Pop superstar Katy Perry has provided an inspirational new soundtrack to this year’s Olympic Games, which are scheduled to take place in Rio de Janeiro starting early next month.
Her latest NBC-sponsored single, Rise, will be played throughout the upcoming games, with a music video that pays homage to the world’s top swimmers, runners, and stars of various other, lesser-appreciated sports.
The single, co-written by Perry, Swedish wunderkind Max Martin, Savan Kotecha, and Ali Payami is the American singer’s first new material since 2013’s Prism album. Famed athletes like swimmers Michael Phelps and Missy Franklin, gymnast Simone Biles, and sprinter Usain Bolt all contribute to the epic visuals added to the new single, which sonically adheres fairly generically to Perry’s other power ballad hits (Roar, etc).
“This is a song that’s been brewing inside me for years, that has finally come to the surface. I was inspired to finish it now, rather than save it for my next album, because now more than ever, there is a need for our world to unite,” said Perry in a statement about the new single. “I know that together we can rise above the fear — in our country, and around the world. I can’t think of a better example than the Olympic athletes, as they gather in Rio with their strength and fearlessness, to remind us how we ALL can come together, with the resolve to be the best we can be. I hope this song can inspire us to heal, unite, and rise together.”
Rise will appear throughout coverage of this year’s Rio Olympics, featuring heavily in the coverage of the opening ceremony, and the video for the single is also scheduled to play in 20,000 movie theaters nationwide this Friday.
Coverage of the Olympics begins on NBC on August 5.
