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As New York wakes up from its slumber, it’s clear that it’s not just any morning. There’s Stephen Colbert, emerging on a rooftop, and Peppermint, a drag queen, strolling across a bridge in glittering heels. On the Lower East Side, Sara Bareilles is sitting in a cafe, but she’s got something on her mind, so she doesn’t touch her lox bagel.
“Some people like to get away from it all,” she hums, “take a vacation to the neighborhood.”
This is the opening line from Billy Joel’s 1976 song “New York State of Mind”.
Some of New York’s most recognizable performers follow Ms. Bareilles, as they take turns singing, dancing, playing instruments, and – for those less inclined to music, like Andy Cohen – kissing a camera, in a music video. went out on Sunday in an effort. to uplift the city as it recovers from the pandemic.
“New York State of Mind,” with its lyrics on the Hudson River, Greyhound buses and this journal, is a staple in any situation where the New York Spirit is required, and it has been invoked through tough times in the world. over the years, from the city’s financial crisis in the 1970s to the aftermath of September 11.
As the city emerges from one of the most difficult times in its history this summer, the volunteer organization behind the video, NYCNext, hopes the coverage will remind New Yorkers that the city did. never ceased to thrive, said Tom Kitt, a Pulitzer Prize-winning and Tony award-winning composer who helped produce the video.
“It was another time when New York City could really use a song that was about the romance, resilience and beauty of New York City,” Mr. Kitt said in an interview.
Mr. Joel granted the organization permission to use the song (“I was told he was very supportive and enthusiastic,” Mr. Kitt said), and his daughter Alexa Ray Joel briefly appears in the video.
The performers in the video, which was produced by documentary filmmaker Joshua Seftel, all have a connection to New York City. Everyone volunteered their time for the project, said Maryam Banikarim, co-founder of NYCNext.
Suzanne Vega performs her solo at Tom’s Restaurant, a Morningside Heights establishment that she helped make famous with her 1982 track “Tom’s Diner”. Further down Broadway, Peppermint and Brian Stokes Mitchell sing on the Columbia University campus.
Also famous on Broadway, Jerry Dixon and comedian Mario Cantone sing in front of the fountain at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, while Idina Menzel ends the video with her high notes in a Times Square rehearsal studio.
Actress LaChanze circles a bridge on the roof of the Steinway & Sons factory in Queens, where pianist Chloe Flower delivers a soaring arpeggio as the sun sets over the city.
Ms Flower spent a year locked in her apartment during the pandemic, so she said she was thrilled to star in the video. “For being New Yorker and filming this particular song, I thought I was going to cry while filming,” Ms. Flower said in an interview. “It was so touching.”
Ms Bareilles, who filmed her scenes at the Russ & Daughters Cafe, said in a statement that “singing the iconic Billy Joel song alongside members of my community at a time when the city needs us all was so meaningful” .
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