Just when we thought it wasn’t possible to take the bipartisan organization No Labels any less seriously, Buzzfeed points out that the organization has a previously overlooked cheesy anthem written by AKON and performed by R&B singer Debroah Cox.
Although the song is nearly a year old, Cox’s performance of the song Monday at No Labels’ ‘Meeting to Make America Work!’ at the Marriott Marquis in New York City drew new attention to the ballad.
Aptly named the “No Labels Anthem,” the song is performed to a beat that would make even Rebecca Black shake her head in shame and relies heavily on the line “I wish they didn’t have no labels.”
“When [No Labels founder] Lisa Borders told Grammy award-winning R&B artist Akon about No Labels, he was so inspired that he stayed up all night to write a song,” claims the song’s description. It’s not unbelievable to find out that AKON stayed up all night writing the song. The “best” ideas always come to people in the middle of the night. (Although most people realize how terrible those ideas are in the morning; apparently Akon can spit pure gold tracks no matter what time of day it is.)
Cox’s performance was part of No Labels’ effort to relaunch and rebrand itself. The group, which launched at the end of 2010 to much fanfare but little follow-up, is hoping to finally make its mark on government in 2013. No Labels hopes to grow from 25 “problem solvers” to 75 by the end of the year, co-chairman and 2012 Republican candidate for President Jon Huntsman said on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ with Candy Crowley Sunday morning.
“So if you can imagine 75 Republicans and Democrats, Senate and House members, who agree to meet, check the ego at the door and sit around a table where they’re putting their country first as opposed to party, as opposed to the next election and thinking about the future when they deliberate about these very important issues, that’s the objective,” Hunstman said. “And so far as I can tell, Candy, and I’m a recent convert to this, they came to me most recently, there’s nobody else in the world of movements now that is focused on bringing people together around the premise of problem solving.”
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), the group’s other co-chair, lamented to Crowley that since he’s been in Congress, “there has not been a bipartisan caucus where we sit down to talk with our Republican colleagues on the other side.”
“Even think about taking it further, we don’t even know our colleagues in Congress, the 435. So, this gives a us chance, No Labels gives us a venue to sit down to have meaningful conversation,” he said.
It’s unclear why Manchin and No Labels’ other Congressional members couldn’t just start bipartisan caucuses in the Senate and the House, much like the Tea Party started its own official Congressional caucuses at the end of 2010, given that the organization seems to be most concerned with fixing the gridlock in the federal government. But given the the failure of the Tea Party caucus to take off, perhaps No Labels will be more successful by gathering outside of Congress’ halls to ‘problem solve.’
The group might want to start proving its problem solving prowess by changing its grammatically incorrect anthem, which is not only cheesy, it’s also embarrassing considering it’s supposed to be the theme song for a group of lawmakers who seek to make sure kids get “raised up next to … good schools.”
