Sparrow brings people together one last time

AN­GE­LO JE­DIDI­AH

Slinger “Mighty Spar­row” Fran­cis­co took his fi­nal bow at the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (NA­PA) yes­ter­day. But out­side the venue, his mu­sic was still do­ing what it had done for gen­er­a­tions —bring­ing peo­ple to­geth­er.

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At the ca­lyp­so icon’s state-as­sist­ed fu­ner­al in the na­tion’s cap­i­tal, in­stead of tears and sad­ness, the at­mos­phere was filled with re­mem­brance, pride and, of course, a Car­ni­va­lesque cel­e­bra­tion. The event at­tract­ed lo­cal fans, Caribbean devo­tees and in­ter­na­tion­al ad­mir­ers.