It's like Christmas Day for music...

Rebecca Sandiford, Producer, BBC Music, tells Ariel’s Matt Eatley how the BBC celebrated the power of music through BBC Music Day on Thursday 15 June.

What do Ozzy Osbourne, Liam Neeson, a ukulele-playing postie, an all-female brass band and 47 Blue Plaques all have in common?

It can only be one thing. BBC Music Day 2017.

Now in its third year, BBC Music Day is always this irrepressible, idiosyncratic and often heady mix of the surprising, the collaborative and the uplifting. The idea is to have one day in the year when the BBC along with external organisations come together to celebrate everything we love about music.

Through live music events around the UK and broadcasts across BBC Radio, TV and digital, BBC Music Day aims to unite generations and communities through the universal language of music.

It’s like Christmas Day for music.

The BBC Music Day team is based in Salford and sits within BBC Music, whose aim is to create greater impact for music from the BBC. We reach out to as many BBC production teams as we can across all platforms and sites to create content that celebrates music.

BBC Local Radio is a highly valued and vibrant partner, providing news-worthy events across the English Regions every year. This year they’ve unveiled 47 musical Blue Plaques – almost all of them on one day.

Network Radio is also at the heart of BBC Music Day and this year Radio 1 joined the party, meaning every single network radio station celebrated with us - Radio 2, Radio 3, 5 live, 6 Music and Asian Network.

And we’re delighted to have collaborated with new partners the World Service, daytime drama Doctors and BBC Writersroom this year. That’s alongside old friends CBBC, CBeebies, Regional TV, BBC Breakfast and Music News Live.

External partners are equally vital to BBC Music Day. Last year we worked with over 100. This year we were joined by The National Autistic Society, the Alzheimer’s Society and Nordoff Robbins, the UK’s leading music therapy charity.

This is in addition to city councils, venue owners, music charities and dozens of Music education hubs: not to mention record labels and agents representing some of our biggest music icons. All music is celebrated and everyone is welcome on BBC Music Day. It’s something only the BBC can do.

It all began three years ago. The creative driving force behind year one was legendary executive producer Katy Jones, who died tragically six weeks before the big day.

We had 20 events back then, including city celebrations and an imaginative musical relay across Hadrian’s Wall. In 2016 we increased that number to 400 with musical collaborations across bridges and an Eden Project concert headlined by Duran Duran.

The third BBC Music Day took place yesterday (15 June). We had 800 events, in spite of the significant challenge of moving the date to accommodate the snap general election. This included musical assemblies in schools across the UK, tram announcement takeovers by Ozzy Osbourne and Shaun Ryder, unique musical collaborations featuring Texas, Will Young and OMD and bells ringing out for BBC Music Day from Zimbabwe to Australia, Bermuda and beyond. 

Our theme this year was the power of music. The past few weeks have illustrated how music can transcend boundaries and unite people, irrespective of faith, age and ethnicity. It has the power to heal. And we need that now more than ever.

We’re already planning for 2018 and we’d love to hear your ideas. The more ambitious, imaginative and collaborative the better. 

This interview originally appeared in Ariel

Rebecca Sandiford is Producer, BBC Music

• Find out more about BBC Music Day