The other day I was contacted by the Reach for a Dream Foundation to help a young eight year old girl Lize live her dream of being a singer. Having worked on the "Our Story, Our Voices" documentary for SABC1 back in 2006, I at least have had experience of working on a song and then getting some girls into studio to see what it is like to actually put a track together.
I immediately said I would love to be involved and set about getting some studio time sponsored. Amazingly, top producer Selwyn Shandel (Brenda Fassie, Hugh Masakela) kindly offered his studio and time to help Lize reach her dream. He also helped with the song we wrote for the 4 girls in the SABC documentary and it went on to be played on Atlantis Radio and gave the teens a voice in their community to say no to 'tik'. When you consider how much studio time costs it is fantastic to have someone of Selwyn's calibre just say "Yes!" and jump on board.
So - next Monday I will start the songwriting process with Lize when she and her family come to spend the day with me and turn one of her favourite poems into a song she can sing. Once that is done we will be heading to Selwyn's studio on the Tuesday and hopefully Lize can just love seeing her song come together. My sister has agreed to have her company Kayos sponsor the filming of the day so that Lize can always remember her dream being reached! Going to be teary eyes all round!
