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There's a new charity hit single coming soon! 59 musical artists from the worlds of rap, hip-hop, pop, rock, musical theatre and country music have been working on a unique collaboration, performing a cover of a song made famous by one of them.

If the diagram below shows how the singers stood in the studio during the recording, can you tell me: What song are they performing, and which member of the group originally performed it?

Snoop Dogg Dr Dre Eminem Dido Missy Elliott Doja Cat Jamie Foxx
Ceelo Green Will Smith Fatman Scoop Wiz Khalifa Nicki Minaj André 3000 Blueface
Sam Smith Joey Fatone Van Morrison Michael Buble Bruce Dickinson Michael Kiwanuka Louis Tomlinson
Richard Fairbrass Benny Andersson Eric Clapton Bob Dylan Marilyn Manson Fatboy Slim Harry Belafonte
Philippa Soo Leslie Odom Jr. Julie Andrews Lin-Manuel Miranda Agnetha Fältskog Matthew Morrison Elaine Paige
Alanis Morisette Mariah Carey Miley Cyrus Gloria Estefan Janet Jackson Lady Gaga Tina Turner
Christina Perri Kylie Minogue Gwen Stefani Sophie Ellis-Bextor Avril Lavigne Christina Aguilera Madonna
Dolly Parton Tim McGraw Blake Shelton Faith Hill Stephen Stills Willie Nelson Gordon Lightfoot
Mark Ronson Mick Jagger Pharrell Williams

A note of reassurance: You will not need to spend time inspecting 59 Wikipedia pages to solve this puzzle (although some solvers may need to carry out one or two searches to pinpoint the answer).

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1 Answer 1

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These artists are performing a cover of:

Do-Re-Mi by Julie Andrews from the soundtrack to The Sound of Music.

The reason:

Every artist in the arrangement has one of the syllables in the solmization (I learned a new word today!) of the Western scale: DO, RE, MI, FA, SO, LA, TI. Note: the typical solmization uses SOL instead of SO, but the song clearly uses SO, as in "SO, a needle pulling thread", indicating a rhyme with "SEW". A listing of the artists with syllables highlighted:

Snoop Dogg, Dr Dre, Eminem, Dido, Missy Elliott, Doja Cat, Jamie Foxx
Ceelo Green, Will Smith, Fatman Scoop, Wiz Khalifa, Nicki Minaj, And 3000, Blueface
Sam Smith, Joey Fatone, Van Morrison, Michael Buble, Bruce Dickinson, Michael Kiwanuka, Louis Tomlinson
Richard Fairbrass, Benny Andersson, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Marilyn Manson, Fatboy Slim, Harry Belafonte
Philippa Soo, Leslie Odom Jr., Julie Andrews, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Agnetha ltskog, Matthew Morrison, Elaine Paige
Alanis Morisette, Mariah Carey, Miley Cyrus, Gloria Estefan, Janet Jackson, Lady Gaga, Tina Turner
Christina Perri, Kylie Minogue, Gwen Stefani, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Avril Lavigne, Christina Aguilera, Madonna
Dolly Parton, Tim McGraw, Blake Shelton, Faith Hill, Stephen Stills, Willie Nelson, Gordon Lightfoot
Mark Ronson, Mick Jagger, Pharrell Williams

Note:

I feel like there might be another step in here, mostly because Stiv's puzzles almost always have something a bit extra. But there are 12 MIs and only 5 REs, making some sort of covering with sets of the syllables unlikely. Though the first column does have all of the syllables in the correct order, and in fact at the end, it brings us back to DO. Oh, oh, oh.

The next step (added later):

Per @juicifer's comment, it looks like the ordering of the notes in the grid actually corresponds to the sheet music for the song, with DO denoting C.

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    $\begingroup$ I think the "extra step" might concern rot13(gur beqre gur abgrf ner va). that should confirm your answer, if I'm looking at things correctly $\endgroup$
    – juicifer
    Commented Oct 27, 2021 at 16:42
  • $\begingroup$ Yep, pretty sure you're right! Will add to the answer. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 27, 2021 at 16:53
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    $\begingroup$ Indeed, the first 8 lines of the song (and the linkage notes at the end) are directly represented here, with each note spelled out :) (without any sharps or flats, admittedly) My self-imposed constraint of trying to group artists from similar genres in rows (with only one or two interlopers) made it pretty tricky to hunt out suitable names at times, and you'd be surprised how many people's names contain more than one (Queen Latifah is probably the most extreme example I came across...). I was just about to prepare a hint explaining that Bono got turned away and was told he couldn't sing :) $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    Commented Oct 27, 2021 at 17:38
  • $\begingroup$ I worked off this more basic version of the music $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    Commented Oct 27, 2021 at 17:40
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    $\begingroup$ @Stiv Ingenious puzzle as always! Having the "correct" ordering down the first column, which is likely just serendipity, definitely threw me off the true scent. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 27, 2021 at 17:51

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