Red Note composes catchy Calypso style song for Carnival Cruise Line’s #CarnivalConga

To celebrate its fifth anniversary in Australia, Carnival Cruise Line pulled off the world’s longest conga line at sea in a campaign via Mercerbell, which CB reported on yesterday. To help get guests in a festive mood, sound house Red Note Visionary Sounds came up with a catchy track to ensure the conga kept to the march of its beat.

Red Note was briefed to create lyrics and a song melody to compliment the spirit of the Conga, which has travelled across 25 Carnival ships, via 13 countries, seven time zones and spanning over 16,000 kilometres. Over 1,500 guests from Sydney were locally involved.

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Red Note managing director Greg Townley says the agency offered up a clear and concise brief to help get the sound house off on the right track.

“MercerBell supplied us with great reference songs and some suggestions for lyrical content to evoke all of the fun and excitement of being on holidays and that adventurous spirit that comes from setting sail on a cruise ship,” Townley said.

“Briefed to compose Calypso style music, in order to give it a modern feel we referenced Soca, the contemporary form of calypso which originated in the 70s and that’s kind of like reggae but more upbeat and designed to get you dancing,” he explained. “Delving into the world of Calypso music to come up with a surprising and catchy calypso song was a super brief for our team to work on.”

Townley, who provided lead vocals, wrote the lyrics, and composed and produced the #CarnivalConga track (collaborating with fellow Red Note composers Steve Peach and Matt Sladen), also suggested Carnival instate a live performance, complete with a seven-piece band, to welcome guests onto the red carpet as they set-off on their cruise at the Sydney Overseas Passenger Terminal.

Broadcast live on the Today Show, the cruise line has also released the #CARNIVALCONGA song available across iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music and Google Play, with all purchase proceeds to be donated to The Children’s Hospital at Westmead.  

Says MercerBell group account director Matt Olanda: “Greg and the guys were a joy to work with. They took our brief and absolutely nailed it on the first go, definitely one of the catchiest tunes we’ve commissioned. Can’t help but wake up with it in your head.”

Client: Carnival Cruise Line

Composer: Greg Townley