fame

Purpose as protection against an inflated ego

Last month there was a huge discussion in the Dutch media about a musician who used internet tolls in the past, to enhance his online profile. It might have been less shocking, if the same musician wouldn’t have recently advocated for more honesty and openness on the internet. What’s gotten into him, what inspired him to do so? That’s a question many people ask. According to his own explanation, he was too insecure and too eager to become successful. Somehow […]

Leave diva attitude at home!

What mental challenges to you have as a musician? And how do you deal with it? That’s the theme of a new series of interviews with musicians that I’m doing. The first one is with Madeleine Davis, singer of Boney M. for several years from end of the ’80s onwards. It’s mentally very challenging to be in the spotlights. What was for you the most challenging part? And why? “The most challenging was dealing with the personalities and mentalities of […]

Fame hurts – 5 reasons why 5

In the last couple of years, I’ve asked myself frequently the question if it’s possible that fame hurts. Usually when I’ve heard of another musician who died on an overdose of painkillers, like Tom Petty, Prince and Michael Jackson. This week I read that Lady Gaga is cancelling at least 10 dates if her worldwide tour because of severe pain, just like she did last year September. Many famous musicians use heavy doses of painkillers on a regular basis, often […]

Fame and a cup of coffee

Last year I was talking to a friend about fame. She works in the music business too, with world music artists. Sometimes I wonder why conversations with colleagues from rock/pop are always so worked up, as if they have to proof themselves, all the time. Conversations with colleagues from world music or jazz are much more relaxed. You can also experience it in the atmosphere at conferences for the genres. But that’s a different subject. With a cup of coffee […]

What’s more important, myth or mental health of musicians? 9

Last week The Guardian published an article from Fiona McGugan, general manager of the Music Manager’s Forum, about the mental health of musicians. The article is about the role of managers in noticing and addressing mental health problems of their artists. “Maintaining an artist’s health is in the best interest of everyone – the label and the management as well as the artist themselves.” (Rumer Shirakbari) Still, short-term financial interests of the manager can be in conflict with the long-term […]

4 P’s that make it so difficult for musicians to deal with fame

Fame – that’s what most musicians dream about. In the music business we still live with the myth that once you are famous, all problems are solved. NOT! You will encounter a whole lot of new problems. Many musicians struggle with fame and with being famous. They suffer so much that some of them die far to young, like Kurt Cobain or Amy Winehouse. Here 4 P’s that make it so difficult to deal with fame: Personal Imbalance. Fame does […]

Golden fall

After some weeks of gray and rainy weather, the sun is back. I now know again why fall is my favorite season. The yellow-orange-brown leaves in the sunshine give everything a golden line.  It’s really beautiful to see, the trees are shining like stars! The beauty outside comes with a melancholic touch. I know hat the golden beauty outside is only temporary. End of November you can count the last leaves on a tree on the fingers of one hand. […]

Who do you trust?

How more success you have in the music business, how more ‘friends’ you gather. Everyone wants to share in your success. Everyone wants to stand in the limelight with you. And they all start to make great promises. Who can you trust? “Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.” (Oprah Winfrey) First of all, the music business is […]

The gap between image and self image

As a musician you have a certain image you want to get across. You want others to see certain aspects of yourself, you want them to like you. And if you are ambitious, you put a whole marketing team on the development of that image. The more famous you get, the bigger the gap can grow between how others see you and how you see yourself. Others will see you in the way you present yourself to them. They see […]

The context of fame

Context is everything! If you need an example, look at the picture above. Looking at the cylinder it depends on the context, on the perspective if you see a square or a circle, Context is important in everyday life too. Some years ago a right-wing Dutch politician asked during a speech if the audience would prefer more or less foreigners, and they all shouted “less, less, less”. But if you ask the same question to employers who are desperate to […]

Can you accept ‘no’, even when you are famous?

What happens to people when they become famous? First they loose their privacy. I’ve seen it in an interview with the Greek president Tsipras the other day. He’s in politics since he’s a teenager. When asked what the biggest change was in his life when becoming president, the first thing he mentioned was the lack of privacy. There’s more though. While Tsipras still lives in a middle-class apartment, most famous (and rich) people move to a gigantic villa, surrounded by […]

Important things in life 1

This week I saw an interview with Angelo Kelly, the youngest guy from the Kelly Family. He was famous already when he was a child and got used to everything that goes with it. It was surprising to hear, that he and his wife choose to live in a caravan and to travel for several years. He avoided Germany, too many people would recognize him there, and performed as street musician for two or three days a week. That brought […]

Protect your intimate treasure

I just finished reading the book “Dag vriend!” (Hi/bye, friend!) from Stine Jensen. It’s very inspiring! She looks at the concept of friendships from various perspectives. One of the perspectives is social media and Facebook. At Facebook, we share with dozens (and potentially millions) of people what we used to share with our best friend only. All the stuff that you don’t want others to know about you, that’s your intimate capital or your intimate treasure. And how more famous […]

Holiday is like fame …

It’s summer and for two weeks we already have great summer weather over here, they don’t expect it to change in the next week. And today my summer holiday starts 🙂 Before summer holiday starts, everyone is looking forward to it. We start to make lots of plans, looking forward to travel and see yourselves in a very different environment enjoying life. Often we create a dream that has little to do with who we really are. Every time I […]

Unblocking 10: Self-protection

Self protection is about discovering the toxic patterns that block your creativity, and how to protect yourself against it. In other words: how can you protect yourself against yourself? In order to be kind to ourselves, we have to be hard against the toxic patterns. Imagine that creativity is all around us, like leaves in the fall, available to every one. We just have to bend and pick it up. And often we just don’t want to bend, we want […]