Conceived by Airtel and ROCKSTAR4000 Music Entertainment in partnership with Sony Music the 'Airtel ONE8' project was driven by a collaboration between international recording artist R. Kelly and eight of Africa's biggest recording artists including Nigeria's 2Face, Uganda's Navio, Zambia's JK, Tanzania's Alikiba, Ghana's 4x4, Gabon's Movaizhaleine, Fally Ipupa from DRC and Kenya's Amani.
Collectively they formed the group 'Airtel ONE8'. Their theme song, 'Hands Across the World' was written and produced by R. Kelly in close association with the African members of the group, all of whom added their own unique sound and flavour. Executive production was provided by ROCKSTAR4000.
"We are excited about Airtel One8's global recognition", says Andre Beyers, chief marketing officer of Airtel Africa. "This demonstrates the international appreciation and recognition of our commitment to use music as a common language to bring harmony, in every sense, within the African continent. We need to keep celebrating the rich talent and diverse culture in Africa through music. This is why the Airtel One8 project is extremely important to us; we will continue to use the power of music to forge a cultural connection between Africa and the rest of the world."
"We are thrilled to have received this level of recognition on the world stage with the Airtel ONE8 project. This truly showcases the power of music combined with connectivity and mobile telecoms and is testimony of the magic between music and connectivity, that anything is possible and by linking Africa through music and mobile and the powerful exchange that follows enables dreams to come true" noted Jandre Louw, CEO of ROCKSTAR4000 Music Entertainment.
The panel of judges made up of role players in the world of music and brands included Nick Bailey, executive creative director, AKQA (Amsterdam); Ryan Fitch, music producer, Saatchi & Saatchi (USA); Steve Mullins, content director, brand-e. Biz (UK); Julie Nollet, international communications manager, Hennessy (France) and Olivier Robert-Murphy, international communications manager, Hennessy (France).
