Yes We Can

About Yes We Can

"Yes We Can" is a collage style music video inspired by a speech delivered by Senator and now President-elect Barack Obama following the 2008 New Hampshire primary, derived from similar union catch cries. The song was released on February 2, 2008 by the Black Eyed Peas member will.i.am on Dipdive.com and also on YouTube under the username 'WeCan08' . It was honored with the first-ever Emmy Award for Best New Approaches in Daytime Entertainment . The term "Yes We Can!" became a secondary slogan for Barack Obama's campaign.

Although the lyrics are entirely quotations from Sen. Obama's concession speech in the New Hampshire primary, the Obama campaign had no involvement in its production. The viral music video, shot in a sparse black-and-white, features Barack Obama's image in collage fashion; the performers (celebrities including musicians, singers and actors) echo his words in a hip-hop call-and-response manner as his voice plays in the background. The song was produced by will.i.am; the music video was directed by Jesse Dylan, the son of singer Bob Dylan. The music video (which Joe Klein of Time later characterized as "brilliant") premiered on the national media on ABC News Now's What's the Buzz entertainment program on February 1, 2008. On February 2 it was featured on the Obama campaign's community blog, and later promoted as a viral video by the campaign on its website. Obama played the clip prior to a February 12 rally of nearly 20,000 at the Kohl Center on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Since the original posting on YouTube, the video has been re-posted a number of times by other users and as of February 23, 2008, the video had been watched a combined total of more than 12 million times among all of the postings. It had also been viewed more than 4 million times on Dipdive, for a combined web total of more than 16 million viewings. By July 22, 2008, the video had been watched over 21 million times on YouTube and other sites. The video also won will.i.am a Webby Award for "Artist of the Year".[10] It was also criticized, however, by conservative commentators for being over-the-top and worshipful.[11][12]