As Central New Yorkers stream their traditional holiday favorites, they have a chance to add to their music library with a charitable song that will benefit “Music for the Mission” to buy meals for those less fortunate. “We Are One” was originally released in 2018 with over 40 local artists and has been re-released into a new version. Executive Producer Bob Halligan attempted to capture holiday spirit and goodwill through storytelling by remembering those who are less fortunate.
“The concept is… create a song and then the downloads for 99 cents you have 3 meals for the whole day for one person a dinner for a family of three. And every penny from the downloads goes directly to charity. So, that was something that I could get excited about. Because I love this town, I love Central New York.”
Halligan was asked to produce a holiday version of the song while using the main vocal tracks of the song hook from the first version and re-writing the lead vocals and storylines.
“Once I had completed the re-write of it as a Christmas song, I prefer it vastly to the original… to the extent that I can’t even remember the original lyric now.”
Halligan wanted to produce a local song while capturing the energy and sound of a hit record for which he’s an expert. He’s either written or collaborated on songs recorded by Cher, Joan Jett, Kiss, Night Ranger and Christian recording artist Rebecca St. James. Music for the Mission was founded in 2009 by Syracuse area lawyer Joe Stanley. To download the song for 99 cents, just search for “We Are One” followed by (Christmas Is Here) in parenthesis.
