Music really is everything. It’s art, it’s entertainment, it’s expression, it’s medicine, it’s unity, it’s a language. It is also universal, which in this trying time is more important to remember than anything.
I was brought up by musicians, I aspired to become a musician for a while and even though I did not end up as one, I still take part in musical projects when time and opportunity permits. I’ve had some major fangirling days – some might even say groupieism – and I still can listen to one song or artist on repeat when obsession hits. There are songs and lyrics for every mood and occasion.
Come together
Music makes the people come together (oops, Madonna quote…sorry, not sorry!); especially when playing together. Live music is obviously suffering right now at the hands of COVID-19, but lucky for us music lovers, there are a bunch of creative people thinking up ways to play together and still six feet – or far more – apart.
Let me share some of these endeavours. By way of background, I would like to tell you how I got involved in one of these awesome projects.
Learn To Fly
Back in 2015, a thousand musicians joined together in Cesena, Italy, to invite the Foo Fighters to play in their small town. They did so by playing their hit song, Learn To Fly. A thousand musicians. Playing. Together. Live.
Goose bumps people, GOOSE BUMPS! The video not only went viral, I dare say it is legendary by now, and set off a trend that I – unlike many other trends – can totally get behind.
Hungarian Projects
Along came some Hungarian geniuses who, inspired by their fellow Italian geniuses, created the project now called CityRocks Hungary. Their idea was to get musicians together to play live, for the freaking hell of it. And boy, what a turnout!
In 2018, Szeged gave home to the first musical flashmob, nicknamed SzegedRocks. Now, I wasn’t at this event, but 400 others were, and they rocked hard! Fair warning, you’ll want to get up and head bang to this one.
In the glorious year of 2019, I was lucky enough to join the biggest rock band in Hungary (500+) in Kecskemét (KecskemétRocks) and I must say, it was one of the best experiences of my life!
Are you head banging yet? Did you find me in that last video?
I’m betting all this live music makes you miss times when you could be close to other people. It seems like years ago that you could sing into the same microphone as someone else and not want to Purell your face off afterwards.
The date of the 2020 event was already set, marked in my calendar and promising to be the biggest one yet. Then we all know what happened.
Hungarian Home Flashmob
But we Hungarians are not the type of people who give up. No, sir! We can’t gather and spit into the same mic? No problem! Home flashmob! It sounds weird, and it was a bit funny to do, but it really is the next best thing. Musicians were encouraged to record themselves playing/singing. Musicians obliged and this came out of it! I’m in this one too!
See? From a safe distance but still together. Brought together by music, for music.
Naturally, other people had similar ideas, luckily, and now we have an abundance of these videos to enjoy.
Close to my heart
The following are close to my heart because one features my sister, and the other, one of my closest friends and her band.
I understand that we all want to go to concerts together again, sing our hearts out while closely hugging our loved ones. And we will. Until then, enjoy the insane amount of music that’s out there, discover new artists and if your circumstances (family, neighbours, pets) permit… rock out!