(Photos courtesy Coca-Cola and Teddyafro.info)
Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff
Saturday, June 7th, 2014
New York (TADIAS) — The Coca-Cola Company, headquartered in Atlanta, responded to queries regarding the unreleased, Ethiopian version of Coke’s FIFA World Cup song performed by Teddy Afro. Coca Cola confirmed that Teddy’s contract was handled by a third party, Mandala Limited, a Kenyan production company based in Nairobi.
“Teddy Afro was brought into our Coke Studio in Africa to record a version of the Coca-Cola FIFA World Cup song, ‘The World is Ours’ with the goal of capturing the unique genre of Ethiopian music,” a representative of The Coca-Cola Company said in an email to Tadias Magazine. “The contract with Teddy Afro was executed by a 3rd party, Mandala Limited, a production House based Nairobi and Teddy Afro was compensated in full for his efforts.”
Per the contract, Coca-Cola said, “following recording the produced track become the property of Coca-Cola CEWA to be used at the Company’s discretion. The song has not been released and there are no plans for release at this time.”
The company noted that currently there are 32 local versions of the track that have been released worldwide, but it remains unclear why Coca-Cola chose not to release the Ethiopian version.
Teddy Afro is scheduled to perform at SummerStage in New York on July 5th, gracing the popular outdoor venue along with fellow Ethiopians, Hahu Dance Crew, and Mauritania’s beloved singer Noura Mint Seymali. As organizers of SummerStage note: “Over the past ten years, Teddy has emerged as the number one voice in Ethiopia, breaking records for album sales and show attendance. He is known far and wide as the rising star of East Africa. Using Reggae rhythms combined with traditional sounds his songs are sung exclusively in the national language of Ethiopia, Amharic. Influenced by Ethiopian Maestro Tilahun Gessesse and international Reggae superstar Bob Marley, he sings of freedom from tyranny and self-emancipation.”
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