I’d Like to Buy the World a Musical Contest

Gues post By George Ruiz, Co-founder of SuperXtar.

You may remember, if you’re a member of the generation from the 70s or before, a Coke TV commercial in which a group of young people from all races and from different parts of the world gather in a mountain to sing, “I’d like to buy the world a Coke.” (http://goo.gl/6uA4ph)

I was a kid growing up in Peru at the time, and every occasion that this commercial popped up on the TV, I used to rush over to it to watch it. It was so beautiful and inspiring! The song had a nice melody and a moving message. Just to watch all of these people together singing a song of world unity touched me, even when I was just a kiddo. Still now when I mention this commercial to anybody who remembers it, they all agree; it was maybe the most beautiful and inspiring TV ad ever. My wife—who, at that time, was also a child, but growing up in a different country, the USA—says that it used to bring tears to her eyes. Yes, regardless of if you liked to drink Coke or Pepsi, this commercial touched your heart, whether you lived in Peru or the USA and spoke Spanish or English.

Music is a very powerful force. It influences people. William Congreve had a famous saying: “Music has charms to soothe the savage breast.” Yes, music inspires people and nations. It is well-known that it influences behavior, especially of the young ones. Music even changes society. It was a great factor in the freedom movements of the 1960s generation.

On the other hand, worldwide competitions help to unify the world in some ways. Beauty pageants, World Soccer Cups, and the Olympics all gather nations of different races and languages for the common purpose of competition. It even brings together enemy countries “to smoke the competition peace pipe.”

As popular as sports are, not everybody likes them. However, everyone in the world loves music. You cannot find a group of people on this planet that doesn’t like some form of music. Sports, by nature, are very competitive, so they don’t help to bridge the division and hatred of this world in quite the way that music does.

People worldwide enjoy music and entertainment. You can see how talent shows like American Idol, The Voice, and The X Factor are taking over the world. People enjoy them from the USA all the way to China.

So what about if we make a world musical talent contest? This could be a contest where people from every nation could participate, regardless of their language or geographic location. If we make a big deal of it, maybe people around the world—especially young ones—would be less inclined to wage war and kill each other. Instead, they could invest some of that energy into singing and dancing and having a good time. We already know that folks from all over the world like talent shows, but does music really have the power of unifying people?

Let me tell you about one of my experiences. When I was a teen in Peru, because of an old war that we lost with one of our neighbor countries, there were still some resentments toward that nation, even though this war had happened several generations ago! However, when a well-liked and popular musical group from that “enemy country” came to our land for a concert tour, all of the sudden, all of the young people wanted to watch this band, and their songs were played and sung everywhere. At that moment, nobody seemed to remember the old scars of war; their music was helping to heal old wounds! The “enemy country” was no longer a hated nation. How could you hate them and still sing their songs? These music ambassadors did with their songs and performances what years of diplomacy couldn’t. That is the unifying power of music.

SuperXtar is a worldwide, musical entertainer contest that will look for the unifying element of music. It will pick up where the Coke TV commercial left off. It will reach people from all over the world to encourage them to participate in this musical competition every year. It will be a musical talent contest where the winner will be celebrated globally and his or her music and performances will be sung and danced worldwide!

SuperXtar will also bring other new things to the world music table because its international flavor it will make popular new beats and melodies. The American/ British music, which has dominated the musical world for years now, has been stale for more than two decades. The great bands and performers of the 60s, 70s, and even 80s have disappeared and haven’t been replaced with new ones. We need a new infusion of music in the world—and who knows? Maybe it will come from places like Africa, Asia, or Latin America.

Also another contribution that SuperXtar will make is that it will help to start or re-start popular music programs in the USA and around the world. Music is one the few things that everybody in the world enjoys, but it isn’t taught in every school. Even here in the USA, schools have removed music from their programs due to budget cuts.

Many kids in the US and around the world have never been able to strum the strings of a guitar or to pound the keys of a piano. We want to help to fix that.

Give a kid a guitar or a set of drums. Teach him how to play the piano and create songs and most likely he will be less inclined—when he grows—to hold an automatic weapon against his fellow human.

Yes, we’d like to buy the world a musical contest!

The SuperXtar crowd-funding campaign will be launched at the end of September. We need your help. Contact us at george@superxtar.com or follow us in Twitter @superxtars. Thank you!

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