All Blacks anthem

FELICITY REID

FORMER Albany resident and North Harbour age-group rugby player turned singer-songwriter Franko Heke Yates wants to inspire the All Blacks as well as everyday New Zealanders with his YouTube presentation.

In April, he uploaded his potential 2011 Rugby World Cup anthem, We are One, on to the video-sharing site YouTube, and received an instant response from a worldwide audience.

Tomorrow, Franko will take his campaign to have the song adopted by the All Blacks and their supporters to the next level when he films the music video at Awataha Marae in Northcote for the international launch of the song.

"It is about regular Kiwis coming together and becoming one," Franko says of the video that will follow ordinary people, including a mother and her kids during their daily life until they all end up together at the marae.

The marae's kapa haka group will perform the chorus alongside the 25-year-old singer.

But it won't just be New Zealanders' voices featured.

Via the internet, people from around the world have filmed themselves singing the chorus and snippets of these will be incorporated in the video.

"It's rad to have people you don't know singing back your song," he says.

Franko, who is of Maori and Italian descent, was a regular visitor to the marae when he was living in Albany and attending Rangitoto College.

"Something pulled me to this place, I just love it.

"To have the cultural aspect to the song felt right."

Franko says We are One is for the All Blacks, but the song first came to prominence during a time when New Zealanders were reacting to Kiwi band The Feelers covering the British song Right Here, Right Now that is used for world cup tournament promotions.

Initially Franko says he was among the large number of detractors to a non-Kiwi song being used.

"I've had a bit of time to think about it and getting a New Zealand act to do something the world knows was the right thing to do.

"It's a bit of us and a bit of the world, they have got that blend quite right."

Before the Rugby World Cup gets under way in New Zealand, Franko plans to get on with the rest of his musical career that includes next month's release of his rock ballad Hero.

- © Fairfax NZ News