Bob Marley performing at Reggae Sunsplash in Montego Bay, St James, in 1979.
Bob Marley’s No Woman No Cry is featured in the trailer for Marvel Studio’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
In the trailer, released on the weekend, the song is used to show how the follow-up to the movie intends to handle the absence of T’Challa, played by the late Chadwick Boseman.
Boseman, who played the lead role in the original 2018 Ryan Coogler-directed film, Black Panther, passed away in the summer of 2020 after a four-year-long battle with cancer.
The two-minute teaser opens with Nakia — played by Lupita Nyong’o — overlooking a vast ocean in a sombre mood. It then transitions to a scene where Queen Ramonda, played by Angela Bassett, sits on the throne, before getting into some epic battle scenes which suggests that in T’Challa’s absence, Wakanda falls vulnerable to outside forces.
Tems, a Nigerian singer, best known for her vocals on Wizkid’s world-renowned track, Essence, has been quoted by Billboard Magazine that No Woman No Cry was one of two Marley songs she would love to cover. With that dream becoming a reality, she has now joined the likes of Nina Simone, The Fugees, Boney M, and Hugh Masekela as entertainers who have covered the 1974 track.
No Woman No Cry is featured on Marley’s 1974 album Natty Dread. Marley died in 1981 at age 36 after a brief battle with cancer.
—By Kediesha Perry/Observer writer
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