The power of Oprah - Chicago dances to Black Eyed Peas I Gotta Feeling

Oprah Winfrey is probably the one woman in the world that could get away with filling Chicago’s Magnificent Mile (Michigan Avenue) and getting 21,000 people to dance to the Black Eyed Peas performing ‘I Gotta Feeling’ on September 8th (two days before it aired nationwide) as part of the kick-off for her new series.

It’s actually extremely impressive. Here’s the video. The dancing starts at around 1:40

It is, of course, a T-Mobile stunt. The producer, Australian Michael Gracey, was also responsible for the Liverpool Street flash mob dance.

According to the Oprah website and from about 5:05 in the video, she had no idea. In order to pull it off, late last month local casting agencies were enlisted to look for dancers. It started with her team, then 20 dancers teaching 800 fans and 20,000 more “caught the feelin’” - that’s some feeling..!

(Would you believe I hadn’t heard that song before seeing this?)

About darraghdoyle

Blogger, event addict and fan of street and performance art. You can contact me directly at darraghdoyle[at]gmail[dot]com or @darraghdoyle on twitter.

5 Responses to The power of Oprah - Chicago dances to Black Eyed Peas I Gotta Feeling

  1. Maxi Cane says:

    It was worth it just to hear Oprah say “Oh my Fucking God!”.

  2. Haha yeah. I agree with Oprah, twas indeed pretty cool!

  3. Darren Byrne says:

    Did she really just say “Oh My Fucking God”? Heh heh.

    Going to go buy me some T-mobile now…

  4. NaRocRoc says:

    I want, with all my being, to be cynical about this, I really do… but I just can’t be. It’s deadly.

  5. Kevin says:

    I heard about this but hadn’t seen anything. I heard it from a friend of mine who lives in NYC but was traveling to Chicago.

    …he wasn’t as delighted as Oprah about the traffic that morning.