Watch OneRepublic’s Touching, Fan-Sourced Quarantine Video for ‘Better Days’
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OneRepublic, who recorded their latest single “Better Days” while in quarantine after being exposed to someone with coronavirus, today released a video of the song comprised almost entirely of fan-sourced video footage.
Upon the song’s release late last month, the group invited fans to share videos of their experiences at home — “sharing acts of kindness, showing how they virtually stay connected to friends and family, how their neighborhoods and cities have changed and anything else they have been doing while staying safe and at home.” The video, directed by the group and Josh Ricks, certainly achieves that by interspersing grim news footage with clips of health workers, first responders and fans from all over the world showing togetherness and optimism.
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OneRepublic and Interscope Records will donate a portion of the proceeds from the streaming of “Better Days” through September 2020 to benefit MusiCares who have established the COVID-19 Relief Fund to help those in the music community affected by the Coronavirus pandemic. To donate to MusiCares please click here.
On writing the song, frontman Ryan Tedder said, “We were in the final week of our fifth album deadline when a global pandemic was declared by the WHO. A few of us unknowingly got exposed to somebody with Covid-19 in London and ended up in quarantine in L.A. at my studio for two weeks. With only two songs left to finish, one of them happened to be ‘Better Days.’ We write about real experiences and events that happen to us – this is what happens when you write a song during a crisis.”
With over 9 million global streams, “Better Days” has already been featured in NBC and Jeep and Ram’s recent campaigns. NBC included the song in their #BetterDays and #TogetherStartsHere challenge to share a message of positivity during this difficult time. Jeep and Ram used the song for their FCA “Drive Forward” initiative, which offers new incentives for customers during this time.
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