Song Relay

Overview

The Arctic Winter Games will have a relay for the first time in its 42 year history. What makes this unique is that rather than a flame, torch or baton being passed from person to person, we will relay a song between the nine participating regions of the Arctic Winter Games, thus the Arctic Winter Games Theme Song Relay.

The Whitehorse 2012 Arctic Winter Games Theme Song Relay will connect the circumpolar North, particularly its youth, through song, sound and images. It will raise the awareness of the Games and its international heritage as well as explore the rich cultural diversity of the Arctic regions of the world. The 2012 Arctic Winter Games Theme Song Relay will share the message of circumpolar friendship with the world.

Root Sellers, young, dynamic Yukon musicians known for creating high energy, high impact tunes, have been commissioned to compose the Games theme song. The base layer of the theme song has been recorded and this version of the song will journey around the world’s North.

The Route

Beginning in Alaska, the theme song, along with a video/audio recorder, will be passed around various communities of the state where people will record themselves performing the song as well as recording sounds and images that depict who they are as a people and the way they live.

From Alaska the theme song and recording kit will travel to Yamalo-Nenets, then the Sápmi region of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia and on to Greenland. After Greenland the theme song returns to Canada’s North and will visit Nunavut, Nunavik, Northwest Territories, Northern Alberta and finally back to the Yukon. Each region will have the theme song kit for a month to tell and record their story.

One Song

The Root Sellers will use the recorded material from the 9 participating regions to work their magic. They will edit and blend it all together to create the ultimate music video theme song. It will be an audio-visual montage of the circumpolar North with the voices of the people throughout the Arctic congregating in song.

The Whitehorse 2012 Arctic Winter Games Theme Song Relay will unite the people of the circumpolar north to showcase and celebrate our unique homelands and the 2012 Arctic Winter Games.