The film’s release was planned to coincide with Tokyo 2020, but will now form an important part of the celebrations leading up to the Paralympic Games next year. Featuring Paralympians from across the world, Rising Phoenix tells the extraordinary story of the Paralympic Games. From the rubble of World War II to the third biggest sporting event on the planet, along the way sparking a global movement which continues to change the way the world thinks about disability, diversity and human potential.

The film’s score was composed by the acclaimed Daniel Pemberton and the soundtrack (released on Thursday 20 August) was mastered at Abbey Road by Alex Wharton.

Composer Daniel Pemberton has recorded many of his previous scores at Abbey Road from Motherless Brooklyn and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse to Ocean’s 8, Yesterday and this year’s Birds of Prey. He spoke to us about the score and the single Rising Phoenix which is “an incredibly important track in that it gives disabled artists a voice that is so often overlooked”.

The single Rising Phoenix is performed by Toni Hickman, Keith Jones and George Doman (otherwise known as Georgetastic). Hickman is not only a talented singer, but has survived two brain aneurysms and a stroke, which left her partially paralysed on her right side. Jones is the co-founder of Krip Hop Nation which is an international collective of artists with disabilities. He is also a celebrated hip-hop artist who uses his beats to promote activism. Doman was born with cerebral palsy and is a renowned artist winning many accolades for his track God-Like, created for the Sony video game God of War II.

Speaking about the single Daniel told us: “When have you ever heard someone with cerebral palsy rap on a record? Or heard a song about what it’s like to live with disability? I realised I never really had until I started researching how I could use artists with disability on the soundtrack for Rising Phoenix. The initial idea was really just to try and make a cool interesting song to end the film on that used the musical theme and brought the soundtrack to a conclusion. We found Leroy Moore, a disabled rights activist who had set up a very loose community of different disabled hip-hop artists under the umbrella ‘Krip-Hop Nation’.

“We went through a sway of recordings and found three different artists we thought would help make an amazing record – Toni Hickman, George Doman (known as “Georgetragic”) and Keith Jones. They had all previously made very powerful, very honest and raw records about their lives and while none of them had ever met each other or been on a track together they felt like an incredibly exciting and diverse mix of voices, viewpoints and talents. We showed them the film, I discussed our aim for the track and what we were trying to achieve with the song, drawing on the themes of the film and their own experiences and let them run with it.”

“Nothing however prepared us for what came in. The richly emotional content of Toni’s lyrics; the poetry of George’s incredibly powerful stories; Keith’s killer rapping style where his cerebral palsy creates an unbelievably unique flow that is unlike anything I’ve ever heard before - suddenly we had, from nowhere, a song that was personal and powerful, where you could feel the anger and the inspiration at the same time. We had something bigger than all of us. The first time I played it to the directors over a video-chat they cried. I felt that was a pretty good reaction. I hope it touches more people in that way.

“I went into this just wanting to get a cool end credits song and amplify some voices that I felt didn’t really get heard – and now I feel we’ve made something so much bigger than all of us combined that the whole world needs to hear it. On a personal level having been very involved with the film and listened to the stories on this track so many times they’ve already shifted how I see people in a wheelchair or with disabilities. I know I won’t be alone in that. I really believe this track could do that to so many people.

Also it’s a killer track!”

The new single alongside the soundtrack was mastered at Abbey Road by Alex Wharton, and the single is out now. The film launches of Netflix on 26 August.

Listen back to the album below

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