Grammy winner’s song Better Than This, to help local businesses recover
A two-time Grammy winner and Academy Award nominee has joined forces with local non-profit organisation Community Chest to help city businesses affected by July’s unrest.
Lucas Bok, also the former music director of the Soweto Gospel Choir and owner of his own production company, has composed a song, Better Than This, to raise funds for the businesses.
The 44-year-old former Eastwood resident, who now lives in Johannesburg, said he decided to assist the community through art. “The idea for the song Better Than This is to raise funds towards rebuilding business in our city which will be spearheaded by the Community Chest. The director, Richard Rangiah, and I share the sentiment about reaching out through art to bring about change and unity,” said Bok.
The song and music video for Better Than This will support the campaign #BetterThanThis.
Executive director for Community Chest Richard Rangiah said the initiative’s aim is to restore hope.
“Pietermaritzburg was at the centre of much of the wanton destruction during that fateful week of July 12. It is fitting that, out of the ashes of ruin, there is a glimmer of hope to show all those hell-bent on destroying our beautiful country that, as a people, as humanity, as a nation, we are ‘Better Than This’.”
To make the song and video inclusive to the Pietermaritzburg community, Bok called on Kwaku Asare-Jumah, one of Pietermaritzburg’s finest music directors and producers.
“We got singers and musicians from the city. We also got one of the greatest videographers, Johan, who has worked on various soapies and the movie Spud,” said Bok.
The message of Better Than This is to challenge humanity to do better than destroy, said Bok.
Following the unrest, let us live in harmony. The video acknowledges the citizens who boldly stood in the midst of adversity to defend our democracy,” he added.
Bok won two Grammy Awards as the director of the Soweto Gospel Choir, and was nominated for an Oscar for the animated movie, Wall-E. He won a Sports Emmy for the 2010 Fifa World Cup. He has also collaborated with the band U2, as well as other famous artists, bands and choirs from around the world. Bok is currently the director of his own production company, Lucas Bok Productions.
Better Than This will soon be available on various platforms, such as iTunes, Spotify, Youtube, Deezer and Facebook.
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