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Songs for a Blue Day aims to provide cheer, music therapy

January 18th is considered by some to be a “blue day,” or the saddest day of the year. Our holiday shopping bills are rolling in while the cheer of the season has long worn off; the weather tends to be gloomy and cold and the winter blahs are in full swing. There’s nothing much to look forward to, at least not for a little while, and in our COVID era, we can’t even be sure about whether we’ll have festivals and patios to enjoy this summer. 

Songs For A Blue Day wants to help cheer things up a little, at least for one night. 

A partnership between the Awesome Music Project and the Canadian Music Therapy Fund, Songs For A Blue Day is a livestream event for discussing music, music therapy and the importance of mental health. There will be stories and songs about music’s incredible power to heal, performed by George Elliott Clarke, Jennifer Buchanan, Lia Pappa-Kemps, Nobu Adilman, Daveed Goldman. and Choir Choir Choir. 

The event takes place Monday, starting at 7 p.m. EST on the Awesome Music Project’s Facebook page. Donations are encouraged; all donations made via www.AMP4Life.ca will be matched between January 18 and 22 and all donors will be entered to win a $100 gift card for Long & McQuade. 

Let’s be honest: even in normal years, we’d all be feeling a little down right about now. But COVID has made things worse. We can’t go out, we can’t see our friends, we haven’t been able to do anything that feels normal in a really long time. As things stand right now, we’re not sure when we’ll be able to do any of that again. 

“When the pandemic arrived, the folks at AMP were immediately moved by the huge impact it was having on people living in long-term care and the frontline health care workers doing their best to care for them,” the groups say. “They understood the impact this would have on mental health and they knew that music therapy could help. The AMP4Life initiative was born, and that’s where we come in! In April, 2020, meetings began about how to get music therapy, virtually, into long term care homes severely impacted by the virus. We started in Bobcaygeon, Ontario, at Pinecrest Nursing Home and the journey continues.”

The event is the start of a five-day fundraising event for AMP4Life, uniting the two organizations to help provide music therapy programs to those struggling from the COVID pandemic. 

Amber Healy

I write about music policy and lawsuits because they're endlessly fascinating.

Amber Healy has 523 posts and counting. See all posts by Amber Healy

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