Moses Sumney Remakes Classical “Olympic Hymn” Into Gorgeous New Tune “Monumental”

|||, ,

In May, we had the pleasure of sharing singer, Moses Sumney’s, new incredible new album, græ. Today, the one-in-a-million vocalist has released an artistic new video as part of a new ad campaign for fashion designer, Thom Browne, and features his rendition of the classical piece, “Olympic Hymn.”

The original “Olympic Hymn” was a grandiose fanfare composed by Spyridon Samaras and had Greek lyrics by poet Kostis Palamas. Sumney’s rendition is titled “Monumental,” and features the English translation sung as a solo feature. The accompanying video touts the vocal star on a pedestal as a sort of living statue as a new take on what the idea of the traditional greco-roman represents. Sumney’s thoughts in a statement were:

“What does it mean to pose statuesque on top of a marble podium, at a time when statues across the world — long-standing symbols of white supremacy — are literally being toppled? What does it mean to appropriate the Greco-Roman statue, a long-standing placeholder of white male virility and beauty, and replace it with my black body? A body that has historically been disregarded as far less beautiful and in more recent years, objectified? What does it mean to objectify myself?”

Check out the artistic new video for Moses Sumney’s “Monumental” below.

Moses Sumney- “Monumental”