Joan Armatrading has revealed her song ‘The Messenger’ came to her in a dream.
The 70-year-old music legend – whose recently released 22nd studio album, ‘Consequences’, reached the top 10 in the UK – penned the 2011 track as a tribute to the late former South African President, Nelson Mandela.
And the ‘Me Myself I’ hitmaker has shared how the idea for the song woke her up when she was fast asleep.
Speaking exclusively to BANG Showbiz, Joan recalled: “There is a song I wrote called ‘The Messenger’, it’s a tribute to Nelson Mandela, and that woke me up, and I got up, went to the piano, wrote the thing and then went back to bed. It does happen, I’m sure it happens with loads of musicians.
“I was asleep. It actually woke me up. And then I went downstairs, did the thing, and went back to bed. But I’m sure loads of musicians would have that kind [of thing happen to them].”
Asked how long the track took to write, she replied: “Very quickly because it was in my head, it woke me up, so I had it kind of there and just went down and played it.”
The Ivor Novello Award-winner – who released the second single from the much-lauded LP, ‘Natural Rhythm’, last week – admitted that if a song takes too long to write, she often loses “interest” and scraps it, but one exception to the rule was ‘Cool Blue Stole My Heart’.
She continued: “Some songs really are as if you are playing something you know.
“Some songs are gonna take a little bit longer to write.
“I wrote one called ‘Cool Blue Stole My Heart’ and that took a long time. Usually, if it’s gonna take too long I lose interest, but, in this case, I didn’t because it’s a nice song.”
Joan, a CBE, is set to perform tracks from ‘Consequences’ and her greatest hits during a special live-stream later today (31.07.21).
And despite being in the music business for five decades, the ‘Drop The Pilot’ hitmaker still gets nervous before going on stage.
She said: “Too nervous actually – it’s not a nice feeling at all.
“You can go on stage and your knees are knocking as you walk to the mic, you get the mic and sometimes the very first chord you’re fine, other times, two, three songs in, you’re fine, other times you are kind of in this nervous state right through the whole show. “That’s more rare, when that happens. Generally, by the first/second song, you’re fine.”
‘Consequences’ is out now. Tickets for Joan’s live-stream gig are priced at £24.00.