Song for SUISA’s 100th anniversary
Swiss rapper Greis composed an anniversary song on behalf of SUISA together with other co-authors. The multilingual piece “Anthem 2023” will accompany the cooperative this year. In a written interview, Greis provided information about the origins and background of the commissioned composition.
You composed the song for SUISA’s Centenary. How did you go about it?
Greis: I usually have to do extensive research before writing songs like this. But in this case, everything is different because I know SUISA. Because I know many people who work here. Because I’ve been doing copyright workshops with them for over 20 years. Taking the pulse of schools across Switzerland together for decades, that’s something that connects you.
You wrote the first version of the song back in 2015 for a SUISA employee event. How difficult was it to further develop the existing sketch under the new premise of “anniversary song”?
On the one hand, it made the work easier. Because I had already found the tone. Without the burden of an anniversary, the glossing over of a commissioned composition. The song would probably never have the same lightness or honesty if I had just started from scratch. On the other hand, it was not easy to give the new inputs and content the appropriate form and at the same time maintain this lightness.