On Friday 17th November 2023, I performed at Grundschule Plattling, the Primary School in the Bavarian town, Plattling, alongside the children who have been learning my songs.
The rehearsal took place on the morning of Thursday 16th November. It took 2 hours to drive to the Bavarian town from the centre of Munich, and I arrived to a rather ridiculous number of posters with my face plastered on every available wall and window and a hall full of small children screaming at deafening levels of decibels.
Before we started the rehearsal the children asked me various questions including 'how old are you?' I asked them to guess and they suggested '21' which I thought was very kind of them! They also asked me 'how did you become so famous?' which made me concerned that the teachers had told them I was more famous than I actually am!!!
We started by rehearsing the 4 songs which the children have been learning with their teachers; 'Always On The Road', 'We Can Be The Change', 'Hearts Will Rejoin' and 'To Remember Them'. Afterwards, I taught them some of my other songs; 'We Won't Go Down Without A Fight!', 'Betrayal In Your Eyes' and 'It's Time To Vote'. Four of the children held my cards with the words of the song title, whilst wearing the 'YEUF' glasses - although they are far too young to vote themselves, the idea was to communicate the message to their parents in the audience that they should vote in the EU elections with the future of their children in mind.
After the rehearsal had finished the children crowded round all trying to hug me at once and I nearly fell over. They then proceeded to high-5 me - which took me a while to get round them all since there were 120 children in the school's choir!! (The children have written permission from their parents to appear publicly in photos/videos).
The following day of the performance was a magical moment for me and I really felt priveliged to be there. The children began by singing two songs which their music teacher, Lisa had written and it was a joy to hear them. Then I came on stage and performed some of my solo tracks before we performed together, the songs which the children had learned. It was suhc a special moment for me, achieving the mission of my writing, to bring communities together and inspire young people to stand up for their rights and creatively engage with democracy.
After the performance I received many gifts which the children had made, including; drawings, a bead ring and a little EU cushion as well as gifts from the school; a blue hoodie and a beautiful bunch of flowers which I was very upset to have to leave with my hotel because they would not allow me to take them on the flight home even if I tried! The children crowded around me asking me to sign all number of things with my autograph; the flags which the school had given them to wave, the event posters, their clothing and mobile phone cases. It was a very overwhelming but memorable moment which brought me close to tears.
The event was filmed by a professional film maker (Felix Meinhardt) and the promotional video will be released soon, in the meantime, there is a video of me peforming my father's favourite song 'Always On The Road' with the children:
At the event I also filmed interviews with the head teacher, Erwin and the music teacher, Lisa - which I intend to use in a documentary on the topic of democratic empowerment through creativity for my Master's degree in Fine Art. The event was sponsored by KEG Bayern and Yormas.
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