Shortly after the release of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' feature-length documentary, "Meet the Mormons," in October, LDS singer-songwriter David Archuleta invited fans to submit videos of themselves singing “Glorious,” a song from the documentary. The response was even better than the "Meet the Mormons" social media team expected.
There were 422 submissions made to the “Glorious” Fan Supercut Video Contest. After finalists were selected and the videos were spliced, the final product is a three-minute video that features singers from eight different countries, including 12 clips from the United States. The entries have received more than 730,000 views on YouTube collectively.
The Deseret News sat down with two of the members of the "Meet the Mormons" social media team, John Dye and James Conlee, who shared their experiences in compiling the supercut video, including their thought process in selecting the clips included in the final cut.
“There are plenty of brilliant performers that didn’t make it in the video,” Conlee said. “It wasn’t that they weren’t genuine or they weren’t nice or didn’t perform well, but it was what it meant to that guy in Costa Rica with poor video quality wearing his headphones and what it meant to the brother and sister in Mexico. It means a lot, and it also really tells a story of how global the reach of this song is because we’ve seen where it has gone. … It is everywhere.”
Before the contest was announced, video covers of the song began circulating on the Web, including one by the renowned PS22 chorus from New Jersey. This opened the team’s eyes to the song's potential reach.
“For PS22 to choose ‘Glorious’ without there being a call to action,” Conlee said, “it showed us that the song is having a life outside of ‘Meet the Mormons.’ ”
The contest was the idea of another team member, Jared Covington, who worked on similar projects during his time in the music industry.
Conlee and Dye explained that the video submissions allowed fans to feel like they are a part of the song and the film.
“It’s not the first thing the church has done that has been UGC (user-generated content),” Dye said. “But it’s one of the first, and it’s probably by far one of the most successful.”
Conlee said that it is a credit to the song’s writer, Stephanie Mabey, as well as singers all over the world, that even after listening to the song over and over again, he hasn't gotten tired of “Glorious.”
“When I see all these fan submissions, I see their intent, and you see what it means to them,” Conlee said. “They may not even sing it very, well but if their heart is in it, it’s like the song is brand-new again because I’m seeing it through their eyes. It’s also a good enough song that you don’t get overly sick of it because it’s really well-written melodically and lyrically.
Dye said that the social media campaign for the film has seen several peaks: Elder David Bednar’s announcement of the film during BYU’s Education Week in August, the release of the MP3 of “Glorious” at the end of September, Archuleta’s music video release on Oct. 1 and the film’s release on Oct. 10. The video contest served as one final social media push.
While the supercut was originally scheduled for release on Nov. 7, an Archuleta tweet on Nov. 3 led to a flood of submissions and an extended deadline.
Whether Archuleta’s influence, the international membership of the LDS Church or the lyrics of the song are what led hundreds of people to submit their own videos is unclear, but the finished product is an international sing-along capping a significant moment in Mormon media.
Email: mjones@deseretdigital.com