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ONE and Ancienne Belgique unveil protest song competition winner

Brussels – The ONE Campaign and Ancienne Belgique have today announced blues/folk group new rising sun as the winners of a search to find an unsigned Belgian artist who has the passion to move people to action through the power of the protest song.  The announcement is part of ONE’s agit8 campaign to raise global awareness about extreme poverty.

The band’s exclusive performances of ‘Hurricane’ by Bob Dylan and original song ‘Sad Sad World’, recorded in Ancienne Belgique’s recording studio, are being showcased on the ONE agit8 website alongside stars from around the world.   The band join more than 50 artists – including Usher, U2, Mumford and Sons and Elvis Costello, Ed Sheeran, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, will.i.am and others – who have released classic protest songs in an effort to highlight the power of music to change the world.

new rising sun will be performing live at the 10th edition of the Feeërieën festival in Brussels this Thursday night.

Dries Bongaerts, lead singer and songwriter of new rising sun said:

“We’re really happy to have won.  We chose to sing ‘Hurricane’ because a lot of our music and lyrics are inspired by Bob Dylan.  We hope to follow in his footsteps by performing songs that make people think and act to change things. ”

Eloise Todd, Brussels director of ONE said:

“We congratulate new rising sun and all the other amazing and talented musicians who entered the competition.  We hope they will go on to inspire people in Belgium and beyond to join ONE and the fight for an end to the injustice of poverty and hunger.”

Dirk De Clippeleir, director of Ancienne Belgique said:

“New rising sun proves yet again the wealth of musical talent in Belgium.  They have a mature sound and ‘Sad sad world’ is a great song.  I’m sure we’ll hear more from them in the future and I’m proud both ONE and AB were able to give them a little push along the way.”

Throughout history, great injustices like slavery and apartheid have been overcome when public protest became too loud for politicians to ignore. Today, with 20,000 children dying needlessly every day from poverty and hunger, ONE says it’s time to turn up the volume.  Extreme poverty can be virtually eliminated by 2030, but it won’t happen on its own, which is why ONE is calling for millions more voices to urge those in power to finish the job.