#deaf musicians

[1-1-s1ay-2-2]

That’s right, girl. Music doesn’t come from your ears, it comes from your heart and soul.

[jeffwhalen-blog1]

Feeling The Music With Deaf 'America's Got Talent' Finalist Mandy Harvey

The singer-songwriter was born with an ear deformity that made hearing difficult; eventually, she lost her residual hearing. But if you're going to vote for her, she wants you to look past that.

It is amazing what you can achieve if you don't give up!

[1-1-s1ay-2-2]

Deaf people can do whatever hearing people can do, except hear.

[samelovebymacklemore-blog]

Three-Year Anniversary!!

Today is exactly three years since I started writing this blog! 

Although, theoretically the blog started out as only a Facebook page, I still count this date as the start of it all. By now we're also on Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest with a total number of almost 2000 readers, where Twitter has the vast majority with over 74% of the readers. And for more than a year (one year and 3 month to be more exact) together with Cate, this blog has now two fixed writers, and hopefully more to come!

So, I was trying to find a nice birthday song in sign language. However, way more difficult than I thought! There are some who interpreted the song "Happy Birthday to you", but I wanted a bit 'more' song. So I was looking for Stevie Wonder's birthday song, also not many interpreteations, or maybe a video with happy birthday greetings in different sign languages, but alas, no such thing.

However, I did find one interpretation for Stevie Wonder's happy birthday song, from a guy that went to Gallaudet and has a 75% hearing loss in both ears. 

And another (short) video from someone forming the letters "happy birthday to you" with his hands, but not using the fingerspelling alphabet (at least not one I can think of). He himself calls it "handspeak". Not sure what the goal of the video was, or if it was meant for someone in particular, but I thought it was funny.

Enjoy the videos!!

Related articles

The Mandela sign interpreter has done deaf people a favour | Cathy Heffernan

"You Brought The Sunshine" by The Clark Sisters

Ignorance by Paramore

"A Thousand Years" by Christina Perri

Fingerspelling - the alphabet on your hands

'Signing' for the Deaf at Mandela Memorial. I Shouldn't Really Laugh!

[samelovebymacklemore-blog]

Anytime by Brian McKnight

Welcome to another music Monday! The song is interpreted by Aarron Loggins, aka Deaf King. Aarron is an R&B/Pop artist and American Sign Language translator. He had a love for music from the beginning of his life and attended the Gallaudet Dance Company as well as the National Theatre for the Deaf. He is an entertainer and advocate for the deaf and hard of hearing.

Today's song is a ballad from Brian McKnight, who has gotten many Grammy nominations. The song is called Anytime, also the name of his third album from 1997. 

Enjoy the music and the video! Have a happy week!

  Related articles

"It's Time" by Imagine Dragons

The One That Got Away by Katy Perry

Stay by Rihanna feat Mikky Ekko

Just Fine by Mary J. Blige

Forget You by Cee Lo Green (Glee version)

Firework by Katy Perry

[samelovebymacklemore-blog]

Deaf Musicians

Time for an update on Deaf musicians. The music page on this blog lists some famous Deaf musicians. Until now, the ones listed where Beethoven’s Nightmare, Sean Forbes, and Signmark, but there are more. Coincidence is that these three groups are all male musicians. Today, three new Deaf musicians will be added to the list, and they all happen to be female: Evelyn Glennie (percussionist), Many Harver (jazz singer), and Janine Roebuck (opera singer).

Evelynn Glennie

Evelynn is a Scottish percussionist. She is the first professional solo percussionist and has been profoundly deaf since the age of 12. She is probably the most famous deaf musician, as she won a Grammy and has made over 25 solo albums, there is even a documentary about her called Touch the Sound. Even though profoundly deaf, she didn’t learn sign language until 2008. Contrary, she actually has been refusing to learn sign language before that.

Mandy Harvey

Many Harvey is an American jazz singer, she became hard-of-hearing due to several infections. Even so, she chose to go to university to become a vocal music professor. However, she eventually lost her hearing and became profoundly deaf. Despite this, she still plays piano and sings songs. In 2009, she launched her album with the same as her debut song “Smile”.

Janine Roebuck

Janine is a British opera singer. Deafness ran in the family, but she didn’t begin to loose her hearing until she was studying at university. For many years her hearing loss was a secret for all but her closest friends. She was afraid to either loose roles or to get roles because of it. Eventually, she got hearing aids and because she became an inspiration, her career grew. She now is a trustee of the Royal National Institute for Deaf people in the UK. See and hear her sing here.