Beijing Olympics 2008

“Forever Friends”, sets off the final countdown on the way to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The tune written by Chinese pianist Kong Xiangdong and Italian music producer Giorgio Moroder was released Monday. And the live performance of the song in Tiananmen Square, Wednesday marked the beginning of the countdown, one year to the day before the Olympic opening ceremonies.
Moroder came to know Kong Xiangdong twelve years ago. Today the two are great friends. Over a decade they collaborated again and again, composing and adapting tunes from several genres. In 1993 Moroder penned the song “Good Luck Beijing” cheering Beijing’s bid for the Olympic Games. This time he and his long-time friend Kong worked together in competition to write the 2008 Beijing Olympics theme song.Giorgio Moroder joined Kong on the recording right after arriving in Beijing last Sunday. Moroder’s presence at the recording studio left one of the performers, Sun Yue, feeling both honored and a little nervous.
fter finishing Sun Yue’s session, Kong and Moroder headed straight to another studio. They gave instructions to fourteen finalists from the 2007 College Student Music Festival Singing Competition. The finalists were to join the chorus for “Forever Friends”.
As Moroder said, he’s fond of Chinese folk music very much, and the leading motif of “Forever Friends” is inspired by a folk music piece. He also reveals he plans to invite two Chinese singers and two foreign artists to perform the number together, once it’s chosen as the theme song of the 2008 Olympics.

from: CCTV

After two years of hard work and inspiration, composer Giorgio Moroder and his friend, Shanghainese pianist Kong Xiangdong, have completed the song “Forever Friends,” their offering for the theme song of the 2008 Olympic Games. Moroder, who composed the themes for the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games and the 1990 World Cup, will introduce the work at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday in a special Olympics program on CCTV.

Chinese singers Wang Feng and Sun Yue with Hong Kong artists Eason Chan and Yoey Yung will combine later to perform “Forever Friends” at the Beijing Olympics one-year countdown at Tian’anmen Square on Wednesday.

“You’ll find typical Chinese elements in this song,” said Kong who believes a successful Olympic song should be one that can be accepted and sung widely - like “Hand in Hand” the theme song of the 1988 Olympics.