“We Are the Champions” is a song by the British rock band Queen, released from the band’s sixth album News of the World (1977). Written by lead singer Freddie Mercury, it remains among rock’s most recognisable anthems. Written by Freddie Mercury, “We Are the Champions” was built on audience response following a concert at Bingley Hall, Stafford in which the audience sang “You’ll Never Walk Alone” to the band. It embodies numerous elements of arena rock, with Brian May stating, “We wanted to get the crowds waving and singing. It’s very unifying and positive.” “We Are the Champions” Featuring Mercury on piano, Classic FM called “We Are the Champions” a “bombastic monument of an anthem”, with “its soaring, triumphant melody known at sporting events and award ceremonies the world over”. Problems playing this file? See media help. Musically, it is based on Mercury’s piano part, with Roger Taylor and John Deacon providing a drums and bass guitar backing. May overdubbed some guitar sections, initially subtle, but building to a “solo” played simultaneously with the last chorus. Mercury employed many jazz chords (major and minor 6th, 7th, 9th, 11th and 13th harmonies), and the choruses featured these voiced as four- and five-part vocal harmonies. The lead vocal is very demanding and strident (highest point is a C5 both belted and in falsetto), with one of Mercury’s most notable performances taking place at the Live Aid concert, at Wembley Stadium, London in 1985.

While all of this has been a fantastic experience, it has left out kids who attend schools in underprivileged, more diverse communities without funding for modern music education. Schools and districts in these areas lack funding for the equipment, teachers, curriculum, and support necessary to facilitate rock-band-style programs like the ones I’ve created.

My mission was to tackle this head-on and bring these exceptional programs to students in economically challenged areas, so I sold my music schools and am launching The Van Tuyl Music Foundation to forever change music education. Our foundation will directly provide the funding for the equipment, instruction, curriculum, and support necessary to facilitate these programs.

Ryan Van Tuyl