"Tomorrow (A Better You, a Better Me)" is a song originally recorded by

the Brothers Johnson The Brothers Johnson were an American funk and R&B band consisting of American musicians and brothers George ("Lightnin' Licks") and Louis E. Johnson ("Thunder Thumbs"). They achieved their greatest success from the mid-1970s to early 1980s, ...

as an instrumental in 1976 on the album '' Look Out for #1''.

Quincy Jones/Tevin Campbell version

In 1989,

Siedah Garrett Deborah Christine "Siedah" Garrett (born June 24, 1960) is an American singer and songwriter who has written songs and performed backing vocals for many recording artists in the music industry, such as Michael Jackson, the Pointer Sisters, Brand N ...

wrote lyrics to the song, and it was recorded by

Quincy Jones Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (born March 14, 1933) is an American record producer, musician, songwriter, composer, arranger, and film and television producer. His career spans 70 years in the entertainment industry with a record of 80 Grammy Award n ...

featuring

Tevin Campbell Tevin Jermod Campbell (born November 12, 1976) is an American singer and songwriter. He performed gospel in his local church from an early age. Following an audition for jazz musician Bobbi Humphrey in 1988, Campbell was signed to Warner Bros. Re ...

on vocals for the album ''

Back on the Block ''Back on the Block'' is a 1989 studio album produced by Quincy Jones. The album features legendary musicians and singers from across three generations, including Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Joe Zawinul, Ice-T, Big Daddy Kane, Sarah Vaughan, Di ...

''. The new version of the song spent one week at number one on the US R&B chart and peaked at number seventy-five on the US pop chart in June 1990. It was Campbell's first number-one R&B single and first single to enter the Billboard Hot 100.

Personnel

– Lead Vocals * McKinley Brown – Background Vocals * Kenneth Ford – Background Vocals *

Jaimee Foxworth Jaimee Monae Foxworth (born December 17, 1979) is an American actress, model, and former pornographic actress. She is best known for her role of Judy Winslow, the youngest daughter of Carl and Harriette Winslow on the ABC sitcom ''Family Matter ...

– Background Vocals *

– Choir Director * Rose Banks – Choir Director * Chad Durio – Background Vocals * Alex Harris – Background Vocals * Reginale Green – Background Vocals * Charity Young – Background Vocals * Shane Shoaf – Background Vocals * Tyren Perry – Background Vocals * Tiffany Johnson – Background Vocals * Donovan McCrary – Background Vocals * Salim Grant – Guitar *

Jerry Hey Jerry Hey (born 1950) is an American trumpeter, flugelhornist, horn arranger, string arranger, orchestrator and session musician who has played on hundreds of commercial recordings, including Michael Jackson's '' Thriller'', ''Rock with You'', ...

– Arranger *

Gerald Albright Gerald Albright is an American jazz saxophonist. He earned Grammys for 24/7 in 2012 and Slam Dunk in 2014 and has been nominated for New Beginnings in 2008 and for Sax for Stax in 2009. Biography Born in Los Angeles, Albright grew up in its ...

– Alto saxophone solo *

Steve Lukather Steven Lee Lukather (born October 21, 1957) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger and record producer, best known as the sole continuous founding member of the rock band Toto. His reputation as a skilled guitarist led to a stea ...

– Guitar * Ollie Brown –

Percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

* John Robinson – Drums * Bruce Swedien – Recording Engineer, Mixing * Brad Sundberg – Technical Director, additional engineering * Bill Summers – hindewhu *

Randy Kerber Randy Kerber (born September 25, 1958) is an American composer, orchestrator and keyboard player, who has had a prolific career in the world of cinema.SeRandy Kerberat the IMDb Kerber was born in Encino, California. He began his first national t ...

– Keyboards, Bass Synth *

Greg Phillinganes Gregory Arthur Phillinganes (born May 12, 1956) is an American keyboardist, singer-songwriter, and musical director based in Los Angeles, California. A prolific session musician, Phillinganes has contributed the role of keyboards to numerous alb ...

–

Fender Rhodes The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, th ...

Rod Temperton Rodney Lynn Temperton (9 October 1949 – 25 September 2016) was an English songwriter, producer and musician. Temperton was the keyboardist and main songwriter for the 1970s pop music, disco and funk band Heatwave, writing songs including "St ...

– Arranger *

– Arranger In 1990,

smooth jazz Smooth jazz is a genre of commercially-oriented crossover jazz and easy listening music that became dominant in the mid 1970s to the early 1990s. History Smooth jazz is a commercially oriented, crossover jazz which came to prominence in the 19 ...

musician

Nelson Rangell Nelson Rangell (born March 26, 1960) is an American smooth jazz musician and composer from Castle Rock, Colorado. Although he is known for his work with the tenor, alto, and soprano saxophone, his primary instrument is the piccolo, which he beg ...

covered the song from his self-titled album.

Tomorrow/Bokra

Tomorrow / Bokra ( ar, بكرا) is the Arab version of the song which is produced by

RedOne Nadir Khayat ( ar, نادر الخياط; born 9 April 1972), better known by his stage name RedOne, is a Moroccan singer, songwriter, record producer and record executive. As a record producer and songwriter, he has worked with many high-profi ...

Badr Jafar Badr Jafar (Arabic: بدر حميد جعفر‎) is an Emirati businessperson and philanthropist. Overview He is the Chief Executive Officer of Crescent Enterprises, a conglomerate headquartered in the United Arab Emirates with operations in ...

. The lyrics were written by the Lebanese singer

Majida El Roumi Majida El Roumi Baradhy ( ar, ماجدة الرومي برادعي; born 13 December 1956) is a Lebanese soprano singer and United Nations Goodwill Ambassador. Early life Majida El Roumi Al Baradhy was born on 13 December 1956 in Kfarshima. ...

and music was rearranged by

Kadim Al Sahir Kadim Jabbar Al Samarai (born September 12, 1957), better known by his stage name Kadim Al Sahir ( ar, كاظم الساهر}), is an Iraqi singer and composer. He typically performs with an orchestra of twenty to thirty musicians on Arabic ...

. The music video was directed by Malek Akkad son of deceased Arab film director

Moustapha Akkad Moustapha Al Akkad ( ar, مصطفى العقاد; July 1, 1930 – November 11, 2005) was a Syrian-American film producer and director, best known for producing the original series of ''Halloween'' films and directing '' The Message'' and ' ...

. It features the artists performing their sections of the song in close-ups or collectively and children running and / or playing sports. The song featured 24 Arab singers representing 16

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

nations across the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

and

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

plus

Akon Aliaune Damala Badara Akon Thiam (; born April 16, 1973), known mononymously as Akon, is a Senegalese-American singer, record producer, and entrepreneur. He rose to prominence in 2004 following the release of " Locked Up" (featuring Styles P) ...

and

Shakira Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll ( , ; born 2 February 1977), professionally known by the mononym Shakira, is a Colombian singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Barranquilla, she has been referred to as the " Queen of Latin Music" and is ...

who introduced it. The singers taking part are: (in alphabetical order of family name) The recording and filming was done over two phases. The first phase of filming took place in May 2011 in

Rabat Rabat (, also , ; ar, الرِّبَاط, er-Ribât; ber, ⵕⵕⴱⴰⵟ, ṛṛbaṭ) is the capital city of Morocco and the country's seventh largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan populati ...

in Morocco supported by the annual

Mawazine Mawazine ( ar, موازين, mawāzīn, meaning "rhythms of the world") is a Moroccan International music festival held annually in Rabat, Morocco, featuring many international and local music artists. The festival is presided over by Mounir Maj ...

music festival. The second and final phase of recording and filming took place in Doha in October 2011. The second phase was in collaboration with Associate Producers, the

Doha Film Institute Doha Film Institute (DFI) is a nonprofit cultural organisation established in 2010 by Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani to support the growth of the Qatari film community and to provide funding and international networking oppor ...

(DFI), and the

Qatar Museums Authority Qatar Museums (formerly the Qatar Museums Authority) is a Qatari government entity that oversees the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA), Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, MIA Park, QM Gallery at Katara, ALRIWAQ DOHA Exhibition Space, the Al Zubarah ...

. They will be relaunching Tomorrow/Bokra with new artists for the 10th anniversary.

Global premiere

The world premiere of ''Tomorrow-Bokra'' was held in Dubai on 11 November 2011, at the One&Only, The Palm in Dubai. The event was held under the royal patronage of Sheikha

Hind bint Maktoum bin Juma Al Maktoum Sheikha Hind bint Maktoum bin Juma Al Maktoum ( ar, الشيخة هند بنت مكتوم بن ُجمعة آل مكتوم; born 12 February 1962) is the senior wife and consort of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai. They w ...

, wife of Shaikh

Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan ( ar, منصور بن زايد بن سلطان آل نهيان; born 21 November 1970), often referred to as Sheikh Mansour, is an Emirati politician who is the deputy prime minister of the United Arab ...

. The world premiere of the song and video was simulcast live on MBC in the Middle East and North Africa, and on the youtube.com/tomorrowbokra channel in other parts of the world.

Bokra the Film

''Bokra The Film'', featured the formation of the charity song and music video of ''Tomorrow-Bokra'' and its impact on the lives of disadvantaged youth. It premiered at the

Dubai International Film Festival The Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF, ar, مهرجان دبي السينمائي الدولي) is the leading film festival in the Arab region. The 12th edition of DIFF took place from December 9 – 16, 2015. In 2018, the DIFF announce ...

(DIFF) on 17 December 2014 Madinat Souk Theatre in the Madinat Jumeirah Hotel in Dubai. The film sponsors were the Global Gumbo Group (G3). It was directed by Emirati filmmaker

Ahmed Abdulqader Ahmad ( ar, أحمد, ʾAḥmad) is an Arabic male given name common in most parts of the Muslim world. Other spellings of the name include Ahmed and Ahmet. Etymology The word derives from the root (ḥ-m-d), from the Arabic (), from the ve ...

and co-produced by Grammy Award-winning music producer

, Emirati social entrepreneur

, and Emirati director

Ali F. Mostafa Ali F. Mostafa (born Ali Faisal Mostafa Bin Abdullatif on 25 September 1981) is a British- Emirati filmmaker, director and producer who is credited as the director of the first Emirati feature-film '' City of Life'' (2009). He is a graduate of L ...

. The film showcases the influence of the arts on disadvantage youths in war-ravaged nations from Morocco to Jordan.

References

External links

Official music video

Official website

Official YouTube channel
{{Tevin Campbell 1976 songs 1989 singles The Brothers Johnson songs Quincy Jones songs Tevin Campbell songs Songs written by Siedah Garrett Song recordings produced by Quincy Jones Qwest Records singles Songs written by Louis Johnson (bassist)