Radiohead donate music to the Winter Olympics campaign

Radiohead have given music, without a fee, to the International Olympic Committee's new television, press and cinema campaign for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, the IOC has revealed. The ads are meant to interest young people in the Games, and Daft Punk's music is in the campaign too. A spokeswoman for the band says the condition is that no corporate advertising or sponsorship appears in them. They're not taking any money, but they're not so po-faced as to refuse the use of their music to promote sports.³

The request, first reported on 26 June, was for “I Might Be Wrong”, from Amnesiac. Thom Yorke told Q the band had been asked for an Olympic anthem, which would be strange, and that they were tempted but wary of the sponsorship around the Games. I don't want Radiohead associated with some cigarette brand that sponsors the Olympics.¹

Ed O'Brien told MTV News that money had nothing to do with it. The Olympic committee is a charitable organisation, which is why the band would do it, but if MasterCard sponsored the ads, they were not interested. We don't do adverts for socks or aftershave.¹