Viewpoint
November/December 2009
“I can’t fake it, it’s all true”
Soul singer Lizzie Emeh has worked with learning disability arts organisation Heart n Soul for 11 years. In October she launched her first album at the Royal Festival Hall in London.
I remember singing from a very young age.
My nan used to make me sing to her – without her I wouldn’t have my passion for soul and blues. She had an album deal in America, but she didn’t go because of her children.
I started working with Heart n Soul ten years ago.
It was an open mic night at the Beautiful Octopus Club and I sang Tracy Chapman’s Talkin’ Bout a Revolution. Mark Williams, the director of Heart n Soul, asked me to audition for them. After the audition I went on holiday. When I came back my keyworker was jumping up and down like a kangaroo. She said ‘You got it!”
We spent two days shooting my ‘Hard Love’ video.
I adored watching it – I was thinking ‘this isn’t real’. It’s like something you see on MTV!
I get ideas for my songs from real life - I can’t fake it, it’s all true. I start with the bassline and then the words. Then someone translates it onto paper for me and the magic happens in the studio.
Loud and Proud was easy to write.
You have to be loud and proud about who you are. Don’t let people tell you what to do. I didn’t do my album for me as a big shot, I did it for other people with a disability. Barriers need to be broken – there should be more respect.
A lot of people don’t expect people with a learning disability to have a relationship, but why not? When I wrote Over You I was so cut up about breaking up with someone. But just because one relationship doesn’t work doesn’t mean another one won’t.
Preparing for my album launch I’ve had a stylist, personal trainer, choreographer, vocal trainer – Mark got me the best in the business.
Beverley Knight recorded a video for me.
My manager knows her manager and the rest is history. She said: “People call me the queen of soul and in Lizzie I think I’ve found a pop princess with soul.”
I’ve been in the papers, on TV, on Radio 4.
The media is fun because I can talk about my album and fly the flag for people with a disability. At my album launch the flag was flying so high you could see it on the other side of the world.
I’m going on tour and I’ve already got material for a new album. My dream is to win a MOBO. It’s been a rollercoaster but I don’t want to get off yet.
