The Audley Shaw campaign has turned to music to continue its promotion of the shadow minister of finance as the next Jamaica Labour Party leader.
The song, a dubplate from the hit track, Reggae Bring Back Love, has been changed to reflect some of Shaw’s promises.
The vocals of Peetah Morgan are heard in the introduction to the popular track.
“Blessed love massive, this a Morgan Heritage and Audley Shaw, wi duh dis one fi Jamaica,” Peetah says.
Audley Shaw bring back love,
To the Jamaican people
bring back sweet sweet love, Oh yeah.
“Wi waa Jamaica how it used to be,” Morgan Heritage’s lead singer blares.
“Audley Shaw send a positive charge to the heart of mankind.”
Music and politics have always been linked, with The Gleaner‘s ‘The Music Diaries’ with Roy Black, bringing this into sharp focus in a lengthy look at the issue in its first release, ‘Music and Politics’, on December 25 two years ago.
In that article, Black pointed out that as early as 1960, music was used to bolster political campaigns, with Alexander Bustamante using Clancy Eccles’ Freedom to fight the ideas of a West Indies Federation.
In the 1970s Eccles would, ironically, help Michael Manley find appropriate music for his ideals.
From 1980 onward, many songs were used to help campaigns but artists would almost always ensure to point out, they did not want their music used for political purposes.
Nadine Sutherland and Terror Fabulous’s Action, Not a Bag a Mouth, was used as late as the 1990s, again without the consent of the artists.
Bounty Killer has famously decried the use of his songs as part of political campaigns.
Morgan Heritage’s song, however, seems to buck that trend. Not only is the song being used as part of Shaw’s campaign, but it has also been modified to support the former finance minister.
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