Hope Sings™ is the first music organization to use the universality of song and the power of story to raise funds for and awareness of microfinance. By highlighting the stories of individual microfinance recipients, it aims to help people around the world – especially women - lift themselves out of poverty. All net proceeds will be donated to Kiva.org and other participating organizations such as FINCA, ACCION and MicroPlace.
“It came to me on a beach in the Baja that I wanted to be up to something more with my writing. I wanted to have a broad and meaningful impact on people’s lives,” explained Beth Blatt, founder of Hope Sings™. “The next week I heard a friend talking about the microfinance organization Kiva.org. This friend, with a loan of $100, was helping a woman in Central America buy an oven, start a business and begin to lift herself out of poverty. ‘Now that is an inspiring story,’ I thought to myself. ‘That could be an amazing song.’ And that’s how Hope Sings™ was born.”
Hope Sings™ invites artists to write songs inspired by the true stories of people whose lives have been improved in enormous ways by small micro-loans. The organization is focusing its first efforts in Latin America, with Phase I featuring Latin artists and borrower stories. Songs will be released digitally, one every 30-60 days, and then compiled into a CD. A documentary of artists visiting the borrowers who inspire their songs will accompany the project.
Its first single, “La Esperanza Canta” (“Hope Sings”) debuted in November at the 10th Annual Latin GRAMMY Awards in Las Vegas. The song was written and recorded by Marta Gomez, the acclaimed Colombian singer/songwriter, expressly for the project. Other artists who have already committed to Hope Sings™ include award-winning writer/producer Andres Levin (Natalie Merchant, In The Heights), and award-winning writers Gabriel Flores (Babel) and Jose Luis Pagan (Marc Anthony, Jennifer Lopez, Thalia).
After Latin America, Hope Sings™ will circle the globe – to Asia, the Middle East, Africa and even the United States – everywhere microfinance is helping people lift themselves out of poverty.
