With reporting from Ankita Menon
To commemorate the International Day of Happiness (today), an occasion established by the United Nations in 2012, a group in Doha has put together a local version of Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” music video.
The video was one of many submitted by groups from around the world over the past 10 days to Williams’ new website, 24 Hours of Happiness. The Grammy-award winning artist has partnered with the UN to commemorate today, and is posting the best submissions on the site.
The video above, produced by Doha Trends, a new project launched by residents to showcase Qatar through short Youtube clips, made it to the site earlier today:
Watch us on the 10th hour of http://t.co/HAOzNi19k3 – Awesome people can achieve great results – THANK YOU ALL #dohatrends #happyday #doha
— Doha Trends (@DohaTrends) March 20, 2014
Speaking to Doha News, a spokesperson for the group explained that their video took about a week to put together. To get people to participate, all the team had to do was “make a few calls,” Afaf Acafrao said:
“We were really impressed by the amount of people that were willing to participate in this cause – some were friends, others were dancing professionals and some were randomly passing by and agreed to feature – (one of the participants was actually on a stop over from South Africa and decided to step out of the airport and explore Doha for the day!)
It’s fascinating how many people are exploring this city. There is a general curiosity about Qatar from all over the world!”
The video was shot at Katara, the Grand Hyatt Doha and St. Regis Doha. It is filled with young, smiling faces, but few Qataris, families with children or blue-collar workers.
When asked if they could change anything about We Are Happy In Doha, Acafrao said the deadline was difficult, because they wanted to submit their video in time to be featured on Williams’ site.
Other Gulf countries have also participated, with Kuwait and Dubai versions also already featured on Williams’ site.
In the coming months, Doha Trends said it plans to put out videos that are akin to “visual snacks,” briefly featuring what’s going on around Qatar.
Thoughts?
