Have you ever looked at a homeless person and wondered why they’re in that position? Or perhaps you know someone who was homeless at some point of their life? Whatever the cause might have been, people don’t end up in the street from their free choice. Today, a wonderful artist stands up for the homeless, giving them a voice and a platform to spread a message of biggest importance!
The star, or should I say lion of this article is Lyonz, a British solo singer-songwriter with her heart in making music full of meaning and feelings. Music has become an integral part of her life since she was growing up, with dreams about producing for TV and film and working in Bollywood as well as recording music and performing. At least some of those dreams have also became true by now, as the artist has recently finished a feature movie about boxing, her other passion.
Influenced by artists such as Kate Nash, Lorde and Lily Allen, Lyonz takes material for her lyrics from life itself – breakups, social injustice, hard times and acceptance are some of the many themes in her music. She then carefully weaves those emotions into her genre-defying songs, resulting in an extremely catchy sound, which gains high speed from the artist’s inner energy and honesty. Her motto is to touch the heart of the listener with her candid lyrics and sparking production, her songs all carrying a message. 
Today Lyonz is back with her new single “Empty Streets“. This song could easily be one of the heaviest songs – it’s an emotional song addressing homelessness. It begins with a soft guitar, and when she begins to sing, you can hear that anger and turmoil in her voice, disappointed in how homeless people are treated. The production of this song is rather splendid, making this song a pleasure to listen to, even with all the emotional weight, with space around each instrument and synth sounds soaring like clear skies between rainy days. Her voice, speaking for the homeless, becomes a little bit tearful by the end as she asks “Empty streets, please.”
“Empty Streets” is a song the artist simply had to write, as she explains the background of how this sing came to be:
“I was taught at school “You must give to those who need it the most” So every harvester there would be collections at our school, in my house, church etc to give to our local homeless shelter, the wonderful “Crawley Open House”.
My parents would constantly tell us that we were lucky to have a roof over our head, water, and a hot shower. When we would be in town at the weekend my dad would speak or give food to men and women on our streets. The kindness I saw has stayed with me today and I constantly think what if my life wasn’t like this? What if my family or I was to be left on these streets? Evicted from the homes we love, cast out, left alone?
2 years ago, I wanted to make myself uncomfortable and sleep out to raise money for “Crawley Open House” to experience what a cold night would feel like. So, me and 30 others slept out just for one night and I really struggled. I had 30 people right next to me, a sleeping bag, warm clothes, food, water and security that this is just one night….. A shower will be there in the morning, and I can sleep through the day and catch up on sleep. I couldn’t sleep I was on edge, uncomfortable on the floor and one eye was always open. My mind was just alert and couldn’t shut off from the noise of people passing, sirens screaming out. One night was enough! I couldn’t let it go. From this day I have tried to keep raising awareness, signing up to events to raise money, speaking to those on the street, making others give and help too. Alot of the time I would hear ” Well it’s their fault there in this position” I thought how can I change people’s minds? Their outlook on those living on our streets NOT out of choice! I can educate in the way that I only know how to speak, to sing it out.
Before lockdown I was on a Mega bus coming back into London and I looked out of the window missing home, shocked again by what I saw.
On the left of me was Hyde park, big hotels, apartments ALL EMPTY! not one light on…. To my right 7 homeless souls just sleeping wrapped up in their damp sleeping bags. How can buildings keep shooting up in our cities but not have those who need a room the most in them!? When I am angry and want to express, vent… I write…so out came the notepad and the words to the song just came out. I felt like I was helpless that I wanted to be the person who owned the huge building just so I could open the locked doors and let the 7 people I saw right there inside. ” CAN PLEASE THE RICH, CAN’T HELP THE POOR” No matter what you do with money it will never feel the whole or make you happy. The empty building you have standing there really can change someone’s life. I don’t have money otherwise I would set an organisation up myself ( THE DREAM).
This song took months to write….I wanted to be careful about how I expressed, and the words used not wanting to offend or hurt anyone by them.
Just wanting to speak the truth to what I have seen over the past few years from child to adult. Collecting all the memories and wonderful people I have met on the streets and the incredible stories. Speaking to more and more people I figured out that most of them have never chosen to be homeless, some with jobs, a house, a family. Then boom out of nowhere out on the street! Through this song I want to make those know that this could be anyone of us in this position.
Like I said if I had money, a huge empty building, or a huge home I would do more to help. We must start with small steps don’t we!?
This song is my small step… I hope in the right direction for an important situation in our country and around the world.
I don’t have nice things or money but grateful for what I do have EVERYDAY. I have enough to get by and that helps me to self-fund my music
” Empty streets” was made from desperation, for overdue change to happen on our streets. Now with Covid around us.. I feel that more awareness should be out there to get people to stop, help, talk and not judge. We can do this together if enough people keep talking about it and keeping our people alive and not ignored.
Thank you for taking the time to read the vision to why I did this.
Lyonz will be continuing her artist journey with new music soon, so if you loved what you heard, stay tuned!
Don’t forget to support this project and to follow on Instagram, YouTube, and Spotify. You can obviously find it in the following Playlists: Less Than 1,000 Followers, Fresh Singles, Indie Only, Female Rising Stars, and 12 New Songs This Week.
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This coverage was created via MusoSoup #Sustainablecuratorhttps://www.musosoup.com/sustainable-curator