Sparrow delights audience at Lincoln Centre

It may have been postponed because of bad weather but it was well worth the wait.

Audiences were treated to their favourite Slinger “Sparrow” Francisco songs when he performed at the Restart Stages, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York on August 4.

It was his first performance in the US since 2019 and was originally scheduled to be held on July 6, mere days before his 86th birthday on July 9.

The hour, 27 minute and 14 second event was also streamed on Sparrow’s Facebook page.

The opening of the video showed a filled space with people socially distanced and everyone clapping when the show started.

The senior director of artistic programming at the centre, Jordana Leigh welcomed the audience and thanked both the US Embassy and consulate for helping promote the concert.

“This is such an honour for us and truly a personal honour for me. We’ve had actually the pleasure of presenting the Mighty Sparrow here before both on this stage and across campus.

“He’s a legend, he’s an icon, his career spans decades and we thought about how do we bring the arts back to New York city? 'How do we bring life back? How do we bring culture back?'

“We thought we must present the Mighty Sparrow.”

The stream reached over 10,000 people, 2,000 of which were in the Caribbean. There was a significant Trinidad and Tobago viewership as well as viewers in St Kitts, St Lucia, Barbados, UK and Canada.

The space, which is able to accommodate 1,000 people, was filled.

Leigh told Newsday the event drew a nice mix of people, some who were new to his music and and others who knew every song.

In the video, Sparrow was wheeled on to stage and helped to a chair.

The audience began clapping and someone shouted, “We love you, Sparrow.”

To which he replied, “Hey. What’s up with you?”

He opened the show with Good Morning, Mr Walker, then moved on to what he said was one of his favourite songs: Melda.

Sparrow engaged an aide at his side, jokingly telling the audience after singing Melda, “I was talking a little secret here. Why allyuh want to hear. Want to know meh business?”

He then told the band to start the music and the audience would recognise the song as the opening strains of Saltfish began.

He took the audience through songs like Sparrow Dead, Sa Sa Ya and Mae Mae during the concert.

He jokingly told the audience that he wanted to change the name of No Money No Love to Romance without Finance is a Bloody Nuisance.

Some audience members could be seen dancing in the video as he sang Jean and Dinah to end the show.

The event can be viewed at restartstages.org or lincolncenter.org.