With Jamaicans still grappling with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Restaurants of Jamaica (ROJ) through their brand KFC Jamaica is delivering a message of hope, reassurance and positivity, through a blockbuster musical project featuring an array of some of Jamaica’s top musical talent. Partnering with international gospel artiste Kevin Downswell alongside an ensemble of Jamaica’s finest artistes and producer Orrett “Bambino” Hart, the quick service giants have remixed Downswell’s popular gospel track “STRONGER”, to create the ultimate “feel good” anthem for the summer.
“We felt the opportunity existed for KFC Jamaica, a brand with a strong nationalistic footprint, to align with a message of positivity and to evoke the feeling of strength, resilience and survival among our people,” shared Andrei Roper, Brand Manager for KFC Jamaica. “Kevin Downswell’s “STRONGER” couldn’t have been a more perfect song for this purpose. It’s already loved by so many and the new elements, brought out in the remix, create an even more unique feel-good message of hope,” he added.
The new track, with additional verses penned by Bambino has been beautifully adapted to include violin accompaniment by Jessica Yap and lyrics from some of Jamaica’s top artistes, namely Bounty Killer, Beenie Man, Christopher Martin, Richie Stephens, Tessanne Chin, Wayne Marshall, Kemar Highcon, Singer J, Ikaya and Sherieta Lewis, giving it a truly wholesome and unifying feeling that KFC Jamaica and Jamaica – together, will be STRONGER.
Speaking on the remake of his track was Kevin Downswell, who also recently released the music video for his smash hit single “CARRY ME” which has been doing extremely well on YouTube, highlighted that, “The era or season that we’re in is quite unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. People are struggling and dealing with so much in their private quarters, in many different aspects of their lives. This song has been one of those songs that I believe found a way to connect with many different people across different aspects of life. I felt like it would be perfect to rehash, remix and reintroduce “STRONGER” to bring some more hope when we all need it so much.”
Another special element of the remix comes with the music video for the song shot and directed by award-winning director Storm Saulter. Wanting to perfectly represent imagery of positive post-COVID-19 life the director tried to bring elements of “outside”, “inside” with uplifting shots of the Jamaican landscape projected behind each artiste as they belted their lines.
“This is a song with so many great artistes and icons and it’s all about empowering Jamaicans; how we can all step forward into this new world with confidence,” shared Saulter who’s latest film Sprinter is now streaming on Netflix. “For me, this collab is a story about Jamaica. I wanted to show the beauty of Jamaica within this time, where we can’t move about and be as we would like. So we decided to use captured images and brought them inside as a way to comment on us being inside and social distancing while thinking about outside and the future. That’s the world we’re playing in.” Saulter pointed out.
Music has always been a source of upliftment and strength for Jamaica and in acknowledgement of this, ROJ, together with Kevin Downswell Ministries, continues in their mandate to demonstrate nationalistic support through avenues that are truly Jamaican. The feel-good message of the “STRONGER Remix” is to provide upliftment, reassurance andencouragement to the nation, that together, we will overcome this history-defining challenge.
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