American jazz singer Melody Gardot is recruiting a “digital global orchestra” from her home in Paris, to help her complete her new track.

The Grammy nominee, 35, said she hoped the project would “send a smile out into the world” and inspire people to “think positively” during the coronavirus pandemic.

Anyone can sign up online and they will receive musical charts, backing tracks and instructions detailing how to record themselves performing at home.

The final track, titled From Paris With Love, will feature on her forthcoming album, and everyone who appears on it will be paid standard union rates.

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I want to contribute something unique to this new movement of ‘connection despite distance’. During this complicated time, we miss essential connections with one other. We miss hugs, we miss our family, our friends……in short we miss love. So I want to make a love project to help break the feeling of isolation between us. Join me in the first step of this new project “From Paris with Love” by submitting the following: 1. Film a 5 second “video-portrait”, of yourself. Film it HORIZONTALLY, and make sure we can see enough of you (chest to head) and with a fixed camera (it’s like taking a picture but 5 seconds long and in video format). Dont move too much 🙂 Just pose and record with some natural light in front of a *NEUTRAL BACKGROUND* wearing *SOLID BLACK OR WHITE* tee shirt only please. 2. HANDWRITTEN horizontally, using a large black sharpie or black crayon on a white piece of paper (standard A4 format suggested) say “From (wherever you are) With Love”. Scan or photograph the paper (highest quality possible) and send ! 3. SEND both items (your photo scan and your video) to the email address : frompariswithloveproject@gmail.com **In your email please include your Instagram handle (if you have one) so we can find you later. After receiving these things, we’ll put together a surprising collaborative video clip featuring all your submissions alongside a new piece of music called “From Paris with Love”. A large portion my royalties from this song will be donated to a Covid relief charity to help medical workers during this time. This way, we share as much love as we possibly can together. **Please remember if you send this along it means you’re okay for me to for use your image in this project, so think about breaking the ‘quarantine pijama’ uniform if you don’t want everybody to see you that way ! Your mom and mine will see this 😉 Full T&Cs here https://decca.lnk.to/termsandconditions We’re only collecting these over the next few days – so please don’t wait too long. Feel free to pass this message along. This is just the first step of this collaborative journey so stay tuned….. ❤️ With love, from Paris Frompariswithloveproject@gmail.com

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She told the PA news agency: “We have to think positively. We have had two months now, at least in France, to be shocked, scared, confused, alarmed, concerned, mortified, sometimes plunged into the darkness of sadness and tragedy because of losing loved ones.

“And I think we have spent a lot of time sitting still. And now with that time, we have the opportunity to allow our vision of what the future should be to come through.

“Whether it is a comfort or a service or a way of moving forward in the arts, it must be this change where we use the energy that we have, not to remain focussed on sadness and this feeling of being distraught, but the way forward.”

Gardot is also asking fans to send in portraits of themselves holding handwritten postcard signs, sending love from wherever they are.

She said: “It’s gorgeous because you get to send a smile out into the world. It’s made with love, from the beginning to the end.”

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Part 2 of the From Paris With Love Project ***** Submit your performance and be a part of this love project ! **** Head over to www.melodygardot.com for info and instructions on how to participate 🙂 Please share this message with musicians and people you know who could bring their love to this project ! We need to keep artists working and come together despite our current situation Vas y attack ! 🐱 🇫🇷 Sur le site www.melodygardot.com -version française disponible mtnt ! #charliesiem @yoyoma #viennaphilharmonic #berlinphilharmonic #londonphilharmonicorchestra #nypops #laphil #laphilharmonic @pickupmusic @metropoleorkest @julesbuckleymusic @vincemendozacomposer Ps. I also can use some lessons on this if ever 😂 ❤️ #melodygardot #frompariswithlove #melodygardotofficial

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Gardot, originally from New Jersey in the US, said: “I come from scrappy roots. I don’t come from a house bourgeois or privilege.

“I remember the hunger that I had to get out of my situation, just because I couldn’t stand it any more.

“And I was always looking for opportunities to do more and help people along the way. I like to bring the people that were with me up the step on the ladder.”

Submissions will be judged by Gardot and her team of producers, composers and engineers.

She and her record label, Decca, are waiving their profits from the track, with money going to French healthcare charity Protege Ton Soignant.

Musicians can sign up at melodygardot.com. The deadline for submissions is 11.59pm on May 18.