By Jim Barber
For the third yr in a row, voices will probably be raised, spirits elevated, range celebrated and group embraced as Our Music Competition returns to Toronto, on Saturday, Could 30, with a powerfully compelling and dynamic lineup of artists, expanded programming and a second venue.
Initially the brainchild of Toronto-based singer/songwriter, dancer, actor, movie director, and educator Andrea Ramolo, the occasion’s third incarnation is its most formidable providing, and one which continues the mission for which it was born within the first place – “Bringing collectively an inspiring lineup of performers throughout genres, shining a highlight on the highly effective voices and tales usually underrepresented within the music trade. Greater than only a music competition, it’s a group motion — creating area for connection, empowerment, and the enjoyment of reside music,” in line with the occasion’s web site.
Within the time between the 2025 version of Our Music Competition, which was held at The Nice Corridor in Toronto, Ramolo created a not for revenue group to assist handle and facilitate the occasion, bringing collectively a dynamic and skilled roster of artists, organizers and entrepreneurs to kind a board of administrators. It contains Amanda Walther of Dala, artist/competition organizer Tania Pleasure (Springtide Music Competition), meals insecurity advocate and entrepreneur Daisy Orantes (Danny’s Backpack, Good to be Good), broadcast journalist and host Adwoa Nsiah-Yeboah (CP 24, CHUM-FM), Marissa Kokkoros, founding father of Aura Freedom Worldwide, and producer/engineer/songwriter/artist Lisa Patterson.
The primary night live performance, being held at The Mod Membership (722 School St., Toronto) beginning at 7:30 p.m., will function the sensible Alysha Brilla – co-presented with Small World Music; Anyma Ora’ , co-presented with the Worldwide Indigenous Music Summit and TKMF Productions, in addition to Ammoye, Kimmortal and Maïa Davies. All of this extraordinary and genre-defying expertise will probably be beneath the identical roof on the identical night, with tickets at simply $40!
Earlier within the day, Our Music Competition organizers will introduce a brand new element of their celebration of girls and gender various voices, with a particular afternoon Music Circle, being held at Small World Centre (180 Shaw St. Unit 101, Toronto.) This extra intimate, interactive present is meant to shine a highlight on rising expertise, and can function Aniqa Expensive, TRP.P, Angela Saini, Maya Killtron, and Leah Holtom. Tickets for this showcase are $25. A competition bundle day move prices simply $55 and permits for admission to each occasions.
The competition has broadened its attain, expanded in dimension, and turn into extra dynamic and various for every outing. It has been in a position to entice extra sponsors, extra media consideration and a rising viewers in an impressively brief time period. As the person most accountable for beginning and propagating this splendidly inclusive occasion, Ramolo mentioned that, whereas she is happy and happy with the progress being made, it’s been loads of work, a few of it irritating however the finish purpose – the proverbial gentle on the finish of the tunnel – helps hold her targeted and impressed at occasions when her power flags.
“Truthfully, I’m so busy with so many issues that I really feel I haven’t had the time to look again. It’s so nice that it seems to be prefer it’s rising, and I need it to develop. The imaginative and prescient has grown, the programming has grown. This yr we’ve added a day program at a distinct venue, so we’re incorporating two completely different venues this yr as a result of I needed to create space for as many artists as I presumably may however not overload the sound technicians. Final yr we tried to do 10 acts in a single night time, and that was loads. However we discovered. I discovered and, you recognize, it’s nonetheless entire rising enterprise for us all. Lots of people don’t see the behind the scenes work, and the way a lot it actually takes and the way a lot work there may be for myself and my little board of administrators to make it occur. I don’t need to use phrases like wrestle and stuff like that as a result of I’m grateful that we get to do that and create this area, however it’s so tough to placed on reside live shows today. Persons are very non-committal. They’re final minute ticket consumers, and that’s powerful on a really new not-for-profit. We turned a federally included not for revenue this yr and that’s as a result of we’ve a imaginative and prescient, as a result of we wish this to go for the lengthy haul. I need this competition to run for so long as humanly potential. I will probably be pleased to see the day when the wheels are actually turning and there’s a sustainable infrastructure and we’ve operative funding on a regular basis. The federal government businesses are approaching board as a result of they see this as not solely a viable reside music occasion, but additionally a vital one,” she mentioned, however added that since there isn’t any secure funding, any setback, or delay just isn’t solely disheartening but additionally aggravating.
“That is the place my ardour is sort of overcoming me. We received turned down for a number of grants this week, which broke my coronary heart, however then we additionally received Issue sponsorship which helps exponentially. And we’ve introduced some co-presenters on board this yr, so it’s at all times sort of up and down like that. We can’t do that alone. So I’m actually studying the collaborative nature of this point in time in reside music and the way all of us want to return collectively.”
A veteran of the Canadian music scene for greater than 20 years, Ramolo has an intimate understanding of the vagaries and vicissitudes of the music trade – the nice, the dangerous and the ugly. She toured relentlessly for years, typically residing out of her suitcase. She’s launched information as a solo artist and as a duo, to nice acclaim. She is aware of the challenges that face all artists in attempting to make music their profession, however notably these of girls and gender various artists. There’s usually an additional layer to dig via to get any type of equitable consideration in so many facets of the trade, from slots on festivals and excursions, to being taken critically by industrial radio. Somewhat than merely shouting to the heavens and holding onto resentment over the failings of the music trade and broader society to degree the proverbial taking part in subject, she acted.
The inspiration for Our Music Competition really got here from a earlier initiative to deliver collectively girls artists as a type of emotional help, but additionally to develop sensible methods to assist redress the numerous imbalances and injustices they confronted within the music trade.
“I’m going to return in time just a little bit to provide due diligence and honours and respect to the foundational moments. Years in the past, and I don’t even keep in mind what number of years in the past, but it surely was a very long time in the past, myself and a bunch of colleagues and associates on the time, we started this girls’s night time each Monday at a tiny venue in Toronto known as Not My Canine, and we known as it Girls in Ready, which ran for about 4 or 5 years. And we packed it each Monday night time, and it could solely be female-led acts. We’d again one another up and play bass and drums and do the harmonies for each other, and we’d go into the wee hours of the morning, and I used to be one of many founding members of that undertaking and all of us collectively put two compilation albums collectively. The primary was Lovesick, which was a compilation of affection songs and we selected a few of our favorite feminine artists from throughout Canada to be on that compilation. After which we did a Christmas album known as Jingle My Bell. We additionally had these huge occasions, one on the outdated Hugh’s Room and one at Lula Lounge and so they had been utterly offered out and profitable. Individuals cherished it as a result of it was in that spirit that we had been lifting one another up. It was nice. We had been courageous, I imply we had been younger again then, and we didn’t actually possibly know the way to completely run a competition, however we collectively placed on our first and solely Girls in Ready Music Competition up in Lavigne, Ontario. It was loads of enjoyable, but it surely was raining and never lots of people got here, after which quick ahead to the pandemic,” she defined.
“Earlier than I jumped into doing my [2021] album Quarantine Dream with Sarah McDougall, who produced it and did a lovely job, I used to be a part of this girls and gender various group on-line. I believe I used to be invited both by Caroline Brooks [from the Good Lovelies] or possibly it was Brenley [McEachern] and Lisa [MacIsaac] from Madison Violent, to affix, and there was additionally Sarah Slean and Hill Kourkoutis, and Amanda Rheaume. There was Melissa McLelland from Whitehorse, there was Jill Barber, the Good Lovelies, Madison Violet, Dala – girls that I so respect and admire. It was a bunch the place all of us got here collectively to attempt to determine how we had been going to navigate our music careers throughout COVID. And what it actually turned was this area for the sharing of trauma, of heartbreak, of loss throughout the pandemic – of loneliness and of wrestle. It was such a lovely private group and from that group we’d speak loads about this type of stuff, as a result of we had been sharing our struggles as girls or gender various of us within the trade. That, once more, ignited me and I spotted, oh God we have to do one thing, and we’d at all times chat about, hey let’s run a competition, blah, blah, blah. Quick ahead to a few and a half years in the past, I went to see a present on the new Hugh’s Room Dwell venue and the individuals who booked it mentioned they’d love for me to play their new venue, as a result of I used to be such a staple of the unique place. That was one in all my first Toronto reveals again in 2007. So it was sort of my house. They mentioned they’d a gap in March [2024] and in my head I used to be like, I don’t actually need to be the highlight. I don’t need to do my very own present, and due to all this speak, I spotted that March is Girls’s Month, and it simply sort of got here to me. They supplied me this slot and I requested them if it could be okay if I ran a multi-artist competition as an alternative and made it a Girls’s Day factor and so they mentioned completely.
“That first yr, we had some soul and R&B, we had some folks, we had some alt-country. The performers had been loads of my actually, actually shut greatest associates within the music trade, individuals like Mimi O’Bonsawin, Amanda Rheaume, Skye Wallace, Brenley from Madison Violet, Caroline from the Good Lovelies, Tanika Charles and Tania Pleasure, who’s now on my board of administrators, and Yarro, who was implausible. These individuals helped begin this competition. They’re the originators and I may even give kudos to them for packing that home at Hugh’s Room and making that really feel like probably the most magical reside music occasions ever. To at the present time, a few of them nonetheless speak about how particular that night was for them, and for me that’s the largest reward. That’s what I needed to create for the artists, as a result of I’m an artist and I understand how it feels to really feel such as you’re only a quantity or to really feel such as you’re at all times having to struggle for that one feminine headlining spot on the stage. I imply, we’re all so good. We’ve so many vital issues to say, and we have to uplift one another. So that is what the competition is all about. It’s about creating this area, but it surely’s additionally about supporting each other in an actual method. It’s not simply lip service. It’s about what it’s wish to really feel that camaraderie, really feel that sisterhood, really feel that type of dynamic that we’re lifting one another up via these very tough occasions in reside music.”
However right here’s the rub. Right here’s the state of affairs that also arouses such frustration in Ramolo’s spirit. Sure, the occasion has been all of what she says and extra, however those that really come to the reveals are these you’d anticipate to attendo a present like that: the artists, their family and friends, people who find themselves energetic advocates for girls and gender various artists. The place are the individuals who simply need to come out and listen to glorious music? The place are the individuals in search of one thing new for a night out? To be much more blunt, and that is coming from the creator of this text in addition to the topic of the piece – the place are the fellas? Questions like this are crying out to be requested, thought of, and answered.
Is it as a result of there may be nonetheless a deep recess of misogyny even in probably the most progressive of males’s hearts. Is it as a result of males are nonetheless conditioned to see girls artists, girls musicians, girls songwriters as inferior to their male counterparts? Is it as a result of they assume Our Music Competition is a part of the ‘woke’ agenda, and don’t need to be hit over the top by politics? For a big section of the inhabitants, it’s largely seemingly some or the entire above, which is each maddening and disheartening. Ramolo acknowledges this however stays unbowed.
“I’m solely going to talk for myself as a result of I do know that a few of my colleagues frustratingly share this. We speak about this loads in personal and we’re attempting to do the work in public to make a distinction and to shift what we’re seeing as, and I don’t know what else to name it, and I do know it’s a powerful phrase, however there may be this ingrained misogyny in our trade. And it’s not solely our trade, it’s within the movie trade as properly as a result of as a more moderen movie director, I’m seeing comparable issues in that surroundings as properly. Simply utilizing our competition for example, we’ve unbelievable lineups. For these artists, I’d line up and pay $35 or $40 to see even simply one in all them. That they’re programmed on the identical stage collectively on this magical type of competition setting is wonderful. The one factor I can consider is that persons are speaking the speak about supporting it, and saying they’re coming to the present, however once more, there’s loads of lip service, whenever you even have to indicate up. It’s simply performative allyship. However I do imagine that individuals simply don’t need to help girls. And this isn’t each individual. In fact there are true followers and supporters, however there’s not sufficient of them, and I’m not seeing sufficient males within the viewers. So, males don’t take heed to music written by and carried out by girls? Actually? Why? I need the boys that don’t to ask themselves why as a result of these are sensible artists. They’re proficient. They’re expert. They’re technically sensible. They know what they’re doing in all facets of music. They know the way to placed on a present. There’s no method that they’ll’t entertain a crowd and get individuals to undertake a brand new artist or increase their pursuits into other forms of music. We need to fill the venues for Our Music Competition with not solely girls and gender various followers, we need to fill it with all people. We would like the home to be full. We would like individuals to see and listen to these artists. They should be seen and heard, and I actually simply really feel like individuals have turn into lazy and possibly a bit entitled. They’re caught of their methods. They’ve their go to bands and so they don’t need to push the envelope. They don’t need to open their arms or hearts or psyches to one thing new,” Ramolo mentioned, her voice tinged not with anger, however disappointment, but additionally with a steely resolve.
“And I don’t know why. Are they frightened they’re going to be laughed at by their associates? I truthfully can’t wrap my head round it as a result of I don’t reside this expertise in my physique. So it’s irritating, and loads of us girls and gender various artists and organizers are doing this type of activist work via our artwork, via our craft and thru our selecting to run festivals and pop ups and whatnot. One of many co-chairs of the competition board, Lisa Patterson, she runs a girls’s producers occasion each couple of months, and people must be packed to the roof, however they’re solely stuffed with the precise producers themselves and different girls and gender various artists. So, yeah, it’s nice that we’re supporting one another. We have to help one another, however the place is the help from the skin? The place are the boys? Present up, guys. Let’s go.’
“Hear, change takes braveness, and I’m feeling an absence of braveness there. Why is supporting girls a woke notion? And that is the frustration I’ve. It’s not woke. It’s known as equality. It’s known as fairness. It’s known as, ‘you recognize what, we had been at all times this good and this sturdy.’ Now we’re simply speaking about it much more since you nonetheless haven’t come round. So now we’re annoyed and possibly it comes out as didactic since you’re nonetheless not listening. There are individuals who have supported us and have come to our reveals, and we keep in mind them and they’re pricey to our hearts as a result of they’re displaying up for us. However they aren’t sufficient. And that is the factor, we get into this dialogue the place now it appears like I’m complaining about it. Effectively, it’s as a result of there’s an enormous hole. There’s main gender disparity that isn’t shifting on the price it ought to. Sure, persons are doing good. There are some festivals doing an excellent job. I’ll say this yr I noticed the lineup for the Northern Lights Competition in Sudbury – sensible programming, and so they simply introduced a brand new feminine creative director on board, and I’m so proud. We will not anticipate modifications to occur within the trade itself. We’ve to be the change within the trade, and that’s why it comes with loads of heavy lifting. I’m on this for the lengthy haul and you recognize, I really feel unhappy for the boys that aren’t popping out as a result of they’re lacking out on some actually sensible music and a few fascinating artists that I guess you they’d love.”
At a really basic degree, Our Music Competition is about broadening horizons and increasing minds. It’s about alternative. It’s about shedding outdated concepts and conventional notions and understanding that music is aware of no boundaries of race, gender, tradition or style. It’s an elemental vibration that impacts people in the identical method no matter who they’re. Constructing a setting and fostering and surroundings the place girls and gender various artists can collect in peace and security, surrounded by openness, and encouragement is the brief time period purpose of Ramolo and the opposite organizers. Long run, the hope is that society will get to the place the place all artwork, all music, all creators are accepted for who they’re and assessed or loved solely on the deserves of their artistic outpourings.
“If I may depart some phrases of encouragement to all music followers and listeners on the market, they already know that there’s magic and therapeutic in reside music and within the live performance format. Gathering collectively and supporting each other, whether or not it’s the viewers or the individuals onstage – it’s not woke. It’s about coming collectively in group to take heed to unbelievable music. And we’ve been doing that from the start of time as human beings. So why not come out to one thing like Our Music Competition. There are new faces and new voices on the stage. Let’s take heed to them as a result of they’ve vital issues to sing about and so they’re placing on some actually nice reveals. We will’t repair the world in a single day, and it’s not simple,” she mentioned.
“You must do it like this, little by little. And it’s taking a very long time. And that’s why I believe loads of us are getting drained. With my colleagues and my associates, we simply typically ship one another voice notes saying ‘I’m so drained. I don’t know if I can do that anymore.’ We get discouraged. However then you definately see one thing like on the Junos when Sandy Pandya who ran Pandymonium Administration, who runs Arthaus Music, who was the supervisor of Serena Ryder, Teagan and Sara and others unbelievable acts get nationwide recognition. I’ve identified Sandy since she managed one in all my ex-boyfriend’s bands a very long time in the past. Sandy is one kick ass girl. She has been a trailblazer paving the way in which. She used to run a music venue [Café A Go Go, later called the Be Bop Café] in Regina. She simply by no means took no for a solution. She bulldozed via all of the no’s and she or he was honoured [with the Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award]. It’s lovely to see individuals making these areas, and other people like Sandy getting the popularity, however I nonetheless assume it’s going to take a short time till it doesn’t turn into a state of affairs the place we’re saying, ‘oh thank God, they’ve lastly honoured a girl.’
“I’m not saying that each competition must be like ours, nevertheless whenever you take a look at the bigger festivals, not solely in the US however throughout Canada too, there’s nonetheless a protracted strategy to go. There’s an Instagram profile I observe known as Guide Extra Girls and so they take a poster from a competition and so they eradicate the entire male-led bands and artists on the poster and there possibly one title left on the prime the place the principle headliner goes, which is one of the best stage time and the most important stage – possibly one, over three or 4 days. After which trickling down you finally see there’s a number of scattered names left, and nearly all of girls are on the backside. In order that’s nonetheless displaying the hierarchy of who will get booked and who will get that primetime slot. There’s loads of lip service and speak about issues getting higher, however these visuals present that not as a lot change as vital has been made. So we’re going to maintain on doing what we do and create glorious programming and help sensible artists and hope that this gentle that we’re shining on them permits different individuals to type of get up and are available in and see what they’ve been lacking out on.”
The outdated attitudes, long-standing prejudices and a common lack of consideration for underrepresented and marginalized individuals inside the music trade is, as mentioned above, half of a bigger societal deficiency. It’s a structural subject as a lot because it is a matter of huge swathes of individuals with energy and affect not but understanding that gender, pores and skin pigmentation and cultural backgrounds differing from their very own are usually not lesser than, that distinction and variety is a energy for a society and a nation, that it builds dynamism and resilience, and provides a vibrancy and sense of vibrant journey to all facets of life.
Ramolo talked about how musical associates inside the Indigenous group have additionally been battling to have their place and area legitimized, and their voices heard, and never simply heard however acknowledged and celebrated for his or her inherent excellence. The beforehand talked about Amanda Rheaume, a detailed buddy of Ramolo’s and a powerfully compelling Metis artist, co-founded an indigenous report label known as Ishkōdé Data, which is owned and managed by girls – Rheaume and co-founder ShoShana Kish of the groundbreaking indigenous blues/roots act, Digging Roots.
“I undoubtedly know that they work their assess off and they’re additionally drained however their exhausting work is beginning to shine via. I imply, they’re a completely women-run report label and one in all their artists, Aysanabee took house two Junos the opposite night time [for Contemporary Indigenous Artist or Group of the Year and Alternative Album of the Year] and he received up on stage and mentioned he labored with the baddest of badass girls within the trade. And see, he’s a person, he’s an artist that creates area for individuals. He creates area for brand new voices and underserved voices, and I really feel like we are able to’t be the one ones doing this work. Amanda noticed a niche and she or he crammed it. She did it herself. And sure, we’ve to be the change, as a result of it’s not taking place for us. Nonetheless, we’d like true allies that really feel deeply that we’re vital beings and vital artists. I do know Aysanabee does, and I do know there are others and I believe that we have to get to some extent the place it turns into normalized to have fairness on our levels. And we have to not solely do that for ourselves, however for the younger individuals arising after us. We have to create these alternatives for youthful artists. For me, the hearth that retains on being lit beneath me is that each time I’m going and I work with a youngster and I see their expertise and their potential I understand they should see those that appear to be them on the large levels. They should see individuals successful these awards as a result of they imagine that it’s potential for them, as a result of we can’t turn into what we are able to’t see,” she mentioned.
“And that’s why I’m encouraging individuals, males notably, all males, center aged males, younger males, seniors, come and help the artists. Come help them. They need to join. They actually do, all of us do. We do what we like to do as a result of it’s our method of connecting to the world. We need to share in that elevated fashion of communication with all people. We need to construct group. We would like individuals’s hearts to beat collectively and their toes to bop on the dance flooring collectively and for them to cry collectively after they acknowledge themselves in a music, and the one strategy to expertise that and to permit artists to proceed making artwork they make is to return out to reveals. Purchase a ticket, deliver a date, purchase the complete competition move to Our Music Competition, it’s going to be an extremely lovely, lovely occasion.”
It has labored earlier than, to a sure extent. Greater than 1 / 4 century in the past, one other Canadian singer/songwriter determined to do one thing in regards to the discrimination in opposition to girls and entrenched glass ceiling that appeared to be in place in so many aspects of the music trade. Within the late Nineteen Nineties. Sarah McLachlan created Lilith Truthful and propelled some sensible and evocative artists to the fore for the primary time and in addition impressed untold numbers of women and younger girls to choose up guitars, write songs about what they needed to put in writing songs about, and tour the world.
“That’s what occurred with Lilith Truthful. That’s what Sarah mentioned within the documentary [Lilith Fair: Building A Mystery] that promoters had been telling her ‘we’re not taking this on, Sarah. We’re not doing Lilith Truthful, no person’s going to return.’ After which they had been improper. She received a bunch of girls collectively and collectively they modified historical past. I do assume that occasions are completely different, for certain. I believe the Nineteen Nineties had been the heyday for the music I really like. I want that I used to be this age within the Nineteen Nineties and lived via all that as a result of a few of my favorite artists got here out of that point and that scene. However at present we nonetheless can do the identical work, we are able to nonetheless push the envelope, push the boundaries and see what occurs. We’re attempting to supply up areas and we hope that creating these areas will assist shift what seems to be the misogyny of society, the misogyny that’s nonetheless ingrained in our society and has been for generations. However we’re one trade, proper? I imply, the purpose is that this occurs throughout a large number of industries, and particularly within the performing arts, the place it’s nonetheless a giant factor. I do know as a result of, as I mentioned earlier, I belong to the movie trade as properly. I’m part of that and main shifts need to occur there too. In main movie manufacturing, girls administrators accounted for 16 per cent of movies that had been hitting the large screens. In order that’s 16 per cent and we make up greater than 50 per cent of the inhabitants. There’s undoubtedly an imbalance. So yeah, we have to shift this world and it feels daunting typically. You must stay hopeful or else you received’t carry on going. You received’t carry on preventing the nice struggle.”
The proof that the societal imbalance and the outdated methods of considering in phrases girls’s perceived roles, their presumed strengths and weaknesses and their worth transcend the institutional constructions of arts, of academia, of politics and enterprise is as entrenched amongst the final inhabitants continues to be rife. Inside the common fan base of those that do go to reside music reveals, misogyny and objectification in the direction of girls, mixed with some twisted sense of entitlement, continues to be ominous and alarming in its frequency and profusion. The shift in considering Ramolo – in addition to a great deal of therapists, sociologists, and activists are saying is important and overdue – is a basic one, but additionally one which goes opposite to the warped sense of manhood and masculinity that has turn into the bane of social media and the podcast-verse during the last decade or so.
“I’ll say that it nonetheless exists. And I’ll say that it’s at all times existed. And I’ll say that issues received’t enhance till we eradicate misogyny and till males in our world really feel secure and okay to share their emotions and feelings and inform individuals they’re not okay and attempt to discover a wholesome strategy to categorical masculinity as a result of the world has advised them that they should act powerful and to dominate and to be like this and like that and so they want to have a look at girls and deal with girls in a sure method. So it’s this complete relearning that has to occur earlier than these creeps don’t exist anymore. And the actual fact of the matter is that’s nonetheless not taking place. I really feel like after the #MeToo motion, which was essential, loads of males that I meet I do know are doing the deep work and creating these wholesome circles of brotherhood the place they get to cry and be trustworthy about stuff. However I simply don’t really feel like we’re wherever close to a spot the place males can put on their hearts on their sleeves and are utterly unabashedly open, trustworthy and intimate with who they’re, how they really feel about their place on the planet, how they really feel about one another or girls, or sexuality, or intimacy. There’s nonetheless this notion of burying exhausting emotions, and whenever you bury exhausting emotions, it comes out in ugly methods as a result of these emotions are usually not meant to be buried. We’re people. We got the grace to really feel issues, and in the event you don’t know the way to categorical these, artwork is a method you may, and that’s why doing artwork and experiencing artwork and appreciating artwork does that in a extremely, actually wholesome method,” Ramolo mentioned.
“I advised you once we did the interview for my Nuda album again in 2017, I keep in mind that report, that entire course of, that was my remedy. That was pivotal, that healed me so exhausting, and it was such a monumental change in my life that I used to be going via on so many ranges. And I do know that even after I was going via these exhausting occasions, after I would attend a present and an artist’s work spoke to me, I got here out of that have shifted. I got here out of there modified. I had a brighter outlook. I felt seen. I felt like I didn’t need to cope with my gruelling loss alone. In order that’s why I encourage males as a result of there may be this tenderness, this type of nurturing and I’m not saying it’s black and white, however a nurturing high quality that ladies and gender various artists have on stage sharing their music, and you’ll really feel that permeate in the event you’re within the viewers. And there’s nothing improper with that. It’s good to make grown males cry. It feels very particular when any individual comes as much as me after a present, and this has occurred loads, when males come up and had been like, ‘I felt embarrassed. I used to be in tears,’ or ‘I can’t imagine I used to be sobbing.’ And issues like that. To me, that’s wonderful. What a present that you simply had been in a position to really feel that snug and {that a} music of mine was in a position to contact you in a method that you may really simply be human and let free. That’s such a lovely factor. It’s in these sorts of moments that I imagine within the energy of music and the facility of artwork a lot, and that’s why I imagine that issues may shift. I simply really feel like we have to all work just a little more durable collectively.”
For extra data on Our Music Competition, go to https://www.ourmusicfestival.ca.
For extra data on Andrea Ramolo, go to https://www.andrearamolo.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and creator based mostly in Napanee, Ontario, Canada, who has been writing about music and musicians for greater than 30 years. Apart from his journalistic endeavours, he works as a communications and advertising specialist and is an avid volunteer in his group. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
