Nile Rodgers and Rudimental have completed their collaboration on the remix of Chic song ‘Le Freak’.
The artists reinvented the disco classic as part of the GoThinkBig project – an initiative launched by O2 which offers young people valuable work experience – and it comes out on October 17.
Grammy Award winner Nile and Rudimental worked with 70 young people on the track giving them the chance to contribute to the production and also create the accompanying music video and all proceeds from the song will be donated to GoThinkBig and Nile’s charity, the We Are Family Foundation.
The 62-year-old musician debuted the video and song at his sold-out concert at The Indigo2 in London last Thursday (09.10.14) and revealed he got involved in the project because he can remember how hard it was for him and his late songwriting partner Bernard Edwards to break into the music business.
He said: "I remember we got turned away from Studio 54 and we went and wrote ‘FO’ which eventually became ‘Le Freak’. But we couldn’t have done that without having so people around us so me & Rudimental wanted to do the same … Without rejection you won’t learn how to do it right. All the songs that don’t do well allow you to make the hit records."
At the concert Nile played a greatest hits set comprised of songs recorded by Chic and tracks he wrote and produced for other artists.
After opening with ‘Everybody Dance’, ‘Dance, Dance, Dance’ and ‘I Want Your Love’, the band then played a medley of "some number one hit records" Nile was responsible for, including Diana Ross smashes ‘I’m Coming Out’ and ‘Upside Down’ and Sister Sledge’s ‘He’s The Greatest Dancer’ and ‘We Are Family’.
Before a rare rendition of Daft Punk’s ‘Get Lucky’ – which Nile played guitar on – he told fans, "I feel pretty lucky to be here. Everything we do and every song we do we got to simplify it," prompting Chic to open with a slowed down, gospel tinged version of the song before speeding it up.
They closed the set with a version of David Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’,
‘Le Freak’ and ‘Good Times’ – for which they were joined on stage by the young people involved in the GoThinkBig project.
Meanwhile, Nile collected the prestigious Song of the Year prize for ‘Get Lucky’ at the BMI London Awards on Monday night (13.10.14).
He was on hand at the ceremony – held at The Dorchester Hotel – to pick up the gong, with his collaboration with Daft Punk and Pharrell Williams beating off competition from tracks by the likes of Ed Sheeran, Ellie Goulding and Avicii.
Other winners on the night included Van Morrison, who picked up the BMI Million-Air Award, and Sir Tim Rice, who was honoured at the event with the BMI Icon Award.
Nile Rodgers completes Le Freak remix
