One Direction, Katy Perry Hits Played Using Glasses of Water!

Taylor Swift is also reimagined by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Published 8th Jan 2014

Chart smashes by One Direction, Katy Perry and Taylor Swift have been reimagined by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra... using glasses of water!

After 174 hours of rehearsing over the festive period, a six-strong ensemble from the world-famous orchestra gathered on the banks of the River Thames to perform the hits using hundreds of wine glasses filled with H2O.

Katy Perry’s ‘Roar’, One Direction’s ‘Story of My Life’, Adele’s ‘Someone Like You’, Gary Barlow’s ‘Let Me Go’ and Taylor Swift’s ‘I Knew You Were Trouble’ were all reinterpreted by the suited and booted collective using the unique instruments.

The exclusive performance by the renamed H2Orchestra was organised by WaterAid to highlight the amazing power of water as a life giver, lifesaver and life changer.

Chris Wainwright from WaterAid said, “The talented musicians of the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra have really helped bring water to life through music today.

“Today there are over 760m people without access to safe, clean water - a human tragedy that results in the needless deaths of over of 2000 children each day.

“This most basic of necessities is the one thing that changes everything for the world’s poorest communities. We hope that the WaterAid H2Orchestra not only shows the importance of water, but encourages people to support our mission - to bring safe, clean water to everyone everywhere by 2030.”

Ben Pope, Musical Director from The Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra said, “We were thrilled to work with WaterAid to provide this one-of-a-kind concert for London. It was a new challenge for us making sure that these well known songs translated beautifully when played with water.

“Water is the world’s most valuable and versatile resource and we hope we have helped highlight this through our music.”

Check out a video of the performances below where you can hear snippets of ‘Roar’ (at the start), ‘I Knew You Were Trouble’ (39 seconds) and ‘Story of My Life’ (1minute 40).

For more information on WaterAid head to www.wateraid.org