SING4SANE: RAISING AWARENESS OF MENTAL HEALTH THROUGH SONG

SING4SANE is the initiative of singer and songwriter, Melissa James. Earlier this year, in February, Melissa staged a Big Sing which took place at Caffe Nero's Heathrow premises. She invited anyone who wished to, to join her in singing backing vocals on her song Live Again (initially recorded for Melissa's forthcoming record to be entitled Stripped Back) to highlight the importance of mind health matters and to raise money for the mental health charity SANE. This led more recently to her considering organising another SING4SANE Big Sing but this time it would be staged in a recording studio. The recording of Live Again will be released as a charity single with all sale proceeds going to SANE. The message would again be to promote mind health awareness and to try to tackle the stigma that exists around the combined words mental and health.

And now very soon Melissa, and a number of highly skilled musicians and singing participants, will head into London's prestigious RAK studios, notably founded by Mickie Most, to make the Big Sing recording a reality. The event will be filmed in order to create both a music video and a short publicity documentary film which will be released in line with the single in Autumn 2016.

The SING4SANE project has gratefully received some financial backing from Mental Health First Aid England. Additional donations donations are also welcomed by anyone who wishes to provide one, large or small.

Melissa spoke on London Live TV, alongside SANE Founder and CEO Marjorie Wallace, about the SING4SANE project. You can watch the short interview by clicking here.

The SING4SANE Big Sing project is a very personal one to Melissa which was born from her own experiences of care in relation to sufferers from mind related illnesses. You can learn more about Melissa and her story by reading a blog she has written.

NB: Should anyone wish to sponsor the project in exchange for exposure and/or a name-check on the publicity videos, please get in touch directly to discuss. This would be best before the videos are completed and released.