Thula Sizwe / I Shall Be Released

THULA SIZWE / I SHALL BE RELEASED

feat. Common People, Miriam Makeba and Nina Simone
Available June 12 on all major streaming platforms.

WHEN MUSIC AND MOVEMENT MEET AGAIN

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais — the latest retreat from voting rights protections in the US — Black women are once again leading the charge. Common People has a song for them for this moment.

“THULA SIZWE / I SHALL BE RELEASED” arrives June 12 — a collaboration between Common People, 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. This recording does not preserve the past as artifact. It releases it as fuel.

Malcolm du Plessis, Common People’s founder, proposed the duet with Nina while working with Miriam on her homecoming recording thirty-six years ago. Now reimagined and released into an America that increasingly resembles the South Africa of his childhood — a country whose story has never felt more relevant to this nation — the song has found its time.

The medley bound the lineages of Black America and Black South Africa into a single act of resistance — when movement and music were inseparable. Common People carries that convergence forward.

A MOMENT ALREADY IN MOTION

Makeba’s presence is returning to popular culture in a striking way — 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, filming this month in Cape Town. The June 12 release arrives during African American Music Appreciation Month, on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising, and one week before Juneteenth. As the United States approaches the 2026 midterm elections, the timing feels less like coincidence than like necessity. Clearly, this momentum has not ended. It has only changed hands.

CALL TO ACTION

.June 12 is release day. We are asking everyone who believes this music matters to show up for it. Download a short video clip here and share it across your platforms that day. This is how a song becomes a movement song — not through a marketing budget, but through the hands of people who believe it matters. Music and movement were made to be inseparable. It is time to make them so again.

Some songs become movement songs because the season demands it. This is one of them. We invite Black women to claim it as your own — and carry it into every space entrusted to your care.

CONTACT

hello@commonpeople.cc

THULA SIZWE / I SHALL BE RELEASED
Thula Sizwe (PD), I Shall Be Released written by Robert Dylan (SESAC)
© 2026 Universal Tunes (SESAC) (admin by UMPG)

VERSE 1
Thula sizwe, ungabokhala (Be still, nation, do not cry)
uJehova wakho uzokunqobela (Your God will come to your rescue)
Thula sizwe, ungabokhala (Be still, nation, do not cry)
uJehova wakho uzokunqobela (Your God will come to your rescue)

VERSE 2
Inkululeko, inkululeko (Freedom, freedom)
uJehova wakho uzokunqobela (Your God will come to your rescue)

CHORUS
I see my light come shining
From the west down to the east
Any day now, any way now
I shall be released

VERSE 1
Standing next to me in this lonely crowd
Is a man who swears he's not to blame
All day long I hear him shout so loud
Cryin' out that he was framed

VERSE 2
They say every man needs protection
They say every man must fall
So I swear I see my reflection
Somewhere inside these walls