00:08For generations, his voice told our stories.
00:12His lyrics challenged authorities, exposed injustice, celebrated our culture, and gave
00:17the world a taste of Trinidad and Tobago.
00:20Today, at the National Academy for Performing Arts, the nation had an opportunity to pause,
00:25reflect, and remember the man behind the music, the mighty Sparrow.
00:30For Calypstonians like Dr. Wilby, Sparrow's influence was deeply personal.
00:34Growing up in Belmont, he watched a performer whose talent and versatility helped shape his own musical journey.
00:41I grew up in Belmont, I grew up with Sparrow, and that is one of the guys who inspired me
00:46with my career.
00:48Because, I mean, Sparrow is a fixture, and he really did it all.
00:53Even here, admiring how his music playing in the background, the appropriate type of music.
01:01For Elizabeth Bain, the memories go back to childhood.
01:04Long before she became one of Sparrow's backup singers, she remembers the Calypstonian lending
01:09his voice to an advertisement for her uncle's record shop on Park Street, Port of Spain.
01:15A simple jingle, remembered decades later, is a reminder of how Sparrow's music and her
01:20personality became woven into the everyday lives of ordinary people.
01:25I was small, okay?
01:28I remember he did an advertisement.
01:31My uncle had a record shop on 50 Park Street in Port of Spain.
01:36He did the advertisement for that record store.
01:40You can remember how the song went, the jingle went?
01:43Yes, I do.
01:45You can sing a little thing for us.
01:48Alexander, Alexander, Alexander Bain, he is the address to remember, 50 Park Street in Port of Spain.
01:59Those encounters helped create a bond between Sparrow and the people who followed him, a connection
02:04that endured long after the performances ended.
02:07But for those carrying Calypso forward, remembering Sparrow also means preserving the art form he
02:12helped elevate.
02:15Education, let them understand what Calypso is all about.
02:19Calypso is much more than the music.
02:20It's a culture that we're supposed to understand.
02:22We don't understand it enough.
02:24We still believe that Calypso belongs to the Calypsoeans and the Calypsoeans are supposed
02:29to understand Calypsoe more than anybody else.
02:31Calypsoe is a national thing.
02:33It is a reminder that Sparrow's legacy is not simply about the songs he recorded or the titles
02:38he won.
02:38It is also about the cultural inheritance he leaves behind and the responsibility of
02:43a new generation to understand, protect, and to continue.
02:47Among those paying their respect at Napa was President Christine Kangaloo.
02:52And as tributes continued, the music itself remained one of the most powerful ways to remember
02:57Sparrow.
02:58Funeral director Samuel David Simpson recalled the man he knew as Birdie, using some of Sparrow's
03:04own Calypso to reflect on the messages that made his work so enduring.
03:08These people are the architects of economic slavery.
03:13In a million different ways they violate the law.
03:18It's the same.
03:18We're both bastards who oppress the poor.
03:21I mean, we know that song.
03:23Everybody knows that song.
03:24Right?
03:25Good citizens.
03:26That's the name of it.
03:27Right?
03:28And then there's unity.
03:30Unity somehow.
03:33If Trinidad ever needed you is now.
03:36You put a hand and I put a hand and we will see.
03:40In no time at all for big and for small prosperity.
03:45There's no other way about it.
03:48Break your patriotic spirit.
03:50Unity somehow.
03:52Somehow if Trinidad ever needed you is now.
03:57Now it's safe to say the mighty Sparrow also gave Calypso a voice that traveled beyond our shores.
04:03But his music always carried something of home.
04:05Our humor, our struggles, our spirit and our humanity.
04:09And perhaps the most fitting tribute is to let that voice speak once more.
04:16You put a hand and I put a hand and we will see.
04:21For big and for small is no time at all for prosperity.
04:26There's no other way to do it.
04:29Show your patriotic spirit.
04:32Unity somehow.
04:35If Trinidad ever needed you is now.
04:41Charlotte Kisto, TV6 News.
04:44Jails.
04:44You.
04:46You.
04:47Nak 네.
04:48gardening.
