AFTER her adopted brother died in a house fire in Glasgow, singer Michaela Foster Marsh poured all her grief into a song.

“I’d been writing songs since I was 14, but I’d never recorded them, nor been in a studio – they were just for me,” she explains. “When I heard Frankie had died, I was in Canada, and I wanted to send this song to my parents, so I went to a local recording studio.

“I booked three hours, because I had no idea how long it would take. Once we had recorded the song, there was still lots of time left and the engineer said, do you have any more?”

Michaela smiles. “I said, well – yeah….”

Glasgow Times: Paul and Michaela in the studio.Paul and Michaela in the studio. (Image: Colin Mearns, Newsquest)

The session led to interest from EMI and Warner, and Michaela, who is from Newlands on the Southside of the city, went on to release three albums. Her work has appeared in television and film, including Dawson’s Creek, she has performed all over the world, and she was the last person to sing for the Queen at a private event last summer at Balmoral.

“That day in the studio changed my life forever,” she says, softly. “And it was all because of Frankie’s song.”

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Now, the song - Shine Your Light - that has lain “in a cupboard for 29 years” has been revived for a documentary Michaela is making about her search for Frankie’s family in Uganda.

Glasgow Times: Paul and Michaela take time out from recording.Paul and Michaela take time out from recording. (Image: Colin Mearns, Newsquest)

Michaela wrote Starchild: A Memoir of Adoption, Race and Family about her journey, the charity she founded as a result and the school for creative arts she and her partner Rony Bridges and their friends built for some of Uganda’s poorest children.

The book is being made into a documentary by BAFTA-winning director Alex McCall.

Michaela and Frankie were unusual ‘twins’ - one white, one black - who grew up together after Michaela’s parents adopted the young Ugandan boy when he was 13-months-old.

Glasgow Times: Michaela and FrankieMichaela and Frankie

As part of her search, Michaela found Frankie’s half-brother Paul Mutebi, now a pastor and church musical director living in Minneapolis in the US.

Paul is in Glasgow this week filming for the documentary, and he and Michaela visited Riverside Studios in Busby to record a new version of the song.

They will perform it at Netherlee and Stamperland Church for the documentary on Sunday (February 26), complete with gospel choir, and Michaela is hoping for a packed audience.

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“Recording at Riverside was a magical moment I never dreamed would happen, and to sing the song in church with the choir will be quite something,” she says. "I hope people will come, and be part of it."

In Uganda, Starchild runs the school, a women’s health project, and the Sunflower Sanctuary, a project aimed at supporting children with autism and disabilities. Rony was the driving force behind the plan, but sadly he died in 2019 from lung cancer.

Glasgow Times: Michaela and RonyMichaela and Rony (Image: Michaela Foster Marsh)

Michaela and Paul will travel to Uganda to officially open the sanctuary.

“Paul and I feel like we have known each other our whole lives,” smiles Michaela.

Paul agrees. “Meeting Michaela was a special moment – and recording the song was very emotional, a beautiful thing. Discovering I had a Scottish sister was incredible.”