A space exploration fan, jazz artist Gregory Porter to sing for NASA launch
(Reuters) - Jazz artist Gregory Porter, whose new single
“Concorde” is an ode to space exploration, is set to perform on Thursday as
part of a ceremony marking the launch of NASA’s next generation rover that will
search for signs of habitable conditions on Mars.
The Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter is scheduled to sing the Ray Charles version of “America The Beautiful” during the U.S. space agency’s broadcast of the countdown to the launch of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Mission at Cape Canaveral in Florida.
Porter said he will perform from his living room in Bakersfield, California because of the coronavirus pandemic. His record label said Porter was invited after NASA officials heard “Concorde.”
“I wrote the song when I was on
an airplane thinking about the idea of ascension, both in the body but in the
mind as well. Flying into the stratosphere,” Porter told Reuters. “And so,
anyway, NASA caught wind of it and they were interested... in partnering in the
release of the song and the release of the video.”
In the “Concorde” music video,
Porter is dressed as an astronaut and appears opposite his young son, Demyan.
“When I’m floating around in the
galaxy, hanging out with the stars, the sweetest thing to do is to come back
down, to drop down to and to be on the soil and to be with your loved ones. And
that’s what the song is about,” Porter said.
https://www.reuters.com/video/?videoId=OVCOVBSKD&jwsource=cl
