Apparently, rather miffed at being named as one of America’s “10 Dying Cities”, some 3000 citizens of Grand Rapids got together and produced this incredible LipDub video of Don McLean’s “American Pie.”
This is one unedited take, and was the fifth and final take did. This article gives some info/background on the production of the video.
Pretty amazing thing they pulled off.
I strongly second this promo - that video was amazing! I actually got chills when the firetrucks were shown.
Really well done! Thanks for sharing.
I was in Grand Rapids a couple of months ago doing the art and sculpture museums thing, and it’s a frikkin’ great town. Dying? Grand Rapids, of all places? Strange assertion.
Grand Rapids is the most vital part of Michigan! Dying? hell, no!
Utterly amazing! I’m so inspired by this.
That is flat out one of the best videos I have seen in years. My god, the planning, the coordination, the execution. Bravo to Grand Rapids!
Thank you for posting this, Bob Ducca; it gave me chills.
mmm
Holy shit…truly remarkable!
Very nice. Good job, Grand Rapids!
Anyone have any idea how it cost $40k to make this video? The cost and the donors are listed in the YouTube info.
Probably all of the costs involved with renting all of the equipment, paying union workers (it IS Michigan, after all), and also any costs of permits/licenses to shut down the downtown area for filming.
Good for them! Michigan, let alone Grand Rapids, is not dying!
Yeah, it’s good!!!..
but may I have permission to be a spoilsport?
After all those comments, I was expecting something amazing, inspiring and chilling. After all that buildup, what I got was a letdown. It was nice; but no more so than, say, a Superbowl halftime show, or a charity fundraiser for a good cause. Or those huge setups of dominos where a million dominos fall in precision.
To make the video, they just closed off 4 city streets surrounding a park, then drove around them for 9 minutes and 49 seconds, ending up at the helicopter. Along the way, the organizers pre-positioned groups of 15 or 20 people every 300 yards, and told them to wait till the vehicle passes by, and then do a certain action for 15 seconds (have a pillow fight, run a football play, shoot squirt guns, sit in the back seat of a convertible, or just walk down the middle of the road with a guitar.)The music was playing over loudspeakers, so it’s not hard for the people to sing along with the words.
Then,wherever the vehicle is along its route, and no matter what direction the cameraman points his camera, there will be 15 or 20 people singing and doing something in unison.
It’s nice…to be sure.
The best part of it wasn’t the camera work–it was the wonderful collection of smiling people, who must have spent a day or so practicing together, and show a real sense of comraderie at pulling off a good show. Unusual for a big city. But you can see similar faces at ,say, a 4th of July parade in a small town.
Garrison Keillor would have loved it!
That was fun, but they messed up the lyrics near the end.
*
And the three men I admire most:
The father, son, and the holy ghost,
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died.*
This group sang “They caught the last bus for the coast”. 
I thought they we lip-syncing. How could they mess up the lyrics?
It turned out better than I thought!
There could have been more people in the streets, locals love this stuff, who knows maybe Bliss didn’t want it to get out of hand given the one take constraints.
And it was a live version of American Pie iirc, I don’t know the particulars of what version they used, but I like it.
The city is very cooperative and willing to say yes whenever they can to stuff like this…
Wow. So proud of the people of Grand Rapids to make this happen.
Now THAT brings a smile to your face! thanks 
Well, nobody is claiming they cured the creeping crud; they made a very entertaining video in which the entire city seemed to have contributed on some level. I think the reason they went to the trouble is a significant part of the experience. I made the ‘chills’ remark, and I was not exaggerating.
mmm
You need to take your complaint up with Don McLean.
The video is awesome. Very, very impressive.