Is will.i.am angling for a job in a Barack Obama White House? The Black Eyed Peas frontman on Friday released another star-studded music video in tribute to the presidential campaign of the Democratic senator – this one is titled “We Are The Ones.”
Backed by a simple vocal refrain of “O-BA-MA! O-BA-MA!,” stars such as Jessica Alba, Ryan Phillippe, Kerry Washington, George Lopez and others explain why they support Obama while others such as Macy Gray croon the candidates’ last name to the will.i.am-penned melody.
The song is a follow-up to his inspirational video “Yes We Can,” a viral sensation that has garnered more than 5 million hits on YouTube.com alone. That song features Obama’s voice from a New Hampshire concession speech set to will.i.am’s music and melody, plus vocalizations of the speech from the likes of Scarlet Johansson, John Legend, Kate Walsh, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Herbie Hancock and other celebrity supporters. The chorus is one of Obama’s campaign slogans: “Yes We Can.”
The “We Are The Ones” video comes before Tuesday’s Democratic primaries in Texas and Ohio. Obama is leading his rival, Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, in the delegate count for the nomination.
Washington, who’s in Texas campaigning for Obama, said she got involved in the “We Are The Ones” video after some fellow volunteers alerted her to the video shoot. She said she’s already gotten dozens of phone calls since the video debuted Friday.
As far as whether it will bring more people to the polls to vote for Obama, Washington said “it’s a hard thing to quantify.
“But … it’s evidence of how inspired the nation has become,” she told The Associated Press. “The arts have always been a place where people express their dreams and hopes. … What’s happening is people are seeing their own excitement reflected in a national forum, and it sort of increases that excitement exponentially.”
