For decades, Labi Siffre\u2019s hit (Something Inside) So Strong has been a global anthem against apartheid. It was inspired by a documentary about apartheid-era South Africa, and was widely reported to be Nelson Mandela\u2019s favourite song.<\/p>\n
But now the singer-songwriter has taken the step of issuing Tommy Robinson<\/a> with a cease and desist order after the far-right activist incorporated the song into his social media posts and used it at the recent \u201cunite the kingdom\u201d rally in central London.<\/p>\n It is a turn of events that seems \u201cabsurd\u201d to 80-year-old Siffre, who has spent most of his life facing battles over his race and sexuality.<\/p>\n \u201cAnybody who knows me and knows my work since 1970 will know the joke of them using the work of a positive atheist, homosexual black artist as apparently representative of their movement,\u201d Siffre said in a rare interview with the Guardian.<\/p>\n The musician and his publisher, BMG Rights Management, have issued the cease and desist order to Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, against the unauthorised use of his work. \u201cThey\u2019re breaking all sorts of copyrights,\u201d Siffre says. \u201cEven in an era when theft is easier than it ever was, it\u2019s still theft.\u201d<\/p>\n During his rally earlier this month, which was attended by more than 110,000 people, Robinson invited a former X Factor contestant to sing (Something Inside) So Strong. \u201cI always like telling stories through music and this next song now is going to tell all of our stories of why we\u2019re here and why we care,\u201d Robinson said.<\/p>\n Last year, the activist also posted the lyrics of the song to his X account<\/a>, after allegedly fleeing the country after committing contempt of court.<\/p>\n As a result, Siffre says he has received numerous messages of thanks from Robinson\u2019s supporters via his X account, congratulating him for backing the movement. \u201cI haven\u2019t responded,\u201d he says, before laughing. \u201cWhat can you do?\u201d<\/p>\n Siffre was born in 1945 to a Nigerian father and mixed-race mother and was raised in west London. He released his self-titled debut album in 1970 and put out a further five solo albums in the first half of the 70s.<\/p>\n His music has addressed both the political (with songs tackling war veterans, homelessness and religion) and the personal (Siffre was an out gay, black soul and folk singer at a time when it wasn\u2019t generally accepted in the industry). He scored three Top 40 hits and had a significant cultural impact: Madness covered his song It Must Be Love, while artists including Jay-Z, Primal Scream and Eminem have sampled his music.<\/p>\n (Something Inside) So Strong was penned in 1984, following a period of self-imposed retirement \u2013 because, he says, he felt compelled to write something.<\/p>\n \u201cI had just seen this documentary of white soldiers [in South Africa] shooting at black people in the street indiscriminately. I knew I wanted to write a song about apartheid,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n \u201cOne evening, late, I found myself in my studio sat down at the keyboard. I played a C chord, put my head back, and immediately, without thinking, I sang the first two lines of the song. It just came out. I had a tear in my eye and realised that I was writing about my life as a homosexual child, a homosexual youth, a homosexual man, and the battle that that entailed.\u201d<\/p>\n But when he finished the song, Siffre says he realised it was for \u201cjust about anyone who had a battle to fight. Even if it was a small battle that day at work, or a small problem in their relationships. Its relevance was even wider than my life as a homosexual, or apartheid.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the intervening years, I\u2019ve found that the song has been useful to people, which is what I always intended for my work. I\u2019ve always wanted to be useful to human progress.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Get music news, bold reviews and unexpected extras. Every genre, every era, every week<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n When it was released in 1987, the track spent 14 weeks in the top 100. It earned Siffre an Ivor Novello award, was covered by Kenny Rogers and has been used in Amnesty International campaigns. Siffre \u2013 who went on to release four albums from 1988 to 1998 \u2013 also performed it in Trafalgar Square for Mandela\u2019s birthday in 2001.<\/p>\n Does he feel angry about it now being used at far-right rallies? \u201cNo. This battle for me started at the age of six,\u201d he says. \u201cThat was the first time, when I was holding my father\u2019s hand in Ladbroke Grove, that I saw a postcard in a window that said \u2018No blacks, no Irish, no dogs\u2019. I knew then that that meant me.<\/p>\n \u201cThese people would have to be incredibly creative to come up with anything that would offend or hurt my feelings, and they are not creative people. It\u2019s just same old, same old. I wish the media would stop talking about this as an unprecedented movement. There\u2019s nothing unprecedented about it. Anyone who has even the slightest knowledge of 20th-century history should know that.\u201d<\/p>\n The musician and poet was also keen to highlight the \u201cglobal\u201d nature of Robinson\u2019s movement. \u201cTrump and Maga are at the head of it, as the relationship with Elon Musk made clear [Musk appeared via video link at the London rally].\u201d<\/p>\n Siffre is the latest figure in a long line of musicians who have condemned the unauthorised use of their music for political reasons. The Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr said \u201cI forbid\u201d David Cameron from even liking the band\u2019s music, and hit out at the use of their songs at Trump rallies. Other musicians who have criticised Trump for using their work<\/a> include Beyonc\u00e9, C\u00e9line Dion, Neil Young and the Foo Fighters.<\/p>\n Tommy Robinson has been approached for a response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For decades, Labi Siffre\u2019s hit (Something Inside) So Strong has been a global anthem against apartheid. It was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-176297","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}