Malala`s UN speech being set to music for International Women's Day

LONDON: The speech which Malala Yousafzai delivered to the United Nations on her 16th birthday is being composed into music to mark International Women's Day.

According to British media reports, BBC Radio 3 will air the new commission, entitled Speak Out.

The composition, performed by the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales, will feature extracts from the campaigner's speech, in which she called for free compulsory education for every child.

Speaking to BBC Radio 3, the child education activist who recently turned 19, said:"I am honoured and excited that my speech inspired a composer to set it to music and that it will be performed and broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on International Women's Day.”

"As the speech is a call to raise our voices, it makes me very happy that it will be sung by a large choir, that so many voices will rise to share the message of education for all.

"It is wonderful that the message and the music will reach many more people through the live radio broadcast."

The composer, Kate Whitley, said: "The theme for International Women's Day 2017 is Be Bold For Change - trying to find ways to make a more gender inclusive world - which chimes exactly with what Malala's text is about."

BBC Radio 3 controller Alan Davey announced that as many as six leading female composers will guest edit parts of the Radio 3 schedule on International Women's Day.

He said the station had to do more to increase diversity, adding that "as the people's radio station - paid for by the licence fee - we need to reflect our people, the people who pay for us."

The music composition will be broadcasted on March 8, International Women's Day, at BBC Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff and on BBC Radio 3 the same evening.