"One Shining Moment" is a song written by David Barrett that has become closely associated with the
NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. "One Shining Moment" is traditionally played at the end of
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
's and
TBS's coverage of the championship game of the tournament. The song is played as the winning team's players
cut down the nets to a montage of highlights from the tournament.
History
Barrett, a singer-songwriter from
Ann Arbor, Michigan, was inspired to write the song in 1986 while watching
Larry Bird
Larry Joe Bird (born December 7, 1956) is an American former professional basketball player, coach, and executive in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "the Hick from French Lick" and "Larry Legend", Bird is widely regarded a ...
play on TV at a bar called the Varsity Inn in
East Lansing, Michigan
East Lansing is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. Most of the city lies within Ingham County with a smaller portion extending north into Clinton County. At the 2020 Census the population was 47,741. Located directly east of the state capital ...
, after having played a gig there.
He wrote the song down on a napkin the next day, later stating that "the song came fully formed" and "all the lyrics just wrote themselves."
He passed the song along to high school friend
Armen Keteyian Armen Keteyian (born March 6, 1953) is an Armenian American television journalist and best-selling author. Most recently he was the Anchor and an Executive Producer for ''The Athletic''. Previously he spent 12 years as a network television correspo ...
, an investigative journalist for
CBS Sports
CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on W ...
and, at that time, ''
Sports Illustrated
''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...
'', who in turn passed it to CBS Sports' creative director Doug Towey.
Towey originally planned to debut the song not after a basketball game, but after a football game,
Super Bowl XXI on January 25, 1987. It was to have been the post-game montage from that contest, but CBS ran past the expected airtime and had a
prime time show to debut in the next time slot, so the montage was canceled. CBS then asked Barrett for use of the song after the
1987 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship Game on March 30, in which
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
beat
Syracuse. Towey decided to use "One Shining Moment" to close CBS's coverage of the tournament. The positive public response led to it becoming an annual feature.
Since
2016
File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...
, TBS, in the even-numbered years, and CBS, the odd-numbered years, broadcasts the championship game biennially. At the beginning of this arrangement there were concerns that the song would not be used in these years due to its association with CBS. However, on March 16, 2016, CBS Sports chairman
Sean McManus confirmed that "One Shining Moment" would still be used during years that
Turner Sports
Warner Bros. Discovery Sports (WBD Sports) is the division of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) that is responsible for sports broadcasts on its parent company's various channels in the United States, including TBS, TNT, AT&T SportsNet, and TruTV. ...
broadcasts the championship game under the consortium's contract, owing to the long-standing tradition.
In
2020
2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...
, the NCAA announced a contest for basketball fans to perform their own rendition of the song, with the winning rendition to be played on TBS during the pregame show for the championship game on April 6. However, due to the cancelation of that year's tournament as a result of the
COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, the contest was canceled. In addition, because the tournament was canceled, the annual playing of the song in its usual postgame context did not happen for the first time since its 1987 debut, although some teams created their own montages featuring the song.
Versions
The original version recorded by Barrett was used from 1987 to 1993, and briefly revived between 2000 and 2002 with a new instrumental. Versions recorded by
Teddy Pendergrass
Theodore DeReese Pendergrass (March 26, 1950 – January 13, 2010) was an American soul and R&B singer-songwriter. He was born in Kingstree, South Carolina. Pendergrass spent most of his life in the Philadelphia area, and initially rose to musi ...
(1994–1999),
Luther Vandross (2003–2009, 2011–2019, 2021–present), and
Ne-Yo
Shaffer Chimere Smith (born October 18, 1979), known professionally as Ne-Yo, is an American singer, songwriter, actor, dancer, and record producer. He gained fame for his songwriting abilities when he penned Mario's 2004 hit " Let Me Love You ...
(2016) have also been used; Vandross' version is believed to be the last song he recorded before his stroke and subsequent death.
A version by
Jennifer Hudson
Jennifer Kate Hudson (born September 12, 1981), also known by her nickname J.Hud, is an American singer, actress, and talk show host. Throughout her career, she has received various accolades for her works in recorded music, film, televisio ...
was used for the
2010 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament
The 2010 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 65 schools playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball as a culmination of the 2009–10 basketball seaso ...
; the format of the Hudson video deviated from prior years by cutting away from the tournament highlight montage on several occasions to show footage of Hudson singing in a recording studio, drawing criticism from some fans and viewers. In response to the criticism, the Vandross version was restored the following year.
On April 1, 2016, Turner Sports announced that Ne-Yo had performed a version of "One Shining Moment" that would be used on the "Team Stream" broadcasts of the championship game on
TNT
Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...
and
TruTV
TruTV (stylized as truTV) is an American basic cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel primarily broadcasts comedy, docusoaps and reality shows.
The channel was originally launched in 1991 as Court TV, a network that fo ...
, which were tailored to focus on highlights of the two participating teams, as with the game broadcasts on these channels themselves. The Vandross version was still used for the main telecast on
TBS.
In an effort to give the song "Turner flair" in honor of TBS's first national championship game broadcast, and to make light of the concerns regarding its use by the network, analyst
Charles Barkley
Charles Wade Barkley (born February 20, 1963) is an American former professional basketball player who is a television analyst on NBA on TNT, TNT. Nicknamed "Sir Charles", "Chuck", and "the Round Mound of Rebound", Barkley played 16 seasons ...
performed his own
tongue-in-cheek
The idiom tongue-in-cheek refers to a humorous or sarcastic statement expressed in a serious manner.
History
The phrase originally expressed contempt, but by 1842 had acquired its modern meaning. Early users of the phrase include Sir Walter Scot ...
cover of "One Shining Moment" in a commercial promoting that year's tournament.
Lyrics
The first verse is about inspiration and hard work. The second verse deals with adversity, accompanied by highlights of injured players and missed shots. The bridge includes lines such as "Feel the beat of your heart", often shown with players thumping their chests, and "Feel the wind in your face", with video of drives towards the basket.
There is a claim that the first line in the song was changed from "The ball is kicked" to "The ball is tipped." However, Barrett said "My daughter informed me that they claim that the initial line was the ball is kicked. That's not the case. It never was. The original line was,
the gun goes off...which I changed to suit the tournament. Ironically - I wrote the song about basketball (after watching Larry Bird) but for some reason (who knows what I was thinking?!?) I didn't write it into the original first line. And so having the first line fall into place as it did was poetic and true."
The
Chicago White Sox
The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and ...
used the version with "the gun goes off" to close their telecast on the final game at
Comiskey Park on September 30, 1990.
[Archived a]
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine
Notes
References
Further reading
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External links
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"One Shining Moment" annual videos since 1987via usatoday.com
{{Authority control
1987 songs
CBS Sports
Turner Sports
NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament
Sports television theme songs
College basketball mass media in the United States
College basketball on television in the United States
Teddy Pendergrass songs
Luther Vandross songs
Jennifer Hudson songs
Ne-Yo songs