"First Steps" is a song composed and recorded by

Elbow The elbow is the region between the arm and the forearm that surrounds the elbow joint. The elbow includes prominent landmarks such as the olecranon, the cubital fossa (also called the chelidon, or the elbow pit), and the lateral and the m ...

as the BBC's theme for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Production history

The BBC invited Elbow to present ideas for the 2012 Olympic theme, on the strength of their 2008 song " One Day Like This", which had been used during the Beijing Olympics and televising of subsequent sporting events. In November 2011 it was announced that the BBC had commissioned Elbow to composing the theme music. The six-minute anthem was recorded with the

BBC Philharmonic Orchestra The BBC Philharmonic is a national British broadcasting symphony orchestra and is one of five radio orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation. The Philharmonic is a department of the BBC North Group division based at MediaC ...

and the NovaVox gospel choir. The anthemic composition and the accompanying visuals were intended to sum up the achievement of reaching the Olympics, the emotions of those who win and those who do not, and the coming together of the whole country to support the event. The title was inspired by a child of one of the band members learning to walk during the composition of the song, symbolising the hope and achievement of the moment. The

title sequence A title sequence (also called an opening sequence or intro) is the method by which films or television programmes present their title and key production and cast members, utilizing conceptual visuals and sound (often a opening theme song with ...

used for television coverage of the Games pairs the song with an animation depicting the United Kingdom as one vast stadium. Although the full version lasts more than six minutes, it was intentionally composed to allow different clips of one or two minutes to be played during montages of winners or losers.

Availability

"First Steps" was available only as a digital download from selected retailers, who waived their profits. Elbow also waived any fees from sales. At least 20p from each download was shared equally between the charities BBC Children in Need and

Sport Relief ''Sport Relief'' was a biennial charity event from Comic Relief, in association with BBC Sport, established in 2002. It was the idea of Kevin Cahill, CBE, who had joined Comic Relief in 1991 to establish a new department as Director of Educati ...

. The song is no longer available for download from any of the retailers.

Track listing

References

External links

Download links
BBC Children in Need {{authority control 2012 songs Charity singles Elbow (band) songs Olympic theme songs Songs written by Guy Garvey