a global movement which continues to change the way the world thinks about disability, diversity & human potential.
BAFTA-nominated directors Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui directed the film, which was produced by Greg Nugent, John Battsek and Tatyana McFadden and is an HTYT Films and Passion Pictures production in association with Ventureland and Misfits Entertainment. Its executive producers include Richard Curtis, Barbara Broccoli, Barnaby Spurrier, Godric Smith, Dee Ryder, Xavi Gonzalez and Andrew Ruhemann.
Daniel Pemberton, Producer and Writer of ‘Rising Phoenix’ said: “I wanted to make a song out of the central ‘Rising Phoenix’ theme that features across the arc of the film and to echo the integrity of the film I wanted to work with artists with a disability. I was led to an amazing community of disabled hip-hop artists known as ‘Krip-Hop Nation’ started by the rights activist Leroy Moore from California.
“We went through a swathe of recordings and found three different artists we thought would help make an amazing record. Nothing however prepared us for what came in: the richly emotional content of Toni’s lyrics; the poetry of George’s incredibly powerful stories; Keith’s killer rapping style where his cerebral palsy creates an unbelievably unique flow that is unlike anything I’ve ever heard before – suddenly we had, from nowhere, a song that was personal and powerful, where you could feel the anger and the inspiration at the same time. I feel we’ve made something so much bigger than all of us combined and the whole world needs to hear it.”
Peter Ettedgui and Ian Bonhote, Directors of RISING PHOENIX said: “We always knew that music would play a defining role in RISING PHOENIX. It feels like the whole soundtrack – indeed the whole film – builds to the release of the ‘Rising Phoenix’ song. We were both in tears when we heard the track for the first time – it evoked all our ambitions for the film, all our feelings about the story we wanted to tell.”