Kano Leaves ‘3-Bar’ Gap in Latest Track to Discover Talent with adidas Originals

adidas Originals and JD Sports have collaborated with music artist Kano for ‘3 Bar Superstar’, a campaign devised by McCann London to help find undiscovered talent. Kano has given his latest track ‘Pan Fried’, removing three bars from the track and inviting the JD audience to drop their own three bars in its place. Submissions are supported by AI-enabled posters and videos to give the applicant a taster of the full rockstar experience.

Kano’s ambition is to search, celebrate and shine the light on emerging talent via the 3-bar gap opportunity. The winning entry will win a recording session to be mentored by Kano himself. On which, he adds his advice... “Do what’s best for this piece of music but also bring yourself to it as well. Don’t try and emulate what the artist before yourself has done. Try and bring your stamp. Uniqueness and creativity, those are the key things to stand out in a featured verse.”

The thinking behind the opportunity is to allow entrants to be heard as the new voices of today’s culture, as Kano references the importance of “the role that music can play in terms of giving young people a voice. I was that young kid growing up and interested in music and found that it was a way to express myself.”

This campaign is part of adidas Originals’ celebration of 50 years of the iconic Superstar – a shoe which has transcended time and culture worldwide – and follows adidas’ Originals’ global message ‘Change is a Team Sport’ launched in February this year. 

Applicants can record their 3 bars and broadcast their lyrics through a mobile-enabled website at JDsports.co.uk/3barsuperstar, a microsite which cleverly brings together some of the latest tech to enable the experience: 

- A custom made interface allows them to drop their 3 Bars in the mix with Kano’s track

- Videos featuring them alongside Kano generated in real-time and served back as a personalised promo vid 

- AI-enabled poster generator for participants to create their own personalised Superstar poster

Applicants were also able to submit via one of the state-of-the-art pop-up recording booths which appeared in London, Manchester and Birmingham throughout February.