Singing To God In Istanbul 2017

“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where before there were only walls.” 

— Joseph Campbell

I want to tell you a story.  1 week before I came to Turkey this time I was dancing 5 rhythms in Tuffnel Park London and I had a vision of singing to God in Arabic, I cried deeply.  I did not know what it meant, only that my heart was beginning to ask me to sing.  The first day I arrived in Istanbul I met a film maker on the street who asked me in for tea, we were instant friends. The following day a friend of mine who works for a TV company woke up in the middle of the night obsessed by the idea of me applying to sing in The Voice of Turkey.  The song I had originally chosen to sing was Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley.  When I had a vision of singing to God this wasn't quite what I had in mind! :D Hallelujah is of course 'praise to God'! After the initial audition I was invited to sing Somewhere Over The Rainbow, I feel due to the religious connotations of 'Hallelujah' I was not allowed to sing it.  I made the video application using the help of the film maker I met and a singing teacher I found online.  At the end of the singing lesson where we also made the video application, the singing teacher turned to me and he said, "Last year I made a compilation album of all the Muezzin (singers of call to prayer) in Istanbul as a project", he gave me the album for free and told me when I have learned it he can ask the Muezzin to teach me the prayers in song!  What I am learning is that life is so powerful, when we ask for something from our hearts, from a genuine place within ourselves, it is given.  It also reminds me of something Paulo Cohelo wrote in the alchemist. "When we really want something, the whole universe conspires to help us to achieve it".

 

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