Music is the one thing I can rely on and many of us have a song or anthem that represents our lives. Sad songs that you play when you’ve been dumped “All by myself”, Gloria Gaynor with “I will survive” when you are passed the crying stage and are ready to cut up his clothes and throw them out of the window! Cyndi Lauper with “Girls just wanna have fun” when you are over it, and for him? Frank Sinatra with “I did it my way”, because they usually do…”that’s life” (Michael Buble)
One special memory I have is watching ‘Sunday night at the palladium’ with my mum. She understood English but couldn’t really speak it, so you can imagine our surprise when Roy Orbison came on stage and starting singing ‘Pretty Woman’, well he wasn’t the only one. My mum sang along with him and knew the song word for word, we stopped looking at Roy and just stared at her, opened mouthed, in complete shock but totally impressed with her, even more than we were all ready.
I first heard Reggae music thanks to my mum, Desmond Dekker’s “You can get it if you really want” and Jazz music from my dad, Louie Armstrong’s “What a wonderful world” was his favourite. Songs influence people and it wasn’t obvious to me then but now that I understand the lyrics to these songs, I realize that my parents had dreams and were dreamers, must be where I get it from.
It’s so hard to explain what you are feeling or going through at times, songs can act as your voice when you can’t find the words. Where would we be without great song writers? It seems they can really tap into what is real connecting with their listeners. They are listened to more than any politician that’s for sure and thank goodness!
Thank you to those voices that make us feel something, thank you to those song writers who somehow know what we all need to hear. And for all of you music lovers out there, sing if you can and sing if you can’t…who cares?
If you’re singing you’re winning!
© Michelle Sotiriou 2012
She Be Fierce 