- Feel the rhythm of the world on tonight's "Detroit Performs."

We are featuring performances from the 2026 Concert of Colors Festival.

This year, the Concert of Colors celebrated its 35th year and honored the memory of the festival's founder, Ishmael Ahmed.

Please enjoy these electrifying performances from the 2026 Concert of Colors Festival on "Detroit Performs."

- [Announcer] Funding for "Detroit Performs" is provided by the Kresge Foundation, the Fred and Barbara Erb Family Foundation, Gregory Haynes and Richard Sonenklar and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you, thank you.

(bright cheerful music) - All right, all right.

This next song right here is dedicated to all our immigrant neighbors in the house tonight.

(audience cheering) We went to Minneapolis about two months ago, and there was a rally against ICE, a week of action.

And what we learned in Minneapolis is they don't use the word immigrant.

They use the word neighbor.

We're out here to protect our neighbors.

So this song is dedicated to neighbors all over the world.

Here we go.

And in the chorus we say (speaks Spanish).

Which means let's go over there.

We want you to sing with us.

(singer singing in Spanish) (singer singing in Spanish) All right, everybody.

(singer singing in Spanish) (upbeat music) (singer singing in Spanish) (singer singing in Spanish) (singer singing in Spanish) - And that's why I sing when it's easy to cry, hoping that the angels will stay by my side.

(singer singing in Spanish) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (speaks Spanish) - Thank you so much.

(audience cheering and applauding) (upbeat music) - There's a saying that the community that sings together, stays together.

So I'm going to start off real slow.

I don't want to get crazy, I don't need a choir.

I just need your spirit.

And I know your spirit is down.

So I need everybody to repeat after us, it's a sound.

It goes like this.

♪ Ah ♪ ♪ Ah ♪ ♪ Ah ♪ ♪ Ah ♪ (singer singing in Spanish) (upbeat music) (singer singing in Spanish) (singer singing in Spanish) All right everybody, here we go.

♪ Ah ♪ ♪ Ah ♪ (singer singing in Spanish) (singer singing in Spanish) (singer singing in Spanish) (singer singing in Spanish) All right Detroit, here we go.

(singer singing in Spanish) (singer singing in Spanish) (singer singing in Spanish) All right, everybody.

(singer singing in Spanish) (upbeat music) Yo, Detroit, Detroit, we came all the way from East LA, y'all.

To let you know that you are not alone.

East side to the west side.

North side to the south side.

Yo, we on the same side.

And the only way we going to get through this is together.

I can't do this by myself in Detroit, I need you.

I need you.

And I think you need me too.

So I want you to seek from the heart.

I want you to seek to the heavens right now so our ancestors know that we all right.

That we still breathe and we still read and we still alive.

(speaks in Spanish) (singer singing in Spanish) I need everybody right now.

(singer singing in Spanish) (speaks in Spanish) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) Yo, yo, everybody in the house.

Throw your hands high.

Throw your hands high.

Throw your hands high.

Everybody in the house.

Throw your hands high.

Throw your hands high.

Throw your hands high.

(speaks in Spanish) Everybody, everybody.

And go like this, repeat after me.

(speaks in Spanish) (audience speaks in Spanish) (speaks in Spanish) (audience speaks in Spanish) (speaks in Spanish) (audience speaks in Spanish) (speaks in Spanish) (audience speaks in Spanish) (singer singing in Spanish) If you don't know what that means, it means we love Detroit, it's Spanish.

Tell it to your friends.

No, it means we love lemons and we love limes, but we can't stand corruption.

And it don't matter what side of the line you on, nobody wants to be lied to.

Nobody wants to be cheated.

(singer singing in Spanish) All right, check, check one, here.

(singer singing in Spanish) Yo, we're going to have a little jazz hip hop right here.

That's the concert of colors right now.

So I want it to feel like the blue no right now.

Hands up like this.

(singer singing in Spanish) Get your hands up like this.

Yo-yo.

♪ Yo, I roll up my sleeves as a face of congregation ♪ ♪ First thing I do, free education ♪ ♪ Every third period, we practice meditation ♪ ♪ Every third period, we practice meditation ♪ ♪ Like a Brown Robin hood ♪ ♪ Take from the rich ♪ ♪ I'd give to the poor ♪ ♪ So my little sister ain't hungry no more ♪ ♪ Ain't hungry no more ♪ (singer singing in Spanish) ♪ Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee ♪ ♪ If I die for the cause, God will resurrect me ♪ ♪ Then try to put me down ♪ ♪ Try to make us bleed ♪ ♪ Try to bury us and know we were seeds ♪ ♪ We the sleeping giant, now today we mask ♪ ♪ Show play to potties drinking Meachy's in the back ♪ ♪ Be the working class, so you better watch your seed ♪ ♪ And I know who's talking s**t ♪ ♪ Because I always keep her seats ♪ (singer singing in Spanish) (speaking in Spanish) ♪ My first lady would be my mom ♪ ♪ Could she smack me in the head if I was dropping bombs ♪ ♪ I'd free all my poor black and brown kids in the cages ♪ ♪ Then go to Congress, raise on the pages ♪ ♪ Buy a car, all cash ♪ ♪ Send it to the mayors, defund ice cream ♪ ♪ Universal healthcare, no hesitation ♪ ♪ Make tax 1%, no invitation ♪ (singer singing in Spanish) - Yo, everybody right.

(singer singing in Spanish) From Bakersfield, California, the Italians got it.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (singer singing in Spanish) - Yo, yo, Detroit, Detroit.

(singer singing in Spanish) If you know we could love a little bit more.

(singer singing in Spanish) If we could do just a little bit more.

I want to hear you on the chorus.

Ready?

Come on now.

One, two, three, go.

(singer singing in Spanish) (singer singing in Spanish) Everybody, yo.

(singer singing in Spanish) (audience cheering) - All right, everybody.

Growing up, one of my favorite bands was a band called Rage Against the Machine.

(audience cheering) But you know the thing about Rage Against the Machine?

They never wrote a love song.

They never wrote a sexy song.

How you going to be a band for 20 years and never write a sexy song?

How you think we got here?

So we have now entered the sexy part of this set because a lot of what we sing about is about movement, justice, peace, and love.

But we cannot forget that love is also really, really sexy.

So I was in the waters of Oaxaca swimming and a beautiful mermaid came out of the water.

Oh my goodness, she was gorgeous.

The best three months of my life.

Don't tell my wife, please.

And then at the end of three months, I said, "Let's go to land, let's start a life together."

And she says, "I'm a drag queen from Phoenix."

I said, "What?"

And she says, "This can never be.

You're from a blue state.

I'm from a red state.

This can never happen."

And she swam away.

So I went to the land, heartbroken, and I wrote her this sexy ass song about the one that got away.

Here we go.

So I want everybody right now to get a little sexy right now.

(upbeat sexy song) (singer singing in Spanish) (singer singing in Spanish) (singer singing in Spanish) (singer singing in Spanish) (upbeat music) (singer singing in Spanish) (singer singing in Spanish) (singer singing in Spanish) (upbeat music) (singer singing in Spanish) - Everybody say, (speaks Spanish) I fell in love.

(singer singing in Spanish) (singer speaking in Spanish) (singer singing in Spanish) (audience cheering and clapping) (speaks Spanish) - So this next song right here, I left heartbroken.

I left the beach of the Oaxaca, I went to the city.

Oh, and the city was even more beautiful.

I'm walking down the streets and the first line that comes to my mind says (speaks Spanish), he said (speaks Spanish).

I took the song to our musical director and he says, "Oh, that's a good song.

I want you to go home and come back tomorrow at 12."

I came back and he says, "I got a song for you.

Imagine if James Brown and that white boy, Beck, had a baby in East LA."

And I said, "All right."

And he's like, "But it's 1950s, Mexico."

And I say, "What?"

And this is the song that came out.

(upbeat music) (singer singing in Spanish) All right, all right, let's take it to chorus.

(singer singing in Spanish) (upbeat music) (singer singing in Spanish) All right, let's take it to chorus right now.

(singer singing in Spanish) (singer singing in Spanish) (upbeat music) (singer singing in Spanish) (singer singing in Spanish) (upbeat music) - All right, all right, let's take it to chorus.

(singer singing in Spanish) (singer singing in Spanish) (upbeat music) (singer singing in Spanish) - [Announcer] Funding for "Detroit Performs" is provided by the Kresge Foundation, the Fred and Barbara Erb Family Foundation, Gregory Haynes and Richard Sonenklar and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you, thank you.

(bright cheerful music) (gentle music)