You think addressing climate change is hard, try pitching an anthem about it

“Maybe they need to hearken to my anthem,” says the newbie composer. “It’s the one approach something will get finished.”

Mr. Hicks is vying to have his track, “With Earth’s Grace,” adopted because the assembly’s official track by organizers of the twenty sixth annual United Nations Local weather Change Convention of the Events, or COP26, in Glasgow. However he has competitors.

David Glasson, greatest identified for his work with members of England’s Bonzo Canine Doo-Dah Band, a ’60s-era group that combined psychedelic pop with comedy, has excessive hopes for “Save the Earth,” an anthem he wrote with John Gribbin. And there’s a Scottish collective’s “Sufficient Is Sufficient,” and a world group collaboration referred to as “Do It Whereas You Can.”

Lately, anthems have moved past commemorating nations to saluting European soccer championships, Asian commerce blocs, cities and corporations. The United Nations Chilldren’s Fund ordered one up. So did the North Atlantic Treaty Group: “The NATO Hymn,” written by a lieutenant colonel within the Luxembourg military, was formally adopted in 2018.

Tim Rice, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s collaborator on musicals similar to “Jesus Christ Famous person” and “Evita,” wrote a would-be anthem for the Group of Seven summit in Cornwall, England, this yr, however the occasion didn’t chunk, and the schoolchildren rounded as much as carry out it sang it on their very own.

Even Mars has an anthem: “Dare to dream! Dare to attempt! Construct a house for our kids. Make this desert come alive.” The Lakewood, Colo.-based Mars Society that commissioned says it rivals “La Marseillaise,” the French nationwide anthem.

Whether or not COP26 will undertake one, although, is much from sure. There isn’t a formal anthem competitors, regardless of the roster of rivals. Requested whether or not they meant to have an anthem, a consultant of the organizers stated they don’t presently have plans for one. There are lots of different points to consider, together with getting sufficient Covid vaccines to delegates from the creating world to allow them to meet U.Okay. entry necessities, different officers stated.

Mr. Hicks and his cohorts are undeterred.

Mr. Hicks, 60, a former psychiatric nurse who lives in London, spent $400 to rent a singer and arranger to enhance the chances for his composition, which he says is loosely primarily based on outdated spirituals. For one more $275, he employed a Bangladeshi artist to create an animated video. Mr. Hicks posted it on YouTube, and it has attracted almost 120,000 views.

Messages on his social-media pages have urged him on, together with from spiritual and academic figures within the U.Okay. and elsewhere.

Mr. Hicks stated he obtained by by cellphone to attempt to foyer a member of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s authorities, which is internet hosting the occasion. She apologized and rapidly ended the dialog, he says. The official didn’t reply to a request for remark. Different officers haven’t responded to his calls or emails, he says.

“Nobody needs to know” about his anthem, Mr. Hicks says.

Mr. Glasson is also attempting to extend his track’s probabilities. His native faculty in Brighton, within the south of England, is engaged on a model of “Save the Earth,” he says. “I actually suppose we’re in with a shout.”

Mr. Hicks admits to having much less musical know-how than the professionals. He says his influences embrace the minor-key Hebraic melodies he absorbed in his native synagogue as a baby.

“Usually I simply la-la-la the tunes, so it’s a case of getting the singer to match what’s in my head,” he says. “Then I inform the arranger what I want, and we go from there.”

This time, Mr. Hicks stated he put pen to paper in a bid to encourage the totally different delegations on the summit to put aside their variations and make binding commitments to gradual local weather change.

“I’ll respect you, as you’ll me,” the track goes. “We’ll combat however nonetheless be pals. That’s our victory.”

He turned to web sites for freelancers, together with Fiverr, to search out singers and arrangers to supply a recorded model. “I went by six individuals on Fiverr earlier than I may discover the precise particular person,” he says. “Considered one of them simply put drums all by it. I requested for my a reimbursement.”

The arranger he settled on, Ukrainian Boris Sevastyanov, “truly improved it,” Mr. Hicks says. And the Tuscaloosa, Ala.-based singer, who makes use of the one identify Nimiwari, “nailed it,” he says.

Because the clock ticks all the way down to the November summit, and with out a seal of approval from the organizers, Mr. Hicks acknowledges that his piece may need to function an unofficial name to arms.

“If that’s the way in which it goes,” he says, “I suppose I’ll must make do with that.”