Beatie Wolfe felt inspired by the children who she recorded charity song ‘Kids Wish For The World’ with.
The singer/songwriter launched a competition on kids’ social media platform PopJam – the new project from Moshi Monsters creator Michael Acton Smith – to invite youngsters to submit their hopes for the planet to create lyrics for a reworked version of her track ‘Wish’.
Beatie was expecting the kids to be focused on themselves but was pleasantly surprised when she read their wishes and discovered they were focused on what things can make the world better for everyone.
Speaking at the unveiling of the single and video at the Apple Store on Regent Street in London on Thursday night (12.02.15), Beatie said: "I was expecting them (the wishes) to be stuff like, ‘I’d like to get a new pair of Nike trainers,’ or, ‘I wish I had a helicopter.’ You know, like, typical 12-year-old boy wishes, actually they were about everyone having enough food, enough water and respecting one another. That was pretty mind-blowing to me. We were expecting maybe a couple of thousand responses because the site was still in the early days, we got 20,000 responses in two days."
From the thousands of submissions, Beatie chose 10 winners who all got to join her in the recording studio and sing their individual wishes and she was very impressed with their singing talents.
She added: "I believe a few of the kids hadn’t really sung before and they definitely hadn’t been into a recording studio. They did the most sensational job. They were all chosen on the basis of their wish – not their singing voice – so the fact they all sounded like angels was a total bonus."
‘Kids Wish for the World’ is available via iTunes, Amazon and other online retailers now and is raising money for for children’s charities NSPCC’s ChildLine and War Child.