George Ezra has become the first artist to soundtrack Joe Wicks’ online PE lessons, and will be donating the royalties made directly to the NHS.
Wicks, who’s also known as the Body Coach, is currently live-streaming fitness lessons on a daily basis as school children remain at home due to the coronavirus pandemic.
During yesterday’s edition (March 30), Wicks told his viewers that he had faced difficulty in securing any of his favourite music to be featured in the videos.
Coincidentally, Ezra’s mother – who is a primary school teacher – was taking part in the session with her key worker pupils at the time. In turn, she contacted the singer-songwriter who then agreed to waive his payments in order to allow his material to be used.
This morning, PE with Joe featured Ezra’s hits ‘Shotgun’ and ‘Paradise’. During a second airing of the former, Wicks invited his students to “just have 30 seconds of dancing” to the song.
‘Paradise’ features at around the nine-minute mark in the above video.
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Wicks said at the start of today’s broadcast: “Now listen, I’ve got some great news. I’ve got to say a massive thank you to George Ezra’s mum, who is a teacher at school and George Ezra found out that I had no music, so he’s given me his permission to use his music on the workout today.
“If you came to see me on my tour you’ll know that Shotgun is the theme tune to my school’s trip.”
Posting on Instagram earlier today, Ezra explained how his mum suggested he should “offer Joe and the kids [his] songs to use” online.
“The coolest thing is that all royalties made from the songs being used are going directly to the NHS!” he continued, before giving “a huge thank you” to Wicks for his work. You can see that post above.
Last month, George Ezra opened up on his struggles with OCD. The star explained that he had sought help after experiencing unwanted thought patterns.