MasterCard highlights local singer in campaign

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This article was published 22/01/2018 (3155 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg singer William Prince has been included in a credit-card company’s advertising campaign that focuses on musicians who’ve risen above bias or disabilities.

MasterCard launched the newest iteration of its Start Something Priceless campaign last week and released a teaser for a documentary featuring seven emerging musicians from all over the world, including Prince. The trailer was also shown on last Thursday’s edition of the Ellen DeGeneres Show.

During the three-minute trailer, Prince’s recognizable baritone voice is the first sound heard as he counts in a few beats before one of the other artists involved, five-time Grammy-nominated R&B singer SZA, begins by sharing her experiences of being judged by her appearance.

Each artist then takes a turn talking about the obstacles they have overcome, with Prince, a member of Peguis First Nation, speaking to the stigma that comes with being an Indigenous Canadian. In the trailer, the singer says he hopes to act as a “bright, useful foot forward,” for both the youth in his community and his family.

“We all share a perspective on physical limitations and societal limitations… we each have our own thing we’re breaking out of, and mine is the stigma of First Nations people and how we’re afflicted in the country of Canada, and I’m trying to go forward and have something positive and something hopeful to inspire others to start their own dreams,” Prince reiterated over the phone Friday.

“I really liked that the idea of, ‘don’t let anything stop you,’ that became the resounding effect of it all, and the whole Start Something Priceless idea — MasterCard has had the priceless campaign before, but now they’re using us as developing, growing artists to start from something fresh and build something together.”

Prince says he didn’t apply for the campaign; MasterCard reached out to him after organizers heard some of his songs and felt his work and his message would be a good fit for the concept.

Timing was a little tight, however. On Dec. 9, after the last show of Prince’s most recent tour, he drove through the night to get home to Winnipeg from Saskatoon and on Dec. 10, he was on a flight to New York City to begin the six-day process of meeting the other artists, filming the documentary and recording a version of the track You Can’t Judge a Book By It’s Cover (written by Willie Dixon, and famously performed by Bo Diddley).

The versions of the song — each artist recorded their own cover — will be released on Spotify, and Prince says a video collection of the performances will drop today on MasterCard’s social media.

“It’s in a really unique presentation that I’m excited to see. I haven’t even seen it yet, but I’ll be in New York on Monday for the grand reveal of it,” Prince says.

To top it all off, a 30-second campaign trailer will air during the Grammy Awards on CBS this coming Sunday.

Prince couldn’t say whether his relationship with MasterCard will continue beyond this project, but he’s eager to see where this journey takes him.

“I’m excited about it. It felt great right from the start and now we’re starting to see little bits and pieces of finished product, it’s really exciting now,” he says.

erin.lebar@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @NireRabel