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UN crowdsourcing the world’s happiest playlist

By | Published on Tuesday 17 March 2015

#HappySoundsLike

So, here’s a thing I’ve just learned: If you type ‘UN happy playlist’ into Google, it brings up thousands of playlists of sad songs. So as I write this I’m listening to one titled ‘Crying My Eyes Out’.

Why am I searching for such things? Well, because the United Nations is outsourcing its music discovery to the world, with a campaign called #HappySoundsLike that asks the people of the world to “to nominate a song that brings a smile to your face” ahead of this year’s International Day Of Happiness on Friday.

In a statement UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says: “On this day we are using the universal language of music to show solidarity with the millions of people around the world suffering from poverty, human rights abuses, humanitarian crises and the effects of environmental degradation and climate change”.

Sounds like my tearjerker playlist is pretty appropriate then, but apparently that’s not what he wants. He himself nominated ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered’ by Stevie Wonder, which I would argue is just sweeping the world’s problems under the carpet. The organisation also published a video of Ban larking around like he doesn’t have a care in the world with Pharrell Williams’ ‘Happy’ playing in the background.

Because ‘normal’ people can’t be trusted on their own when it comes to picking happy songs, some celebrities have also been asked to contribute via the official website for the campaign, with the likes of James Blunt, Idris Elba, Charlize Theron, Michael Douglas David Guetta, John Legend, Cody Simpson and, of course, Pharrell Williams naming the songs that make them smile.

The project is being run in partnership with MixRadio, the formerly Nokia and Microsoft-owned streaming service sold last year to Japanese tech firm Line. The company’s boss Jyrki Rosenberg said: “We hope the general public follow in the steps of the array of global stars and share the track that makes them happiest”.

Well, here’s something to be getting on with:



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