(The following was written by Greg Holden, a musician and good friend of mine, and sent out to his mailing list. He has kindly let me republish it here. -Alex)
Two weeks ago I wrote a song called “The Lost Boy”. It was inspired by a book called “What is the What?” by one of my favourite authors, Dave Eggers. The song is about a Sudanese refugee who has lost his parents. Happy topic I know. The book really affected me and so this song had to be born so I could somehow pass on my feelings to everyone else. I quickly recorded the song at home and sent it to a couple of people to get some feedback. One of the people I sent it to was a DJ in Holland called Eric Corton, whom I knew worked a lot with Red Cross and spends a lot of time in Africa. I thought he might like it so I saw no harm in sending it his way.
I’m glad I did.
A week later the song was in rotation on one of the biggest radio stations in the Netherlands, 3FM, during one of the biggest charity projects in the Country, Serious Request. Serious Request is an annual project that raises money for Red Cross by locking three 3FM DJ’s in a glass house in the middle of a chosen City. The DJ’s are in there and on the air for six days straight. They are fasting. It’s amazing. Money is raised by people calling into the show and requesting songs, each time donating money for their request. Outside of the ‘Glass House’ thousands gather in the street and watch the show live. They also post their own donations through the letter box in the house. It’s incredible to watch.
Little did I know, but “The Lost Boy” became pretty popular throughout the six day campaign and ended up being the second most requested song of the project, and actually hit number one in the iTunes Singles Charts on Christmas Day.I was invited to the City of Leiden on Christmas Eve to play live in the ‘Glass House’ and open the live, final night TV broadcast on the Main Stage in front of thousands and thousands of people. I can tell you now, that is something I didn’t expect when I wrote the song two weeks earlier.
It was an honour to be a part of Serious Request. I met some of the most incredible and compassionate people that day in Leiden. I will never forget it. This year, Serious Request named their campaign “This One’s For Mama”. All the money raised will go to mother’s in Africa who have lost their husbands to the war and who are forced to raise their children alone, without support. This year Serious Request & 3FM raised a staggering 8.6 million Euros, which will all go to those mothers. It’s truly incredible what the people of Holland give to this campaign and it has really inspired me. I’d like to thank Eric Corton for believing in me, and the song, 3FM & Serious Request for supporting it the way they did and everyone who requested it on Serious Request, or bought the single on iTunes. All proceeds go the Red Cross.
Hope you enjoyed Greg’s story – I liked showing that I wasn’t the only unsigned artist getting huge exposure in unconventional ways this Christmas. Also Greg’s music is amazing – you can visit his website here.
