During the tumultuous days of 2020, Candida Rose saw sunshine in the storm.
At the height of the pandemic and the social unrest taking place in America, the New Bedford vocalist had a musical epiphany that she felt she needed to share.
“We’ve got to love each other through.”
While walking along East Beach in New Bedford’s south end in August of last year, Rose heard the musical mantra in her head and saved the sentiment on her phone. Upon returning home she transcribed the melody and began crafting the lyrics for the single “Love Each Other Through,” which was released this past April 16th.
“In the midst of all the awful things being said and done I was still able to look around me and see the beauty in humanity,” Rose recalls. “I was seeing people helping each other, coming together for a common cause throughout America as well as New Bedford. I saw the first responders on tv, people coming together for the “Black Lives Matter” movement, my neighbor making kale soup for me, and my daughter helping people as a CNA. Friend to friend, neighbor to neighbor, people were helping each other from the heart.
“The song is about the fact that we’re all one, that we have to help each other. If we can share each other’s light and each other’s love and goodness we can get to a better place.”
Available digitally on most streaming services, the song is a collaboration with Erik Peterson, a vocalist, musician, studio engineer and producer for his company Sounded Ground Studiosin Canterbury, CT who provided the instrumental backing tracks for the song. Rose has known Peterson since the spring of 2019 when they met at Unity Radiant Light Spiritual Center in North Providence, RI.
“Love Each Other Through” is Rose’s first release since 2006’s 10-song CD, “KabuMerikana: The Sum of Me,” which sold more than 3,000 copies.
And while the idea for “Love Each Other Through” came to Rose last fall, she first became determined to share it in November, inspired by an online course she was taking in Prosperity, something she describes as “spiritual fulfillment and awareness.”
“Late last year I decided to do something more with my music,” she says. “So I sent a demo of the song’s vocal melody to Eric.”
The instrumental ideas and “scratch tracks” for “Love Each Other Through” were presented to Rose by Peterson in early January, which allowed her to debut the song on New Bedford Public Access on January 18th in a televised event celebrating the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. The completed version of the song was recorded later that month. Since then Rose has performed the song multiple times, both solo and with full bands.
“We do things not only to benefit ourselves, but to benefit the world and our community, that’s what prosperity is really about,” she says. “We need to reach out with our hearts in our own way. We all have ways of uplifting our community and our world, and for me that’s singing and songwriting.”
And Rose has uplifting people on her mind – she is hoping to translate the lyrics to the song into multiple different languages, including Cape Verdean Creole, Brazilian Portuguese, African languages, and European languages. Her goal is to have the song listened to by a million people.
Rose also has plans to continue working with Peterson with the intention of recording and releasing a follow up single, “So Here I Am,” by the end of October. She also has hopes of a full CD with Peterson and other collaborators by early next year.
A native of New Bedford, Rose’s full name is Candida Rose Baptista. Her singing career has seen her performing with numerous jazz, R&B, and Cape Verdean groups. As part of her self-employment through her company, Golden Rose Music, she spends most of her weekdays traveling throughout the South Coast region of Massachusetts and Rhode Island as a Life Enrichment Entertainer, performing at nursing homes, assisted living, and adult day care facilities, as well as for various senior groups and associations.
“Even as a little girl my life has always been about music,” she says. “For me, love and positivity have always been my priority.”
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