Freetown Collective powers on with Mighty People

Mighty People is the latest release from genre-bending group Freetown Collective for Carnival 2023. The power soca track, high-spirited in form and content, emerges from another masterful collaboration with producer Keron “Sheriff” Thompson. It was launched across all major streaming platforms on January 6.

With backing vocals from the Bishop Anstey High School choir and production work by Sheriff (Sheriff Music), Kyle Phillips (Badjohn Republic) and Lou Lyons (Cheah Meng Sounds), Mighty People is a powerhouse of a song that takes no side roads but aims directly at the soul.

The group recognises the impact of the significant losses suffered worldwide during the pandemic, and specifically the extraordinary loss of life here at home, on the collective psyche. Mighty People offers cathartic healing; it aims to uplift, enliven and free audiences with reminders of who we are, and where we come from.

In a release, Freetown Collective lead vocalist Muhammad Muwakil points to the line, “Your body is a temple, your sweat is holy water; every move you’re making is praise unto the master” to reinforce that the song is a “hymn at the pace of a Road March; it is a declaration of something being born again through the lineage of calypsonians Shadow and Black Stalin down to the line of Freetown Collective.”

Collaborator and producer Sheriff says, “I feel at home when my creativity is pushed and when there’s a lot to say. My intention is to show that soca is a powerful genre that can be more than just part of carnival! It can be love. It can be hope. It can be art.”

According to the band’s lead guitarist Lou Lyons, “people know 'of' Trinbagonians but they are yet to know us deeply and where we’re coming from geographically and culturally."

“Let d world know/Dat we coming through/Coming from the south ah d archipelago…We are a mighty people,” he declares, quoting the lyrics.

Abiding losses in 2022 to their own immediate circles and wider communities of support and kinship, the group has dedicated this empowering number to Salim Muwakil – Muhammad's father, killed on December 31 – Janine Charles-Farray, who died suddenly on October 1, Andy Alleyne, who passed recently, and national treasure Leroy "Black Stalin" Calliste, the veteran calypsonian who died on December 28.

Mighty People is available for purchase and download on all major streaming platforms.