As part of a new series where I share my influences & favourite artists, here are four Superstars I love <3

Ladyhawke 

After being likened this month to the fabulous female artist, I started researching her & promptly downloaded the full discography on Spotify. The 80s synth-pop electronic sound drives the songs & her voice carries the lyrics fluidly over the music. Like me, she’s influenced by an eclectic range of other artists & music. Like me, she draws on real-life emotions & situations in her text; singing about her struggles with anxiety, depression & the diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome. In her most recent album, she offers a new take on her dialogue as she talks about love, relationships & heartbreak. I love her sound & her direct honest lyrics. I respect the way she makes music & how she writes. Simply put, I’m a big fan! 

P!nk 

I recently saw the documentary film released in 2021, called P!nk: All I know so far. 

It’s a behind-the-scenes look at her as she balances family & life on the road, leading up to her first Wembley Stadium performance on the 2019’s Beautiful Trauma world tour. 

I’ve always liked her songs though now I can relate to her even more than ever before. Maybe it’s because I’m about to send some stronger messages with my music or maybe it’s because now I’m also a Mother who wants to keep making music and performing. 

She’s an extremely strong woman with superb style, whose passion for performance art as well as singing for the people who love her songs is untameable! 

Her tours are extravagant, she flies through the air suspended by harnesses and wires like no one else in the pop scene & her family is along for the ride the whole time. Her children are dancing around at rehearsals, singing along & her young daughter is even appearing on stage at shows as a guest performer. 

Although we are different in more than a few ways, I can see myself in her and take a bit of her courage with me on this new leg of my own musical life as I stand proudly tall whilst sharing my latest songs with the world. 

Elvis Presley 

I watched the 2022 Musical drama Film about the life of one the all-time greatest artists who performed for millions of screaming fans. 

Wow, what phenomenal viewing! An intriguing portrayal of a gentle soul who had the power to move women to tears, throwing their nickers on stage & driving men to offer big bucks to have him play at their concert halls. All this and more whilst staying rebellious during a time when black people were considered to be lower caste citizens compared to white men & when it was deemed ‘devil's work’ to shake your hips to the music! 

Of course, like many stars throughout the history of music; fame took its toll on the King of Swing-the King of Rock n Roll. The film shows how he was pushed by ego, drugs & money to become a different character from the shy, nervous young southern boy who first took to the stage. 

The film depicts a lost, broken-hearted man in those last years without his wife & daughter beside him. He was consuming drugs to gain energy & allegedly given salt to reduce the sweating inside those suits wore whilst performing, dancing with full force & singing his heart out. 

It seemed even more poignant to watch the film due to the report in the same week of the passing of his daughter, Lisa-Marie who was also a singer from cardiac arrest aged 54, some believe that she too had a broken heart. 

Both of them were so young to depart & coincidental or maybe not as Elvis himself was only 42 when he died of cardiac arrest. Perhaps they are back together, happily & heartily singing away in the sky. 

As I saw some of the footage from the funeral, as Pricilla Presley read the words of her Granddaughter for her Mother Lisa-Marie; I was reminded of my feelings at the loss of my Mum so unexpectedly at the relatively young age of 57. My Mum loved Elvis, MyAunt Amanda too who was also only 54 when she passed along with my Mum. My Grandmother still adores Elvis & surely relates to Pricilla in a way that Mothers shouldn’t have to. 

Hearing how Lisa-Marie was considered a role model to many & the best guide for her daughter made me even more determined to continue pursuing my passion & following my musical dreams. For my Mum, for my son, for my family & for my friends. For all the people who tell me how much they love my songs & because they are empowered by them. And for myself :) 

Celine Dion 

Bless her! 

I felt incredibly compelled to strive towards creating more music & making further recordings of compositions that I’ve stored in my collection when we heard a few weeks ago from Celine as she publicly announced that she would have to cancel her upcoming tour, speaking openly & emotionally about her battle against the rare illness; Stiff Persons Disorder. 

I empathise with her pain, it’s clear that she is devastated at not being able to do the very things that she loves the most, singing & performing. 

As a young girl growing up in the 90s, she was one of my idols. I got her album as a gift from my Mum and listened to it repeatedly, learning the words to every song from the booklet inside the cover & even successfully reaching the heights of her notes! 

In one of the Live Shows I made on Facebook and Instagram in 2021, I sang a cover of her song ‘A Little Bit of Love’ a favourite track from the album I’d learned. I was pregnant & it was very fitting to my feelings at the time. Maybe with a little bit of self-love, she will be able to give herself time to recuperate & be able to go back to the stage as she has said she would like to. I send her warmth from my heart, as she has warmed so many with her songs and voice.