Singing for the singers

A project aimed at advocating for the mental welfare of creatives release ‘ troubled’ single

The Hear tstrings and Heartbeats project continues to explore mental health amongst creatives with the release of the Music Video for the Single, ‘ Troubled’. The video will premiere this Friday on world leading Music Video Platform – VEVO.

The music video was shot on a location in the Makgadikgadi pans with Mpho Sebina flying in from Johannesburg and Danish rapper, J- Spliff fresh off the plane. According to a press release, the team ventured out to create an adventurous art piece, fusing all the different cultures through music.

This was the culmination of the Denmark team’s two- week long visit to Botswana that saw them engage in co- creation workshops as well as collaborative studio sessions for the Heartstrings and Heartbeats Project, says the press release. The production team comprised of Executive Production and Direction by Kirat ‘ Kiz’ Singh who shot the video alongside local company Industry Media as well as other Producers that include the Project co- founder, Abraham Mamela, Alexandra Ignatencu, Leroy Nyoni as well as the artful Mpho Sebina.

Heartstrings and Heartbeats project, is an initiative that seeks to explore mental health problems among creatives, while also tapping into scientific methods to come up with solutions for some of these issues. This is a project between Botswana and Denmark. Speaking recently in an interview, Assistant Facilitator of the project, Leroy Nyoni told BG Style that the creative aspect of the project includes the release of creative work such as film, choreography and songs to address these issues. He noted during the interview that the Arts are not taken seriously locally yet they have so much impact on the general well- being of people. ‘’ Artists who can advocate for arts are used on a daily life routine through their music, paintings and films to keep people sane, but no one looks out for them, hence we want to make a difference through this project,” he says. He also emphasized that Heartstrings & Heartbeats campaign, which is a two- year- old multi- stakeholder public engagement project aims at exploring the science behind mental health issues among creatives, while they place communities and those impacted as drivers of their own solutions.