Bilingual ballad of praise
N ORIGINAL praise and worship ballad by friends, Justin Nanak and Thandeka Dube-Ndhlovu, has been chosen as the official theme song for the Mini World Youth Conference, in December.
The conference, themed “Young, People, Faith and Vocations”, aims to unite Catholic youth from South Africa.
For the duo, the song, titled The Mighty One, was an opportunity for them to express their spiritual devotion through music.
Nanak, 31, who is formerly from Port Shepstone, is a full-time musician.
His love for music was ignited at the age of 14, when he participated in a musical in school.
“As part of our training, our director wanted us to attend the school’s choir practices and I loved every moment of it. Along with singing, I started teaching myself how to play the piano by listening to other musicians play,” said Nanak, who resides in uMhlanga.
In April, Cardinal Wilfred Napier asked Nanak to write a song for the conference.
“I was thrilled at this opportunity and immediately knew I wanted the song to be a reflection of Durban and one way of achieving this was ensuring the song was bi-lingual. The only person that I knew, who would be able to pull it off, was Thandeka.”
Nanak said he met her a few years ago, while singing at a church event, and their friendship just grew.
“Her singing blew me way and when I approached her to help me co-write the song, she was ever so obliging.
“I drew inspiration from the scripture, Luke 1:49, which is ‘The mighty one has done great things for me and holy is His name’. This scripture is also the theme of the conference,” said Nanak, who added that the song took them a month to write.
“My prayer is that this song of praise will help our young people reach a higher level of worship as we unite and deepen our spiritual connection with the amazing God we serve,” said Nanak.
Ndhlovu, who resides in Pinetown, described the opportunity to co-write and sing the song as a blessing and an opportunity to praise God.
“I come from a musical family. My mom is a musician, so as far as I can remember there has always been music playing in our home, from the time you wake up, while cleaning the house on a Saturday morning and even driving home from or to school with mom.”
The mother of one said everyone could relate to the theme “as the Lord has surely done great things for all of us”.
The conference will be held at the Durban Exhibition Centre from December 6-10.
The song can be downloaded from the Mini World Youth Day Conference website and the music video can be viewed on YouTube.