I Get Up Again Song Olympics

Corrections & clarifications: An earlier version of this report incorrectly credited the 1996 Summer Olympics performance of 'The Power of the Dream.' Celine Dion sang the theme at the opening ceremony; the song was performed again at the closing ceremony by Rachel McMullin and a choir of other children.

Like competing on the balance beam or sprinting to the finish line, writing a song can be an Olympic-caliber feat. Every two years, an artist is called on to record a tune that will capture the mood of the Summer or Winter Olympic Games. We look back at the best and worst:

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12. Survival, Muse

At the time of its release in 2012, BBC radio host Jon Holmes memorably compared this London Olympics theme to "an orchestra falling down some stairs" and the "noise of a rhino knocking a wall down." The English rockers' unbearable hodgepodge of crashing drums, dramatic strings and strained vocals may be the Games' worst official song.

11. Rise, Katy Perry

In retrospect, it's ironic how a song about rising from the bottom actually marked the fall of the once-reigning pop queen. A year before releasing the garbage fire that is her Witness album, Perry recorded this pedestrian number for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, which sounds like a retread of her past hitsWide Awake andUnconditionally. Like the parachute she drags around in the visually ambitious music video, she's similarly weighed down by Rise's plodding melody and faux-inspiring lyrics.

10.Barcelona, Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé

Barcelona is a passable duet, taken off the Queen frontman's 1988 joint album of the same name with the Spanish opera star. While her sublime soprano compliments his elastic vocals, it's doubtful that this classical love song lit a fire under any athletes' feet at the 1992 Summer Games.

9. Oceania, Björk

The Icelandic trailblazer blends rippling synths and whirring siren calls on this nautical ballad, written for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. But it's hardly workout playlist material, even if the video's briny, Neptune imagery fits right into Björk's unusual oeuvre.

8. Bang the Drum, Bryan Adams and Nelly Furtado

By no stretch of the imagination is Bang the Drum a lyrical masterpiece. (Sample lyrics: "From the East / From the West / Each of us trying our best.") And yet, the 2010 Winter Olympics anthem is a refreshingly upbeat addition to the Games' often downtempo catalog, fueled by a peppy drum solo and unabashedly cheesy chorus about dreaming big.

7. Let Everyone Shine, Insooni

It's this year's theme for the Winter Olympics Torch Relay. While it's packed with enough fire-related phrases to last until the 2020 Games, its catchy, feel-good chorus will be burned into your brain all month long.

6.A Chance for Heaven, Christopher Cross

Cross' synth-driven contribution to the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles is a bit of a puzzler: It's subtitled "Swimming Theme," and yet its whole chorus revolves around climbing mountains. Regardless, this blissful slice of '80s nostalgia will make you want to break out your neon-color windbreaker and leg warmers for an Olympic-size dance party.

5. Someday, Flipsyde

Hip-hop artists have mostly been passed over when it comes to penning Olympics tunes. But NBC made this Oakland group an exception when it picked Someday as the theme for the 2006 Winter Games — a solid choice, given its motivational lyrics about overcoming adversity and unique combination of rap and Spanish guitar.

4. You and Me, Liu Huan and Sarah Brightman

This sedate duet could run the risk of putting you to sleep, with faint, almost childlike vocals from the Chinese singer and English soprano. But its message of unity — "You and me, from one world / We are family" — makes this 2008 Beijing anthem one of the Olympics' most unexpectedly moving themes a decade later.

3. Hand in Hand, Koreana

It's nearly impossible to not be won over by the charms of South Korean band Koreana on this soaring throwback from the 1988 Seoul Summer Games, with earnest vocals and pulsing synths worthy of Olympics gold.

2. The Power of the Dream, Céline Dion

The Canadian icon gave a definitive performance of this rousing ballad at the 1996 Summer Olympics' opening ceremony, where her silky vibrato and formidable belt were on full display. Later, at the Games' closer, 10-year-old Rachel McMullin was joined by some 600 children from Atlanta for a more earnest, euphonious rendition. Either way, you can't go wrong.

1. One Moment in Time, Whitney Houston

The gold standard by which all Olympics theme songs should be judged. Also written for the 1988 summer event, this top-5 hit perfectly encapsulates the spirit of the Games: giving one's all, facing the pain and ultimately becoming "more than I thought I could be." But it's also an expertly constructed pop anthem, which gradually builds to a trumpeting finish as Houston belts, "I will be free." It's a knockout vocal performance that only she was capable of giving, and one that elevates this from a rousing torch song to a timeless classic.

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Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/entertainthis/2016/08/04/olympics-theme-songs-katy-perry-whitney-houston/87968806/

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