Common People Collab with Miriam Makeba and Nina Simone

Common People announces its June 12 release of “THULA SIZWE / I SHALL BE RELEASED,” a remix collaboration with Miriam Makeba and Nina Simone, drawn from a medley these two titans recorded in 1990 shortly after Nelson Mandela was freed from prison and Makeba returned to South Africa at his invitation after 31 years in forced exile. The necessary rights were secured from the label behind that historic homecoming album — a rare honor made possible by Common People’s South African roots and a long relational thread reaching back to the original.

By bringing a traditional Zulu freedom song into conversation with Bob Dylan’s iconic “I Shall Be Released,” the medley bridged the musical and cultural lineages of Black America and Black South Africa. Makeba and Simone gave voice to parallel struggles, shaping not only the sound of resistance but its moral imagination. Common People’s updated version carries that convergence forward, channeling the charge of an era in which movement and music were inseparable. What emerges does not preserve the past as artifact; it releases it as fuel.

Makeba’s presence is returning to popular culture in a striking way, with her 1960s hit “Pata Pata” featured in the blockbuster “Project Hail Mary,” and Cynthia Erivo set to portray her in the upcoming feature film “The Road Home,” which begins filming in Cape Town this June. Together, these developments signal renewed public attention to Makeba’s life, music, and enduring influence — making its timing feel almost uncanny.

As Black women continue to set the pace of public life, this offering extends what Makeba and Simone helped set in motion — a momentum that has not ended, only changed hands. Arriving ahead of Juneteenth and as the U.S. approaches the 2026 midterm elections, it stands as a landmark song for this season, meant to steady the disheartened and embolden the courageous.

TIMING

The June 12 debut coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising and the fifth national observance of Juneteenth, a tradition carried for generations within Black communities. Common People will give the medley its live premiere on June 19 at Juneteenth615 in Nashville, hosted by FellaVision and the African American Cultural Alliance, on the National Museum of African American Music–sponsored stage.

CALL TO ACTION

We invite Black women of voice, vision, and courage to embrace “THULA SIZWE / I SHALL BE RELEASED” as your song — a freedom song for this moment — accompanying and energizing the work, and to share it across your communities, platforms, and the spaces entrusted to your care.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Email: hello@commonpeople.cc

ABOUT COMMON PEOPLE

Common People is the flagship band of a growing ecosystem of artists, songwriters, and storytellers committed to truth-telling, justice, and enduring creative expression, stewarded by a 501(c)(3) nonprofit of the same name.