Why, Oh Why is This Song SO GOOD??

Collective Consciousness, Stars in Alignment

How is a great pop anthem created?

Note from author; Better read with said song blasting in background.
"Empire State of Mind"
What a great (insert expletive of choice here) song! What the heck?! Thank you Miss Keys and Mr. Z. Thank you Angela Hunte and "Jnay" Sewell-Ulepic for writing and producing it! And a special shout out to the music Angels above for letting at least one iconic R&B, hip-hop, pop song from 2009 be unleashed upon the airwaves without a hint of the over auto-tuning technique. Robots-shmo-bots!! Enough already! We get it. Blame it on the juice and just say "NO" to the auto-tune buttons people!! (Ahhh, I feel better now, and yes, uncool and OLD, that's how I roll, 'nuff said).
BTW, scouts honor, as I write this and make sure I'm getting all the facts rock solid (thank you Wikipedia!) I Googled "who produced..." and guess what Google's magic genie auto-filled in for me? "who produced...empire state of mind", it was the absolute first auto-fill text in Google's line up, in the drop down menu next was "who produced Avatar" and third is "who produced Lady Gaga". Say what? No way! Way!! I guess I'm not the only one digging this anthem. And yes, I do realize I'm so 2000 and late with this review, but hey people are still critiquing Will.i.am S. (aka Shakespeare). King Lear, comedy or tragedy? Discuss!
Here is how I envision the making of this great song going down. JayZ calls Alicia Keys, (ah, the life of a pop star!) and says "Hey, Aleesh, I have this song I'd like you sing on". She says "Sure, Jay". Cut to, Alicia and JayZ in a studio somewhere. Cue the drum beat. Cue the "bum, bum, bum" piano chord progression. JayZ, you're up. Love the rap, love the build. Miss Keys, now you're up, here comes the whispers, "C'mon, c'mon" then..."in Newww Yorkkkk!! Concrete jungle where dreams are made of, there's nothing you can't do"! Wow-wee! It's BIG it's Bold, it's fun and it makes me wanna drive my car very fast!
But guess what! It didn't happen just like that. A writing team of two women, Angela Hunte and "Jnay" Sewell-Ulepic-you go girls!! wrote it and produced it. On a wing and prayer they sent it to Roc Nation, JayZ's music publishing and entertainment company and, oh the drama! "Empire State of Mind" was met with negative reviews. The horror! Someone didn't have their "listening" ears on that day.
Perhaps this demo, oozing with potential, had reached the end of it's road, but not so! "Big Jon" Platt of EMI heard it at a BBQ, fell in love with it and said "JayZ would love this". P.S. A BBQ?! I thought music moguls only consumed caviar and bubbly! Who knew!
The rest is history. JayZ heard it and recorded it that same evening. He even almost called the ever so powerful and fabulous Ms. Mary J. Blige to sing the vocals. But the phone was put down. Whew! And Alicia with her keyboard abilities scored the part and we, the general public scored the privilege of participating in an ever so uplifting song's rise to the top.
"Put your lighter's in the air! Everybody say "Yeah, yeah, yeah". There's nothing you can't do."
Say "yes" people, there's nothing you can't do!

*** If somehow you've escaped this song, run! don't walk to the first illegal download you can find or better yet, be totally radical and subversive and BUY the damn song!! It's a $1.29 fer chrissakes people! and be prepared to be swept up in moment. Watch those speedometers!
Love Ya! Anne