Alternative title: Karaoke
Co-CCO, New York: Tom Murphy
Co-CCO, New York: Sean Bryan
Creative Director: Ryan Paulson
Creative Director: Carlos Wigle
Junior Art Director: Kelsey DaHarb
Junior Copywriter: Oscar Gierup
Junior Art Director: Kristina Samsonova
SVP Executive Producer, Innovation: Christine Lane
Innovation Producer: Phoebe Chao
Design Director: George Katz
EVP Executive Account Director: Scot Beck
Account Director: Tessa Cosenza
Account Supervisor: Daniel de la Torre
Senior Project Manager: Jessica Avery
VP Strategy Director: Dan Wilkos
Social Strategist: Karishma Shah
SVP Executive Music Producer: Eric Johnson
Music Producer: Dan Gross
Business Manager: Sam Belkin
Senior Brand Content Creator: Eric Perini
Brand Content Creator: Brett Berman
VP Technology Director: Erik Kroha
Senior Developer: Ben Thompson
Digital Producer: Chava Quinn
Executive Print Producer: Eileen Kaufman
Chief Communications Officer: Jeremy Miller
Published: July 2018
Synopsis:
MGM Resorts International hosted a special celebration of the first-ever Stonewall Day on June 28th, providing new versions of love songs and allowing singers to pick a pronoun, customize the lyrics to their preference. This event was an extension of MGM’s UNIVERSAL LOVE project, which featured a collection of reimagined love songs for the LGBTQ community and was held at the iconic Stonewall Inn.
Stonewall Day honors the Stonewall Uprising, widely considered the beginning of the gay rights movement. MGM Resorts worked with the Stonewall Inn and the Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative to join in this historic event.
Stonewall Day is a program of Pride Live Nation, a social advocacy and community engagement platform for the LGBTQ community.
Each singer at the Stonewall Inn karaoke night was be able to sing their song using a male, female or non-gendered pronoun using a Universal Love-branded interface. MGM Resorts created an app to run the selected songs on the karaoke unit and a songbook for karaoke singers to follow.
The night included an appearance by the New York City Mayor’s office, delivering an official letter in recognition of Stonewall Day.
“Given the commitment of our UNIVERSAL LOVE project to embracing the impact music can have on the human experience, we are thrilled to play a part in honoring and celebrating the people who participated in the Stonewall Inn Uprising and helped advance acceptance of gay rights in America,” said Lilian Tomovich, Chief Experience & Marketing Officer of MGM Resorts International.
Universal Love Karaoke re-imagines the songs people sing about love and celebrates the freedom to sing about loving whoever you want. Love is universal. Now karaoke songs are too.
MGM Resorts is a leading global entertainment company. The UNIVERSAL LOVE album reflected MGM’s two decades of advocacy work with the LGBTQ community and the company’s desire to advance initiatives that unite humanity.
The UNIVERSAL LOVE compilation album, produced by MGM in conjunction with global advertising agency McCann, offers six newly recorded versions of iconic love songs that give same-sex couples a soundtrack for their own love stories and feature pronouns changed to reflect the world of LGBTQ relationships. The boundary-changing songs, which were released this past April, are performed by some of today’s most-beloved artists, including Bob Dylan, Kesha, St. Vincent, Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie, Kele Okereke of Bloc Party, and Valerie June.