Music Friday: Kids of the 'One Voice' Choir Inspire Their Peers to 'Shine Bright Like a Diamond'

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you exceptional songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, the talented members of the One Voice Children's Choir will dazzle you with their interpretation of Rihanna's "Diamonds." Their video at the end of this post has been viewed on YouTube nearly 24 million times.

In the song, the youngsters inspire their peers to "shine bright like a diamond" and embrace the wonders that life has to offer.

They sing, "Find light in the beautiful sea, I choose to be happy / You and I, you and I, we’re like diamonds in the sky / You’re a shooting star I see, a vision of ecstasy / When you hold me, I’m alive / We’re like diamonds in the sky."

Ranging in age from four to 17, the One Voice singers are directed by Masa Fukuda. The group was originally assembled by Fukuda to perform at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah, but remained together after the sporting event. The group has about 140 members and performs 50 to 70 times each year.

Their reputation as a top-flight choral group earned them an invitation to compete during Season 9 of NBC's America's Got Talent in 2014. The group reached the quarter finals and produced the "Diamonds" video in preparation for moving on to the final rounds. Earlier in the competition, judge Howard Stern told the young contestants that they were gold, but Howie Mandel was not as impressed.

"They are gold," Mandel agreed. "I'm looking for a diamond."

Despite Mandel's thumbs-down verdict, Stern, Mel B and Heidi Klum voted in favor of the group and they moved on in the competition. The choir director's decision to perform "Diamonds" was in direct response to Mandel's criticism.

Rihanna scored her 12th #1 single with "Diamonds" in 2012. In fact, the song topped the charts in 20 countries and sold more than 7.5 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling singles in music history.

Rihanna characterized the song as "happy and hippie."

"It's hopeful. It gives me a great feeling when I listen to it," she said during an iHeartRadio festival in Las Vegas. "The lyrics are hopeful and positive. It's about love and the gears are different than what people will expect."

The song was written by Sia Furler with Benjamin Levin, Mikkel S. Eriksen and Tor Erik Hermansen. Sia told New York Times Magazine that she came up with the lyrics for "Diamonds" in just 14 minutes.

According to SongFacts.com, "Diamonds" is the third diamond-titled song to score a #1 chart appearance. The others were Gary Lewis and the Playboys' "This Diamond Ring" (1965) and Elton John's "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" (1974).

Please check out the video of the One Voice Children's Choir performing "Diamonds." The lyrics are below if you'd like to sing along...

"Diamonds"
Written by Sia Furler, Benjamin Levin, Mikkel S. Eriksen and Tor Erik Hermansen. Performed by the One Voice Children's Choir.

Shine bright like a diamond
Shine bright like a diamond

Find light in the beautiful sea, I choose to be happy
You and I, you and I, we’re like diamonds in the sky
You’re a shooting star I see, a vision of ecstasy
When you hold me, I’m alive
We’re like diamonds in the sky

I knew that we’d become one right away
Oh, right away
At first sight I felt the energy of sun rays
I saw the life inside your eyes

So shine bright tonight,
You and I
We’re beautiful like diamonds in the sky
Eye to eye,
So alive
We’re beautiful like diamonds in the sky

Shine bright like a diamond
Shine bright like a diamond
Shining bright like a diamond
We’re beautiful like diamonds in the sky

Shine bright like a diamond
Shine bright like a diamond
Shining bright like a diamond
We’re beautiful like diamonds in the sky

Palms rise to the universe, as we moonshine and molly
Feel the warmth, we’ll never die
We’re like diamonds in the sky

You’re a shooting star I see, a vision of ecstasy
When you hold me, I’m alive
We’re like diamonds in the sky
At first sight I felt the energy of sun rays
I saw the life inside your eyes

So shine bright
Tonight,
You and I
We're beautiful like diamonds in the sky
Eye to eye,
So alive
We're beautiful like diamonds in the sky

Shine bright like a diamond
Shine bright like a diamond
Shining bright like a diamond
We’re beautiful like diamonds in the sky

Shine bright like a diamond
Shine bright like a diamond
Shining bright like a diamond
We're beautiful like diamonds in the sky

Shine bright like a diamond
Shine bright like a diamond
Shine bright like a diamond

So shine bright
Tonight,
You and I
We're beautiful like diamonds in the sky
Eye to eye,
So alive
We're beautiful like diamonds in the sky

Shine bright like a diamond
Shine bright like a diamond
Shine bright like a diamond

Shine bright like a diamond
Shine bright like a diamond
Shine bright like a diamond

Shine bright like a diamond

Credit: Screen captures via YouTube.com.

Pitcher Joe Kelly Finds Tony La Russa's World Series Ring in His Glove, Demands $1 Trillion Ransom

Red Sox pitcher Joe Kelly said it was one of the "funniest, coolest and randomest" baseball stories he's ever been part of. It all went down at Boston's Fenway Park last week, and this is what happened...

Tony La Russa, who owns three World Series rings and happened to be wearing one of them during Thursday night's Red Sox game, was asked to catch the ceremonial first pitch.

The Hall of Fame manager is now a special assistant with the Red Sox and was ill-prepared to catch the toss from his former boss, the 88-year-old Roland Hemond. All La Russa had available, according to Kelly, was an old pancake glove with no pocket. It looked like a vintage mitt from 1905.

So La Russa, now 73, asked the 30-year-old Kelly if he could borrow a mitt for the ceremony. Kelly agreed, the ceremony went off without a hitch and, soon after, the Red Sox pitcher noticed that his glove was returned to his locker.

What Kelly didn't know was that La Russa was in a panic. Somehow, he had misplaced his 2011 World Series ring and had no idea where it could have fallen off. He told the clubhouse attendants to keep their eyes peeled.

The next day, during a pre-game warmup, Kelly grabbed the glove that La Russa had borrowed and ran out to the field to loosen up his arm.

"I stuck my hand it in and my [pinky] got stuck," the right-handed reliever told WEEIradio.com. "It jammed my pinky. I pulled it out right away because it hurt. I thought someone put seeds in my glove to mess with me. But then I looked and I was like, ‘What the [heck] is this?’ I spread my glove open and there it was: Tony’s World Series ring. At first I thought it was a joke, but then 10 seconds later I realized you don’t joke around with something like that. It probably means a lot to him so I don’t think he would joke with something that was [worth] $50,000."

Kelly has his own theory on how the World Series ring got stuck in the pinky slot of his mitt. He believes that La Russa switched the ring from his ring finger to his pinky finger prior to catching the ceremonial first pitch because the massive World Series bling wouldn't fit in the ring finger slot of his glove. Baseball mitts are designed with a bigger pinky slot, which gave him just enough room to fit the ring.

When La Russa pulled off the mitt, the ring stayed where it was.

With the World Series ring in his possession, Kelly decided to have some fun on social media, hinting with a hashtag that he intended to demand a $1 trillion ransom.

He posted a series of photos to Twitter, along with this caption: "Hey @TonyLaRussa I might have something you are looking for... thanks for using my glove during the first pitch ceremony #finderskeepers #findersfee #trilliondollars @RedSox @Cardinals

Kelly, who has a reputation for being a jokester, called the La Russa incident "one of funniest, coolest and randomest baseball stories I've ever been a part of."

Credits: Images via Twitter.com/JosephKellyJr.

New Study: Blue Diamonds Form 400 Miles Below the Surface, Far Deeper Than All Others

By studying minute inclusions trapped within blue diamonds, scientists have been able to determine that their origin is far deeper in the Earth than other diamond varieties.

The journal Nature recently revealed that blue diamonds form about 400 miles below the surface, four times deeper than about 99 percent of all other diamonds.

“We knew essentially absolutely nothing about where they grow,” said geologist Evan M. Smith, a lead author of the Nature report and a research scientist at the Gemological Institute of America in New York (GIA). Smith and his colleagues investigated this question by reviewing 46 blue diamonds that were submitted to the GIA. The team focused specifically on other minerals trapped within the blue diamonds.

To gem cutters, inclusions are flaws, but to geologists, they are clues. “If you had to design the perfect capsule to bring something from below, a diamond would be it,” said geologist Jeffrey E. Post, curator of the mineral collection at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, who was not involved with the Nature report.

The creation of a blue diamond requires a complex geologic sequence. Geologists determined that trace impurities and contamination with the element boron, turn diamonds blue. A boron atom can replace a carbon atom in the crystal structure. A loose electron from boron absorbs red light, giving the diamond its blue hue.

Because boron exists in seawater, Post hypothesized that the rocks in descending crust carried the boron below, as if the element were on a boat ride to the lower mantle.

“That is a good circumstantial bit of evidence, at least,” he said.

Within the inclusions, Smith identified remnants of calcium silicates and other minerals that form only at extreme high pressure. He noted that as the diamonds worked their way back toward the surface, the high-pressure minerals within became unstable and shattered, leaving fragments stuck in the diamonds. An analysis of these ruptures, plus the list of minerals found in the inclusions, pointed to a very unusual birthplace.

Smith explained that it required the union of two rocks: oceanic crust from the surface and the underlying ocean mantle. That is a match made in the abyss — where the motion of tectonic plates forces a slab of ocean crust to descend like a conveyor belt for hundreds of miles.

Appearing in nearly every color of the rainbow, colored diamonds are extremely rare, but blue diamonds are considered the rarest. Recent survey research indicates that of 13.8 million diamonds found, only 0.02 percent were blue.

Perhaps the most famous blue diamond in the world is the legendary Hope Diamond, which resides at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. The fancy dark greyish-blue diamond weighs 45.52 carats and is estimated to be worth more than $250 million.

Blue diamond discoveries are still very sporadic and are considered astonishing occurrences. And they still make headlines. In November 2015, Hong Kong businessman Joseph Lau purchased "The Blue Moon of Josephine,” a 12.03 carat blue diamond, for $48.4 million. The gem was named after Lau’s seven-year-old daughter. In May 2016, the world's largest blue diamond, “The Oppenheimer Blue,” a 14.62 carat gem, won the title of the world's most expensive blue diamond ever, selling for a jaw-dropping $57.5 million.

Photo Credit: The Hope Diamond, Smithsonian Institution.