In April 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, the city of Urbana, a city of 40,000 inhabitants located in Illinois in the United States, reflected on how to help families bereaved by the Covid crisis. The idea chosen: to record a video clip where several inhabitants of the city would cover the famous song “Let it be” by the Beatles, in order to collect donations. The municipality of Urbana then considered it wise to ask the twinned municipality of Thionville, since 2019, to join in this process.
From then on, French and American artists will work together to offer a rearranged version of one of the last hits of the Fab Four. In March 2021, after several months of work and discussions at a distance, the clip is finally completed.
In total, nearly 50 musicians and singers, French and American, took part in the project, under the two-headed musical direction of Pierre Ananicz, manager of the LED musical space, on the Thionville side, and James Barham, on the Urbana side.
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“Music is a universal language”
Mardi, the video clip was officially presented at the La Scala Conference Center. As a preamble, a videoconference, via Zoom, bringing together the mayor of Urbana, Diane Marlin, and her counterpart Pierre Cuny. “We will be eternally grateful to Paul McCartney for writing such a beautiful song, which, in these troubled times, can only bring us together,” said the American elected. Maybe the choice of “All you need is love”, another standard of the Liverpool group (with golden eggs), with the intro taking up the Marseillaise, would have had more mouth but hey …
“Music is an universal language”, she added, without needing to do a translation. For his part, the mayor of Thionville, welcomed “this first Franco-American cultural project, called to be repeated at other levels, whether sporting or educational”.
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A surprising ending
Then place the video and the artists, all fabulous. Because the result is clearly beyond expectations.
For five minutes, we can see French and American singers and musicians putting all their heart and soul into their interpretation of this standard of pop music. Funny detail, the presence of an American couple of hippies, undoubtedly met during the famous Summer of Love…
And cocorico, these are five French guitarists who will take turns trying to cover the divine solo of George Harrison. Finally, it is the Thionville group Ten Minutes Left which will dynamite the end of the song, like Sum 41 or Blink 182. “So amazing! », Cowardly, amazed, an American speaker.
Note that the clip was dedicated to Kermit Harden, inhabitant of Urbana, and who, under the orders of General Patton, helped to liberate Thionville. “A street will bear his name in the new district of the station”, has also promised Pierre Cuny. An announcement greeted by a “big up” and a lot of emotion at the town hall of Urbana. So cute …
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