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Ninja Dan Rises To The Occasion For Julien Alfred

Sixteen years ago, Johnathan “Ninja Dan” St. Rose took to the stage for the Soca Monarch competition with a sterling rendition of the song “Rise.”

“I know we gonna make it, I know we gonna make it, Saint Lucia gonna make it, I know we gonna make it, make it,” he sang.

He went on to highlight the success of the “big” islands – Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica, and Barbados while declaring: “Well it’s now our nation get big.”

Ninja Dan also championed the call then for Darren Sammy to be on the West Indies cricket team.

Sixteen years later, Sammy has made it to the West Indies team and carried the team to victory in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup and so much more.

Sixteen years later, Saint Lucia has indeed made it on so many levels, but none as inspirational as the success of Julien Alfred.

Therefore, it is quite fitting that sixteen years later Ninja Dan and Studio 758 would reunite for a refix of “Rise”, in honour of Alfred.

Ninja Dan puts the process at arriving at the refix for “Rise” into context for St. Lucia Times.

“Well after the Olympics and Juju got Gold, then Silver, Dr. Stephen King contacted me and said he wanted to speak to me about a remix for Rise. So we then had a meeting with Pen and Ace of Studio 758 who had produced the song and later with Ted Sandiford for the video,” the singer explained.

He describes the feeling of coming together to redo the song as nostalgic.

“Going into that new song was like yeah, you say something a few years ago and now it is manifesting. So now, you have to go and redo the song with another positive message. Now that we have made it what’s next? Well what’s next is inspiration to the youth and Julien Alfred being able to inspire a whole country,” Ninja Dan explained.

He disclosed that while Alfred is at the heart of the song, it is also about those who came before to give us hope, such as Levern Spencer and Daren Sammy.

The singer said that listening to the final product gave him goosebumps.

He added that the third verse, with the commentary on Alfred and the visuals captured by Ted Sandiford, completed the package.

“Julien Alfred means so much to us as a small island and a dot in comparison to the world. She has given each and every Saint Lucian a seed of inspiration, a seed of hope, a seed of aspiration, a seed of resilience, a seed of never looking down and never underestimating yourself. Because it is not just in winning the gold and silver, but we all saw proof of the tribulations and the obstacles and the hurdles that she had to go through to be there and she always showed up with a positive attitude,” Ninja Dan declared.

In addition, he said he is amazed at how one individual was able to singlehandedly take Saint Lucia on another frequency, in one moment replacing all of the negative emotions confronting us and replacing it with authenticity, passion and excitement with a spirit of hope.

The song, written by Jonathan “Ninja Dan” St. Rose, Thygeson “Pen” Joseph and Irvin “Ace” Loctar, was released last week.

The accompanying video, produced by Ted Sandiford, includes Alfred’s alma maters, Ciceron Primary School, and the Leon Hess Secondary School and other images.

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