Pop musicians from the mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan have joined forces for a star-studded concert on Monday night, at the newly opened Olympic Basketball Gymnasium in western Beijing.

They were lending their voices to new songs based on the Olympic theme.

The concert kicked off Beijing's campaign to boost Olympic songs during the leadup to the Games. The newly released songs include "Our Dream", "Light the Passion, Pass the Dream", "On the Same Blue Planet" and "I am a Star".

The concert also inaugurated the new Wukesong Basketball Gymnasium -- specially constructed for the 2008 Games and now expected to be in use constantly.

The Olympic songs move on to television and radio stations to help spread the spirit nationwide. The songs can also be downloaded from the Internet and from mobile phone ring tones.

During the centenary of the modern Olympics, music also plays an important role as an interpreter of the success and failure on the field and inside the sports arena.

The Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee started to solicit and collect Olympic songs in 2003. There were four rounds of selection. More than 2,000 professional musicians and 50,000 members of the general public were involved.

The single theme song for the 2008 Olympics will be released 100 days from opening day.