Bryan rang me up in November 2009 and asked if I'd like to help write a "2010 Olympics" song for the ARD German television network. Thinking they might want something "high energy" we recorded an up-tempo rock track, cobbled together some lyrics via email, and Bryan sent our demo off to Germany.
As it turns out, we were off the mark. They were looking for a slow song, an "inspirational ballad".
Oh well. Back to the drawing board!
Nothing occurred to us immediately. In fact it was nearly a month before we even discussed it again. In the meantime I discovered a short snippet of music I'd recorded a few years ago, just a simple two-bar phrase, no more than 5 seconds in duration. I thought it might provide a good starting point for our second attempt at the ARD song.
With this new direction in mind Bryan and I emailed some lyric ideas back-and-forth across the Atlantic. Given the nature of the project, our lyrics were leaning towards "Olympic" themes. The problem is, it was starting to sound a bit like an advert for a breakfast cereal. We were happy with our track and our melody, but the lyric wasn't quite right yet.
In pursuit of outside inspiration Bryan sent our song to Gretchen Peters in Nashville. With fresh ears and a fresh perspective Gretchen contributed a new set of lyrics that perfectly captured the Olympic spirit, without being too overt or obvious.
Here's what RP Online had to say about it (February 1, 2010):
Bryan Adams hat für die ARD den Song zu den Olympischen Winterspielen 2010 in Vancouver geschrieben. Der Titel heißt "One World, One Flame", wie der Senderverbund am Montag in München mitteilte. ARD-Sportkoordinator Axel Balkausky sagte: "Bryan Adams ist nicht nur weltberühmt, sondern er steht für Kanada wie kein anderer Musiker und hat mit 'One World, One Flame' ein Lied geschrieben, dass perfekt zu einem solchen Großereignis wie den Olympischen Spielen passt."
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