In the same spirit of the global hit We Are The World, Oscar winning composer A. R. Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours) this past week teamed with a variety of musicians and artists for the first of several recording sessions planned around the world in the next month for an amazing new song called “Hands Around the World."

The piece began recording this past week at composer Nathan Barr’s Bandrika Studios in Los Angeles. The song is to be the anthem for the www.hands.world project – a yearlong campaign to inspire 1 Billion+ people hold hands in a virtual selfie chain around the world for climate change. All funds raised will go to critical climate change projects to make real impact.

The song will feature a whole host of the biggest artists from all around the world including Cody Simpson, Natasha Bedingfield and Akon who have already completed their recordings. The project is also officially endorsed by the legendary Quincy Jones, the genius producer that was responsible for We Are The World.

The song is set to release on April 22nd, which is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Alongside the master recording, users will also be able to listen to the track as part of an app, where you can drag and drop options to choose which artists you hear perform on the track and create a personalized shareable version. The group plans to record dozens of musicians representing genres and musical influences from across the globe.