Kidron song chosen as Paralympics theme

CHANNEL 7’s theme song for its Tokyo Paralympics coverage might be familiar to many in the Jewish community.

Nothing is Impossible, which began airing as part of the network’s campaign last weekend – complete with a montage of athletes of different abilities achieving inspiring feats – was written by Jewish musician Ilan Kidron last year for JCA The Choice Foundation.

“As a songwriter, you write a song and it can have many lives,” Kidron told The AJN.

“The initial inspiration has definitely echoed through to what’s happening now and why we’re so excited.”

Inspired by families who have a member with a disability, Kidron, who is perhaps best-known as the former lead singer of The Potbelleez, wrote the song during the first lockdown last year.

“I was just so kind of inspired by these families who had had to deal with such adversity through no fault of their own,” he said.

“We set out to write a song that would inspire a generation to normalise how disabled people were appreciated.”

A children’s choir from the Jewish community was brought in to the studio for the recording of the song, under the moniker Glassbreakers, while the original video clip featured footage of 160 families in the Jewish community dancing to the song.

Kidron said that when he showed it to contact at Channel 7, “He was blown away”.

“It could not have been a better home for this song, you could not have fulfilled a bigger dream,” he continued.

“It’s just so serendipitous and wonderful.”

JCA The Choice Foundation supports people with disabilities in the community, with a focus on educating, collaborating and innovating on projects that encourage inclusion.

Founder Taryn Boyarsky said, “We are thrilled that our song has been chosen as the Paralympics theme song.

“This was an Olympic size effort by our community, uniting us all regardless of our differences. This really does show us that nothing is impossible.

“Our foundation is committed to dreaming big, thinking outside the box and making sure that we have a strong and inclusive community where every member can contribute regardless of their level of ability.”

Foundation manager Danielle Wakerman said, “Working on this song with Ilan brought us so much joy and creating a video clip really helped us to show our community how much we value their involvement in our foundation by using their home videos in the original video clip.”