Vincentian UN Youth Leader Part of Guinness World Record Anthem

UN Youth Advisory Group Chair Rianka Chance helped propel her country onto a world-record anthem uniting women across the planet.

in November 2024,  Ms. Chance was among contributors to a song titled 195, a global anthem for gender equality bringing together women from every nation.

Chance recalls being contacted and invited to participate in what was described to her as a modern-day version of We Are the World, uniting women worldwide. For a young Indigenous woman who had once doubted herself, the decision to say yes carried weight far beyond music.

“I did the video at the cruise ship terminal back home, and I said the word for equality in Garifuna. I sent it off so the song could be made, and just like that, everything happened. I never expected it to become this big. To hear égalité which means equality in the Garifuna language alongside so many others meant everything to me.”

When confirmation came that the project had officially broken a Guinness World Records title for the most nationalities represented in a song, disbelief was her first reaction.

“I got the message that we broke the Guinness World Record, and I was like, what...did I really help get this Guinness World Record?” she said, laughing at the memory.

Then the reality settled in.

“To see St. Vincent and the Grenadines among the nations like Switzerland, China, the United States, Russia, all of these countries, it was a humbling, it was a really humbling experience.”

For Ms. Chance, the moment was bigger than personal recognition. It was about representation for Indigenous communities across the Eastern Caribbean, many of whom, she says, continue to fight to be seen and heard.

“We have a lot of Indigenous people and oftentimes we are always overlooked, underrepresented, unseen. But we can actually make a change in the world.”