Up with People (UWP)
Up with People (UWP) is an organization founded in 1965 that began as a collection of local performance choirs before becoming a formal nonprofit in 1968. Its motto, encapsulated in the phrase "Up with People," reflects the group's mission of promoting goodwill and understanding through music and cultural exchange. In its early years, UWP featured international casts of young performers who toured globally, performing original songs in various community venues, aiming to uplift spirits and foster connections among diverse cultures.
During its peak in the 1970s, UWP became a significant cultural phenomenon, with multiple international casts and financial success, earning around thirty million dollars annually. The group was known for its participation in notable events, including the 1972 Munich Olympics and several Super Bowl halftime shows. Over the years, more than twenty thousand young individuals from seventy-nine countries have been involved in the program, which served as a counterbalance to the societal upheaval of the 1960s and 1970s by encouraging traditional values among American youth.
In 1988, UWP was recognized as the first international youth group invited to the Soviet Union. However, financial challenges in the late 1990s led to a hiatus in touring until a revival in 2003, transitioning its focus to leadership development and international understanding through the Worldsmart Leadership Program. Today, UWP continues to engage in cultural exchange and community building with multinational casts in various regions, emphasizing educational growth and global citizenship.
On this Page
Up with People (UWP)
Identification An organization that sponsored traveling youth troupes and uplifting song-and-dance performance events
Date Founded in 1965
Through their high-energy, easy-listening, upbeat music, the traveling youth troupes, or casts, promoted national moral rearmament, renewed patriotism, and a positive outlook on the United States. These values contrasted with the antiestablishment rhetoric, increasing secularism, racial unrest, hard-edged music, and leftist, antiwar politics of the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Up with People was founded in 1965 and operated as loosely organized local performance choirs until incorporated as a national educational and nonprofit organization in 1968. The phrase “Up with People” expressed the group’s convictions, served as the title of its popular theme song, and was the name of the organization.
In the late 1960’s, local and national traveling troupes of young people, most between seventeen and twenty-six years old, performed choreographed songs especially written for Up with People in such community venues as gymnasiums and auditoriums. By the 1970’s, the organization was earning thirty million dollars per year and had five distinct, 150-member international casts touring the globe as goodwill ambassadors and recording albums of music. Both the American casts and the international casts were assigned accommodations with host families in the communities in which they performed in the hope of promoting goodwill and international understanding within those communities.
Up with People helped restore a positive spirit at the 1972 Munich Olympics following the shooting of the Israeli athletes, visited Northern Ireland during the tensions of 1974, was one of the first youth groups invited to the newly opened China in 1978, and headlined four Super Bowl halftime shows, including the memorable 1976 Super Bowl X American bicentennial production. The group also headlined Super Bowls XIV, XVI, and XX.
Impact
More than twenty thousand young Up with People performers from seventy-nine countries traveled, studied, and visited with host families in thirty-eight countries following the group’s founding. The group was one of several forces and organizations that countered the negative cultural and political feelings of the 1960’s and 1970’s. Ultimately, the group helped American youth appreciate and adopt traditional values in a turbulent time.
Subsequent Events
Up with People was the first international youth group invited to the Soviet Union, in 1988. In the late 1990’s, financial difficulties forced the casts to postpone touring for several years. The organization subsequently was revived in 2003 as the Worldsmart Leadership Program, with less emphasis on musical performance and increased emphasis on study, the development of leadership skills, and the promotion of international understanding. Several multinational, multicultural casts still travel throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, and Latin America.
Bibliography
Aven, Paula. “A Lively Organization: CEO Wants to Recharge Up with People.” Denver Business Journal, January 22, 1999.
Sweeny, Patrick. “Up with People Getting Ready for a Comeback.” Denver Business Journal, November 29, 2002.