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Detroit Youth Choir's 'Glory' wins Silver at the Clio Awards

21 April 2021
dyc detroit youth choir person passionately chanting

We're honoured that our work with the Detroit Youth Choir (DYC) has won Silver as a Public Service entry in the Music category of the Clio Awards.

Clio Awards celebrate bold work that propels the advertising industry forward, inspires a competitive marketplace of ideas and fosters meaningful connections within the creative community.


“This rendition of ‘Glory’ by DYC moves me to my core. As it did in our film Selma, this version captures our historical and daily cry for justice and equality as Black people in America.”


David Oyelowo

Actor

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Imagination, along with our partners at Yessian Music and members of the Detroit creative industry are proud to come together to stand up, be counted and help our communities youths tell their story to the world. It is a story that deserves - and needs - to be heard.

2020 was a year of reckoning for America. It was the year that so many of us decided to stand up against racism and to demand justice.

It was also the year that made the Imagination team ask ourselves a simple yet bold question:

How might we support the call for racial justice - but do so in a way that gives the power to the black youth of Detroit to tell their own story, in their own words?

Then it struck us. The film Selma featured a stirring and powerful song called Glory. What if our agency Imagination helped to create an equally compelling but new version of that song - a version that raised up the voices of black youths across America in the fight to end racism? Our goal was to highlight the plights faced by the black community and speak directly to the hearts and minds of all Americans with a call for positive change. The Detroit Youth Choir (DYC) was the perfect partner for this vision.

We were lucky enough to know DYC thanks to a previous collaboration on a piece of client work. In talking with the DYC leadership we learned the kids in the choir were frightened by what they'd been seeing on TV. In addition to the trauma of seeing black people being brutalized in front of their very eyes, they were also experiencing the devastating impact that COVID-19 was having on their friends and family.

We chose to create the new version of ‘Glory’ pro bono to give the young people of the Detroit Youth Choir a platform to share their voice, from their own perspective, and the result was we inspired millions across America, including President Biden and Vice President Harris along the way, as we all work together to call for the change we want to see to racial equality and justice.

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