Woyaya treble voices

piano/SA – words by Annie Masembe from Uganda, music by Sol Amarino (Osibisa) – arr. Peter Amidon

Sung here by the Starry Mountain Singers. Note, the recording is the SATB version.  The piano/Soprano/Alto version has not yet been recorded but it is very similar to the piano/SATB version.

Peter Amidon first became aware of this piece through the great arrangement by Dr. Ysaye Barnwell. When he was asked to lead the choir singing Woyaya for a Guilford (VT) Community Church service, Peter went back to the original version by the British Afro-Pop group Osibisa and the version by Art Garfunkel to come up with this arrangement.

• Osibisa original version
• Art Garfunkel
• Ysaye Barnwell arrangement

LYRICS

Woyaya
words by Annie Masembe from Uganda

We are going, heaven knows where we are going,
We’ll know we’re there.
We will get there, heaven knows how we will get there,
We know we will.

It will be hard we know
And the road will be muddy and rough,
But we’ll get there, heaven knows how we will get there,
We know we will.

Woyaya, woyaya,
Woyaya, woyaya