Joy Fleming: "Music belongs to God as well as to faith"
Photo: Joy ProductionThe singer Joy Fleming "From my childhood onwards, music has accompanied me through my life. It has always played a very special role. My parents loved to listen to music. This has influenced me. At the age of 14, I began to sing myself. Music is wonderful, it moves the world. It brings people together, who do not know each other. And it is the best way to get to know oneself. When I was younger, I loved to sing songs that told stories. When I sing today, I feel the soul a lot. Ballads and soul music provide me with much inner calm and strength. Music gives a lot to the people. Those who do not listen to it are poor wretches. I always go deep into the lyrics and the beauty of the songs, and I believe that my audience feel this as well: this is when tears begin to flow.
Sometimes I go to church and sing there. I deeply believe in God and pray at night. I think that God has already helped my in many situations. When I sing, I have a feeling of warmth, beauty, significance and grace. When I sing, I want to give, tell and convey something. The listeners shall feel my music. It gives me warmth and radiance. I think that God does not prescribe which songs ought to be heard at church. Not only classical and church music belongs there. I believe that many different kinds of songs are nowadays heard at church.
When I perform with my musicians or with my husband in a church, we do not play pop music, but solemn ballads and faster rhythms, too. For instance, I am touched very much by the song "She's out of my life" by Michael Jackson. When I stand under the pulpit in the church, singing the song by this man, who was such a richly gifted talent and died under terrible circumstances, the tears well up in my eyes. When I sing "Silent night, holy night", I wonder why there is such a lot of evil in the world while so much beauty exists as well. The people at church create a special atmosphere. It seems to me that they draw the music into themselves. Words alone can not describe it. One gets a shiver down the spine and becomes reflective.
I find an almost transcendental musical pleasure in Michael McDonald, an American singer, who performs a lot of black soul music, but is white himself. When he sings, it feels as if I get wrapped into a velvet cloak. When I am fed up with everything and want to unwind, I curl up in my comfy chair and listen to his songs. Then I wish that God could hear this. Music belongs to the church. The people want to listen to, and sing, songs in the house of God. I believe the last thing God wants is the absence of music, since it belongs to God, as well as to faith."
Joy Fleming is a German jazz, blues and pop singer from Mannheim. In 1975, she performed the song "Ein Lied kann eine Brücke sein" ("A song can be a bridge") at the Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson. The chorus goes: "A song can be a bridge, and every note is like a rock, making it strong and firm. You can walk across and understand others … A song can be a bridge, have a little courage and join in, and when your heart is ready, walk across this bridge and out of your loneliness."
