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Songwriter, performer, wheelchair user
Eugenia Unique discusses her activism to bring other disabled artists to the mainstream
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Songwriter, performer, wheelchair user

Eugenia Unique discusses her activism to bring other disabled artists to the mainstream

Transcript

Eugenia Unique: "I always wanted to do music, I always looked up to Stevie Wonder when I was younger and I thought, you know what? If he could do it, so can I. And we always wanted to be something that is unique, something that's unique in the market. Our first workshop was with a guy called Guy Evans from SHAPE, and basically it was an organisation that deals with performing arts for disabled people and that's how we first started. We developed from there and we had passion ever since.

"We perform funky pop and...it's something different altogether, like no one's heard it before. I find it very interesting being a disabled artist but the barriers that we face are quite difficult, to let the mainstream artists know that disabled people can do it too. I know how hard it is to go into the music industry, with our level of vocals, obviously -- but we're not all about that, we just want to have fun and that's what we are. We've got the fun factor in us.

"Our first album was just a play-around. This album is more serious and we've written more serious songs and more campaigning songs, and that's the difference, because we're learning how to project our voice more. I wanted to develop my own thing that was unique, because even though the music industry is hard, to make it in the music industry I have to put my voice across about disabled artists. That's why I needed to do that, just to get that release.

"Eugenia Unique came about because my name is different and also I am unique myself. I have so much passion for disabled people to go into the industry that they want to go in, in the music world, and I wanted to put my political side onto the music spin. And this is the whole point because they face a lot of barriers, like, a lot of critics don't believe in disabled artists. A lot of images about sex selling, a lot of images about looking a certain way. And I just thought 'You're so negative' and I just wanted to design a project for them and get them the right bookings, the right management team, the right songwriters to work with and also people mentoring them through the process to get to that stage. And I wanted to teach the music world what they need and this is part of Eugenia Unique, to do campaigning for and also to do workshops so people can relate to Eugenia Unique. And also seeing that I'm there, that I'm a voice for them and don't be scared because I'm there to fill in the gap that other managers couldn't."

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