will.i.am had the honor of being the first person to have their song played on Mars.

The Black Eyed Peas musician debuted his latest single, suitably named “Reach for the Stars”, from Nasa’s Curiosity rover last night (28th August 2012).

The track was broadcast over 300 million miles back to Earth, marking another great achievement which has come of Curiosity’s time on the Red Planet. “Reach for the Song”, made with the intention of inspiring those working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, was played to them from distances never achieved before.

An administrator at Nasa had hand-picked will.i.am as the man to create a song to play from Mars to Earth. Charles Bolden called him to help with the US space agency’s educational outreach; opening more eyes to the work that they do.

will.i.am commented on what it felt like to be given this task, ahead of the song’s first play at the JPL. “It seems surreal,” he said, before explaining why it doesn’t have the House bop that he’s known for. The singer, rapper and producer then explained that he didn’t “want to do a song that was done on a computer,” instead uses a 40-piece orchestra, with a modern twist.

“I wanted to show human collaboration and have an orchestra there and something that would be timeless, and translated in different cultures, not have like a Hip Hop beat or a Dance beat,” will.i.am said. “A lot of times… people in my field aren’t supposed to try to execute something classical, or orchestral, so I wanted to break that stigma.”

Although this is the first time that a song has been broadcasted from another planet, it’s not the first occurrence of its kind. Back in 2008, The Beatles’ “Across the Universe” was sent into the cosmos, in celebration of the song’s 40th anniversary.

Watch what happened below: