B.o.B., O.A.R. Team Up for Olympics Song 'Champions' (Video)

It’s official: We can now start the countdown to the 2012 Summer Olympics.

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B.o.B. and O.A.R. unleashed a freshly-minted collaboration on Tuesday, the empowering anthem titled “Champions,” in support of this year’s London games. The track is being released as part of Duracell’s “Rely On Copper To Go For The Gold” initiative, which gives Olympic fans the chance to support their nation’s athletes by posting encouraging videos, photos and text messages on Facebook and Twitter.

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“I think the song is very synonymous with challenges that many people face in life even beyond the field, beyond the court and beyond the sports,” B.o.B. told Yahoo Music Canada. “It’s the same place you have to dig from and challenge from when you’re an athlete or at an Olympian level. This is the best the world had to offer.”

O.A.R. frontman Marc Roberge revealed that his band had been working on the tune with Diji Parq for about a year before Duracell called. When the brand requested an anthemic song for the Olympics, Maryland-based O.A.R. immediately revisited their unfinished track.

“It just seemed so perfect for the message, the brand and the Olympics,” Roberge said. As for adding rapper B.o.B. to the project, he added: “This is an artist that is not just a rapper, not just a musician, not just a singer or a songwriter, he’s done it all.”

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Watch Roberge and the Atlanta-based rapper hit the studio in the video below, which features a first-listen of the new track.

“This record, sonically, was intended to sound regal, like something that kind encompasses the Olympics,” Roberge said of the song. “When you look out along the field, you imagine trumpeters and drums pounding like the opening of the Olympics and that’s what we went for.”

What do you think of the new track? Does it get you pumped up for the summer games?

E-mail: Sophie.Schillaci@thr.com; Twitter: @SophieSchillaci