One Floor, Many Flags

Flags up! Flags up! I can see Harare from here!
Yeah!
I can see Lagos! Accra! Jozi! Nairobi!
We're here!
DJ, give them the floor
Tonight nobody watches — everybody moves
Everybody moves!

Green and gold climbing up the rails
Red and black catching the fan-zone gales
A hundred colours rising past the lights
DJ cuts the first sound in
A Harare mbira on a midnight spin
Listen, listen!
Then the Jozi log drum answers low
Boom!
Then an Accra highlife guitar says hello
Sweet!
A Lagos talking drum completes the square
Four cities in eight bars of air
And the sound man grins — he knows what's coming
Here it comes!

If your flag is on your back, let me hear you!
Ehhh!
If your flag is in your heart, let me hear you!
EHHH!
On four the whole floor moves as one
Two... three... come on!

One floor, many flags
Flags up!
Every colour knotted on the rails
Tie them!
Mbira answers the log drum's call
Answer!
One heartbeat, one festival
One!
One heartbeat, one festival
One!

Oh-oh-oh — lift them high
High!
Oh-oh-oh — let them fly
Fly!
One floor, many flags, one heartbeat
One heartbeat!

Watch one dancer's feet — she starts it small
Two steps borrowed from her grandma's hall
Dust on her sneakers from a Sunday yard
The circle learns it, then the room
Then the corridor, the car park, then the street — boom
Phones go up from Kigali to Bamako
Same step landing everywhere the signal goes
One girl's footwork crossed the map tonight
No passport, just the bassline flight
Check your phone — your cousin's posting the same step

If your flag is on your back, let me hear you!
Ehhh!
If your flag is in your heart, let me hear you!
EHHH!
On four the whole floor moves as one
Two... three... come on!

One floor, many flags
Flags up!
Every colour knotted on the rails
Tie them!
Mbira answers the log drum's call
Answer!
One heartbeat, one festival
One!
One heartbeat, one festival
One!
One heartbeat, one festival
One!

Oh-oh-oh — lift them high
High!
Oh-oh-oh — let them fly
Fly!
One floor, many flags, one heartbeat
One heartbeat!

Harare!
Jozi!
Accra!
Lagos!
Now all four at once — hold on to something!
Harare! Jozi! Accra! Lagos!
The rig is shaking — keep it up!
Up! Up! Up! Up!

Where my Zimbabwe?
Tiripo! Tiripo!
Where my Naija?
We dey! We dey!
Where my Ghana?
Yɛwɔ ha! Yɛwɔ ha!
Where my Kenya?
Tuko hapa! Tuko hapa!
Where my Mzansi?
Silapha! Silapha!
And everybody in between — this floor is yours!
Aaayy!
Diaspora on the balcony, wave something!
Waving!
If you flew in for this, sing louder than the jet lag!
EHHH!

Nobody planned what happened next
The flags came down off the rails
Corner knotted to corner, hand to hand
One long cloth sailing over our heads
And under that roof of every colour
Every stranger danced like somebody's brother
And a kid on shoulders held the middle knot
Steering the whole sky the crowd had got
Hold it there... hold it
Now bring it up!

One floor, many flags
Flags up!
Every colour knotted on the rails
Mbira answers the log drum's call
Answer!
One heartbeat, one festival
One!

One floor, many flags
Every colour knotted on the rails
Mbira answers the log drum's call
One heartbeat, one festival
One!
One floor, many flags, one heartbeat
One heartbeat! One heartbeat!

Oh-oh-oh — lift them high
High!
Oh-oh-oh — let them fly
One floor, many flags, one heartbeat
ONE HEARTBEAT!

The drummers won't stop — let them play
Security's dancing — the night won
Look at that — the cloth is still up there
Carry your colour home, bring one more next year
Same floor, more flags
Tell your cousin, tell your street
Bring your grandmother's two-step next time
Bring it!
One heartbeat! One heartbeat!
Safe home, safe home!