The EMMY winning Happy Xmas (Cancer's Over) and the Christmas 4 The Kids album was created to build awareness for Cure 4 The Kids Foundation, Nevada's only outpatioent clinic for kids battling cancer and rare diseases. I produced and arranged a new cover version of the John Lennon classic, Happy Xmas. The track features American Idol Casting Producer Kyle Khou and Nick Carter of Backstreet Boys. The track would be the lead track for the compilation album, "Christmas 4 The Kids" which featured other great holiday tracks from The Smithereens, GRAMMY Award winning Alphabet Rockers, Ron Dante, and many others. 100% of the streaming proceeds from the album went directly to Cure 4 The Kids Foundation. By simply listening to any track on the Christmas 4 The Kids album, you would be making a smaill donation to Cure 4 The Kids Foundation. The album is available on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Prime Unlimited, Pandora, and everywhere you can stream digital music. For those who wanted to make a direct donation to Cure 4 The Kids Foundation, a GoFundMe campaign was also created as part of this project (links below).
The Happy Xmas (Cancer's Over) music video was recorded at Vū Studios in Las Vegas, a state-of-the-art virtual production facility. The music video features Blue Man Group, magician Murray SawChuck, Danny Koker and the cast from History Channel's Counting Cars, Cure 4 The Kids Foundation cancer patients, and the C4K providers who care for them. Happy Xmas (Cancer's Over) is the single from the album Christmas 4 The Kids, a holiday music compilation featuring Ron Dante, Andrew Gold, The Smithereens, Alphabet Rockers, and many more. Available on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Prime Unlimited, Pandora, and everywhere you can stream digital music, 100% of the streaming proceeds go directly to kids battling cancer and rare diseases. A Christmas 4 The Kids GoFundMe campaign accompanies this project. 100% of the proceeds raised benefit Cure 4 The Kids Foundation, Nevada's only outpatient childhood cancer and rare disease center and goes directly to kids battling cancer and rare diseases.
Links:
Christmas 4 The Kids Album Spotify (Album): https://spoti.fi/40kLxCG
iTunes (Album): https://apple.co/46YaxlC
Apple Music (Album): https://apple.co/3QprRJ6
Pandora (Album): https://bit.ly/3QEKjPg
YouTube (Album Playlist): https://bit.ly/3MpYBRr
Happy Xmas (Cancer's Over) [Single] Spotify (Single - Muro Mix): https://bit.ly/3QI0yuV
iTunes (Single - Muro Mix): https://apple.co/49mDGsk
Apple Music (Single - Muro Mix): https://apple.co/40qF2hw
GoFundMe: GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/ea6c170e
For more information on Cure 4 The Kids Foundation, visit https://www.cure4thekids.org.
I enlisted the help of local recording studio Electrric Shop recording for recording the tracks. After getting a rough demo completed with Kyle Khou, I reached out to Nick Carter of The Bakcstreet Boys to add a vocal and make the track a duet. Nick loved the idea. The track featured musicians from shows on the Las Vegas Strip as well as C4K cancer patients on the chorus.
The music video would be the primary promotional tool and driver for the project. The 6-camera shoot took place at Vū Studios in Las Vegas, a state-of-the-art virtual production facility. The music video features Blue Man Group, magician Murray SawChuck, Danny Koker and the cast from History Channel's Counting Cars, Cure 4 The Kids Foundation cancer patients, and the C4K providers who care for them. Over 100 people appear in the music video which is a tribute to The Beatles' "Hey Jude" and "All You Need Is Love" music videos with a dash of "We Are The World".
The entire project including audio and video production, vinyl pressing, creative, and all other costs were accomplished with a no budget. All of the resources were donated to Cure 4 The Kids Foundation.
The social media campaign included dozens of holiday shout-outs from celebrities such as Huey Lewis, San Francisco Giants great Buster Posey, Pawn Stars Rick Harrison, Criss Angel, Todd Rundgren, Blue Man Group, Klaus Meine (Scorpions), Alice Cooper, Nick Carter, and dozens more. All of these celebrities' participation helped to broaden C4K's audience reach and help build awareness for Cure 4 The Kids Foundation. The collective audience reach for all of the celebrities involved in the social media project was as follows:
Facebook: 58.7 million
Instagram: 30.8 million
Twitter: 5.8. million
TikTok: 3.2 million
As memntioned above, the social media campaign included dozens of holiday shout-outs from celebrities such as Huey Lewis, San Francisco Giants great Buster Posey, Pawn Stars Rick Harrison, Criss Angel, Todd Rundgren, Blue Man Group, Klaus Meine (Scorpions), Alice Cooper, Nick Carter, and dozens more. All of these celebrities' participation helped to broaden C4K's audience reach and help build awareness for Cure 4 The Kids Foundation.
Across streaming proceeds, GoFundMe donations, and direct website donations, we reached our fundraising goal of $50,000. The project garned significant news coverage both before release and after release. Finally, the music video for Happy Xmas (Cancer's Over) won an EMMY for Outstanding Musical Composition/Arrangement for the Pacific Southwest region.
