‘And it seems to me, you lived your life like a candle in the wind; never knowing who to cling to when the rain set in; and I would have liked to know you, but I was just a kid. Your candle burned out long before your legend ever did’ – Elton John
On that dark Valentine’s Day, I was appointed to be part of the judges for a beauty pageant. As the day was winding down and the pageant coming to a close, I decided to check my blackberry for updates. I moved to twitter and saw tweets concerning the death of our dear Goldie. I waved it aside, thinking it was one of those twitter rumours. The magnitude of her death dawned on me after confirming from top media personalities in the industry. Nobody gave her a voice, but she dared to make her voice heard many saw her as too flamboyant and unusually different, but Susan Harvey made a difference, made her mark, ignored the critics, focused on her music, and served the world with her God-given talent.
I can recall sadly a piece I wrote on Goldie’s Golden Rules for Business Success (Lessons entrepreneurs can learn from her approach to her craft) sometime last year,-(http://kehindeajose.com/?p=666). I never knew the next article I would be writing about her will be centered on her demise. She focused on her strength as an artiste. She wasn’t necessarily blessed with a Beyonce like voice texture, but she made up for it with her unconventional costumes, her creatively deplored music videos, energetic stage presence.
According to Samuel Olatunji’s tribute on Goldie: “Goldie kept pushing the envelope, working and living her life. If she cared about what people said about her, she didn’t show it. They would lambast her for wearing a particular dress and Goldie would defiantly wear something similar next time. They said she was everywhere, strutting the red carpets like a pepper seller but she was undeterred. Goldie was living her life by her rules and not by what ‘almighty’ commentators said. As if she knew she won’t be here for a long time.”
“I was told a popular producer had told her to go sell her Benz ML before he would sign her on and produce her song. And that was after months of keeping her waiting. She didn’t relent but decided to take her destiny in her own hands and thus embarked on a journey from one radio station to another, buying stuffs for the OAPs for her songs to get airplay.”
There is nothing regular about Goldie, not her unusual eye catching pictures, obviously not her blonde hair, or her songs that exudes her deep passion for music. In her words: ‘Living the life everyone expects of you is the most terrifying thing anyone can do to themselves. She lived life on her own terms and built an irresistible music brand. As unconventional as Goldie was, it is pretty clear what her focus was: delivering upbeat tunes, simple, melodious, and memorable. There was no divided brand pursuit about her; she did one thing that would remain memorable and infectious. She did it well.
Love or hate her, she made a difference and lived her best life in a short while. The lesson for the living is to uncover our infinite greatness and dance to our own drumbeats ignoring the naysayers. That’s the path to greatness; that was Goldie’s path to stardom. It’s painful and pathetic that she was being judged in death by people who never met her or knew her on a personal level. Someone in fact told me that she detested her – a story for another day.
Show love when a person is alive, make them feel valued and appreciated.
R.I.P Goldie. You came, you sang, and you ruled your world!
Kehinde Ajose is a talent development coach, publicist, and blogger.
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