Skip to main content

South Jordan Journal

Daybreak woman making mark in Olympics with her music

Sep 13, 2024 11:12AM ● By Bailey Chism

Emily Sanderson is a songwriter from South Jordan whose music has been featured in several Olympic promotional videos and television pieces focused on the games. (Photo courtesy EJ Sara)

A songwriter from South Jordan is making her mark on the Olympics through her music. 

While not competing in any sports event in Paris, Emily Sanderson’s music was featured in several Olympic promotional videos and television pieces focused on the games. As part of its Olympic coverage, NBC used one of her songs, “Greatest of All Time,” to accompany a video introducing the women’s gymnastics team, which won a gold medal as the best all-around squad. 

“I was over-the-moon, because they really are the reason so many Americans even watch the Olympics - everyone wants to see Simone Biles - so to see my music synced up with her superhuman feats was truly special,” Sanderson said, an independent songwriter who goes by EJ Sara in her musical endeavors. 

Sanderson says she grew up playing piano and singing in choirs, studying music therapy at Utah State University. She now creates music from her home and has had plenty of it appear in high-profile places – ads for Volvo, in Disney+ and Netflix programs, the television production of NCAA women’s basketball championship game and much more. 

Her music is now getting attention on the global stage with the snippet in the NBC video on the gymnastics team and in several other Olympics promotional videos, some of which aired in Canada and across Europe. NBC’s Today Show also used her song, “Greatest of All Time,” as background music in a profile piece on LeBron James, one of the stars on the U.S. Olympic basketball team. 

“It's so exciting to see my songs being used,” Sanderson said. “Sometimes the way the song is used in a scene is exactly how I imagined it would be used, and other times it's a total surprise, but it's always so fun to see what they do.” 

Sanderson is also a fitness professional who teaches group exercise classes, pilates, strength training and more. As such, themes of putting out Herculean effort, passion and hard work were on her mind when coming up with “Game Face,” the album she co-created with her team that has been tapped to serve as the soundtrack for many of the varied Olympic videos. 

“Motivating people at the gym is something I love to do, and it actually translates really well to writing empowering lyrics for my songs,” she said. 

The “Game Face” songs – rock music – feature heavy, driving beats and touch on themes like “being a force to be reckoned with,” “playing hard,” “coming out on top,” and more, according to the album description.  

As an independent songwriter, Sanderson had no idea who might tap the music after she and her team placed the album on the Pop Machine catalog. The online catalog is operated by APM Music, which calls itself “the world’s leading creative music house and production music library” and markets music for ads, movies, television shows and other video programming. 

Sanderson gets royalties or fees when her music is used. But money aside, to see her music used in connection with the women's gymnastics team, in particular, has left her glowing. λ