Gospel singer Kevin Downswell has

released an all-star remix of his 2012 classic, You Make Me Stronger. The mega-collaboration, titled Stronger (remix), is sponsored by KFC and adds to the growing list of

uplifting songs released since COVID-19 made landfall in Jamaica in March.

Produced and co-written by DJ

Bambino, the song starts with a violin solo courtesy of Jessica Yapp, then

segues into Downswell, Richie Stephens, Tessanne Chin and Sherieta Lewis who

sing messages of hope in the first verse. The chorus now belts, “we will

be stronger” instead of “you make me stronger,” and the second

verse features powerful, victorious vocals from Christopher Martin, Singer J

and Ikaya. The third verse packs some dancehall flavour with Bounty Killer and

Beenie Man, balanced with mellow melodies from Wayne Marshall and Kemar

Highcon.

Speaking on Onstage this weekend, Downswell said he does not anticipatebacklash from the gospel community for his use of secular artistes, as it isfor a positive cause.

“When you see somebody like

a Sherieta Lewis who has done background vocals for me for the last three

albums…when you see people like Bounty, Beenie, people like Ikaya, the

problem is not the church community,” he said. “I believe every man,

whether church, secular, street, dancehall… everybody’s gonna be excited.”

He added that it wasn’t

challenging getting the various artistes on board.

“None of them had an issue…everybody

was ready to jump on board because at the end of the day the focus was the

people, the focus was the fact that people are going through rough and tough

times in a season like this so we had to put away our differences, we had to

put away if one had locks and if one had baldhead, if one rich and one poor and

if one is more popular than the other,” he said. “That’s the power of

this campaign because it’s a declaration that no matter who you are, if you seh

Jesus or anybody else, it is a sign of everybody coming together to let people

know that we’re stronger and we’re stronger together.”

In early May, producer Notnice released the inspirational number We Are, featuring a bevy of acts including Tessanne Chin, Julian Marley, Jesse Royal and Maxi Priest. Later that month Romeich Major spearheaded We Rise, which featured artistes including Tarrus Riley, Konshens, Shenseea, Ding Dong and Teejay.

Check out the song below and let us know your thoughts BUZZ fam!