We're delighted to welcome Dani Sylvia, who recently won Best Songwriter at the Unsigned Music Awards, to the Bone Cancer Ball in July.
Hi Dani. We can't wait to see you perform at the Bone Cancer Ball in July! Some of our supporters may have been lucky enough to have seen you at the Bone Cancer Conference last year. Could you tell us a bit about your involvement with us as a charity and your connection to bone cancer?
Performing for you last year at your conference was a lot of fun and it was lovely to finally meet you guys in person after knowing of you work for so long before. I'm really excited to come back and perform for you this year at your ball, I'm sure it will be an extremely special night.
In terms of my involvement with you before, all of the proceeds of my song 'Forever Young' from my debut EP (released in February last year) go straight to your charity. The sales of the song will always contribute to you and I'm hoping one day I can make the amount it earns larger! The Bone Cancer Research Trust will always have a special place in my heart
Your song 'Forever Young' is a really beautiful and moving tribute to Shannon Corr, who sadly passed away in August 2014 after a five year battle with osteosarcoma. Could you explain the process of writing the song and what it feels like to perform it?
The strange part is that I only met Shannon once. But she was an incredibly special person and had a profound effect on me. I wrote the song over the course of two nights and then I went into Air Studios as part of Urban Voices Collective to record it with David Arnold.
David then added a beautiful string arrangement and we recorded a music video which can be found on YouTube. It is such a special project for so many reasons for Urban Voices Collective and we put so much love into the creation of it.
I also do my own version now as a solo artist. It is rare that I sing the song at gigs now because I do find it emotional. This is why I'm very much looking forward to performing it for you at the ball; it feels right to sing in your environment and I hope it means something to those listening and gives them hope, which is what Shannon gave to so many people.
It's been a busy year for you since we last saw you! We know you've received an amazing accolade of 'Best Songwriter' at the Unsigned Music Awards. How did it feel to win and what else have you got planned at the moment?
It was probably the best moment of my life when I won the award! I still can't believe it! It felt incredible to be validated for my writing and gave me even more encouragement to keep going. Afterwards, my single 'Omniscient' went on to be 'track of the week' on BBC Introducing London and was also played on Radio 2 by Alex Lester. It's all been extremely busy since then recording my debut album 'Tall Tales' which is still going on. It will be finished by July and I am having a small pre-release listening gig at The Bedford on 27th July. I am also just about to release a single of mine called 'Perfection Generation' which is about the dark side of things like social media and the increase of narcissism and anxiety because of it. I am shooting the music video next week so be sure to have a little watch if you can!
Want to see Dani perform live? Tickets for the Bone Cancer Ball on Saturday 22nd July are available here.