A Beautiful Noise

Ramping up to the 2020 election, there was a concerted effort by many groups around the country to get out the vote. One of them was an organization called Live Nation Women, led by president and Atlanta native Ali Harnell. Harnell reached out to recording artist Alicia Keys with the idea of creating an original anthem to celebrate the centennial of the 19th Amendment (women's right to vote) and to galvanize turnout for the U.S. presidential election.

Created for the 2020 brand awareness campaign "Every Vote Counts: A Celebration of Democracy," the song "A Beautiful Noise" was written by an all-female songwriting team including Keys and fellow artist Brandi Carlile. The anthem was specifically composed by the duo, along with six other powerhouse women in the music industry, to encourage voter turnout and emphasize the power of the individual voice during a pivotal election cycle. The collaboration was sparked by a desire to create an uplifting, bipartisan message of civic engagement, eventually leading to a powerful televised performance by Carlile and Keys that highlighted the track's stripped-down, soulful call to action.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yU1x-p_OdY

When Artistic Director Melissa Arasi invited me to arrange "A Beautiful Noise" for the Atlanta Women’s Chorus (an ensemble I’m very proud to have helped build in 2012), I kept coming back to the sheer weight of the room where the song was created. You have eight of the most formidable female writers in the industry coming together to create something that wasn’t just about "red" or "blue"; it was about the simple, non-partisan act of showing up.

There is immense symbolism in the choice of these writers alone. Their intent was to mark the centennial of the 19th Amendment, reminding us that the right to speak isn't just a legacy—it's a muscle we have to use. The song starts as a whisper of individual vulnerability and builds into what the lyric calls a "choir of thunder." For us in the choral world, that’s exactly what we do: turn an “I” into a “We.”

The song’s reception since its release—including its 2022 Song of the Year Grammy nomination—shows that while it was born in a specific moment of civic urgency, its heartbeat is timeless. It’s a reminder that silence is a choice, but "noise" is a gift. I'm very proud to give the arrangement settings for both women's chorus and mixed chorus, and to have it published by Hal Leonard in its prestigious Voices Rising series.

In our current climate, it can feel like the "noise" surrounding us is anything but beautiful. It’s often jagged, divisive, and designed to make us retreat into our own corners. But when we choose to sing a song like this, we are making a different kind of noise. We are proving that diverse voices—each with their own history and perspective—can occupy the same space and create something resonant. My hope is that these arrangements serve as a reminder that we don't have to wait for the storm to pass to find our voice; we just have to be willing to add ours to the choir.

Kevin