Internationally, ESPN has a large Olympic footprint across its pan-regional networks in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Central America. Along with 850 employees working on-site, the network has five sets and 2,800 hours of content planned for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Wrapping around its coverage, there is a new theme composed by Lucas Vidal and Alondra Parra, counting on the brazilian-born and Los Angeles based singer – Ladi Anne – as the leading vocalist for the theme. Known for her work in Hollywood and around the globe on projects such as “The Band L” “LA Connection” and “Space Lemon”, Ladi Anne ventures herself into another massive project.
“I’ve always been a fan of the Olympics and it’s a huge honor for me to be to be singing on the official theme song for ESPN. It really is a great accomplishment for me as a musician because I know this is something that even my grandparents that don’t own cellphones will hear about somehow for how massive it is. I’m very blessed and excited about it!” – Said Ladi Anne during a radio interview for local Los Angeles radio KCRW.
Lucas Vidal about the project:
For Vidal, composing for TV was a different experience and medium, requiring more mixes and flexibility.
“This is very different, as I usually have to compose for specific scenes. This time we started with the music before anything else. ESPN was very flexible and gave me carte Blanche at first. After I showed them the first demo they were very involved and gave me great feedbacks, so did Alondra.”
“We did a lot of variations so their editors have a lot to work with,” said Vidal. “I composed the final composition knowing that it has to work for different moods and also be very easy to cut and edit with. We mixed with the amazing Frank Wolf who has mixed so many amazing movies such as Toy Stories. He mixed it in 5.1 too.”
Mixing regal with Brazilian flair
“It was very important to make it work for the Olympic Games of Rio. I would have composed very differently if it was any other country,” said Vidal. “It was important to me to bring in local Brazilian percussionists and singers who really understand the style and vibe of Rio.”
“ESPN was very clear about what they wanted. They made sure we had everything we needed to make it work. They just needed to make sure it worked for TV too. They have tons of experience in creating original themes and turned out to be very helpful.”