Phil Collins presented, The World Won’t Listen, from March 31, 2007 – July 2, 2007 at the Carnegie Museum of Art. Filmed on location in Bogota, Colombia, in 2004, and in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2005, this piece offers a series of tragicomic portraits of fans performing karaoke versions of tracks from the 1980s band The Smiths’ classic album of the same name.
Collins advertised on the radio, in dance clubs, and on wheat-pasted posters distributed throughout each city for “the shy, the dissatisfied, narcissists, and anyone who’s ever wished they could be someone else for a night” to perform the decidedly melancholic and angst-ridden Smiths’ lyrics in front of generic, kitschy backdrops of nature scenes and faux-tropical islands. (From the Carnegie Museum of Art’s website)