In this world Nora would never have imagined that one day the band she had seen as her literal refuge would fall apart so easily. But let's recap, she and her friends founded a band. It was called The Blues. She was with them from the beginning. They all felt like a literal family and didn't see each other as just friends, they were life partners. She played a very important role in the band. She didn't play any instruments, she was the singer and voice of the band. So to speak she was the face of the band when anyone thought of her. She worked with all the band members for years. At least her youth was spent with her bandmates. The Blues were not a very well known band internationally but they knew how to move in their home country, Italy. They were well known in most of the local clubs and several of the national theaters.
They were often hired to animate parties, for weddings, and of course to give concerts in many events. They were very much loved for their great talent and for the desire they put in them. But you know how everything in this life sometimes bad wishes or not knowing how to be happy with what you have consequences. During the last months of the band's life they had several disagreements among its members. At first Nora was able to calm them down and make them understand how important it was to be united, because otherwise the band could stop working.
Those disagreements were mostly economic, some band members said they were getting too little for their contribution in the band. Others were simply not willing to lose some of their money to give it to the other members. In other words, the distribution of profits among the band was no longer equitable. This was Manuel's fault, he was the leader of the band and the founder. He took a very large portion of the money for himself and left the others with very little. And of course, in addition to this, the money that was left over he would split the money with whoever he thought was the most valuable in the gang. Nora did a good job of making them understand that they could not go on like this, but Manuel reached a point where he would not give in.
So, what do you think happened? Well, from one day to the next, the band was no longer working. The economic mismanagement of the band was no longer enough. So they ended up splitting up. Each one went his own way. Nora tried to avoid this many times but the truth is that it was no longer in her hands. Some of the members retired from music and went to look for other jobs where they could earn more, as is the case of Manuel, who apparently was never satisfied, he always wanted more. And other members of the band joined other bands where they were better paid.
In Nora's case, when the others left, she was left alone. The friends she had shared with for so many years had left her. She was the most affected by all this. For she was the person who loved the band the most. Not so much because of the money but because it was her desire, it was something that gave her reasons to go on. A pity that the others did not see it that way. Well now that she was now alone she found herself with the sudden surprise that she had the responsibility to reinvent herself, that is to say to start from scratch. And of course now everything was different for her in many ways. First of all, the musical world had changed since she founded the band, since people's tastes were no longer the same or a new generation of listeners was on the rise. Secondly and more importantly, she no longer had the support of her band, so as I'm sure you can imagine everything is more difficult than before, it's no longer a piece of cake. In fact she was so disoriented that she didn't know where to start. She had quickly gone from being the voice of a collective to being a solo artist without a defined identity. It was a very difficult situation. Hopefully we and you, my readers, will never see her in such a situation.
He lived for a while on his savings and the profits that still came from the websites where the songs were hosted for online listening. But this money was insufficient to keep going, so she began to find herself in financial straits. She came to reconsider whether to work as a waitress or concierge in a small hotel in the city where she had her apartment. For her it was very worrying because her morale was at stake. Going from being an idol and an example to follow to being a failed person and going through economic hardships for things that she was not to blame scared her. That's why she decided she had to do something to get back into the music career as soon as she could before her savings ran out.
She started the easy way out by starting a solo career doing a few single songs. But unfortunately they were a financial failure. The fans that previously had the band preferred the style they had all together and not Nora's solo voice. So this was a slam in her face, so to speak. She had hoped that at least the fan base that the band had before they split up would support her, but it didn't happen that way.
Even the producers, who once adored her as part of a group, now saw her as just another commodity. In fact she knew it, but still she insisted, trying out new songs, in the lyrics of her songs she let most of her fears and worries show, so her success was very little. So to speak, her emotional state was affecting her professional life. That is why the producers with whom she was now associated recommended her to leave the task of getting the lyrics of her songs to them and let her sing them on her own. So to speak, they promised her the best lyrics that would give her the most profit. But it wasn't all as pretty as it is written. One of the producers, his name is Marco, offered her a contract for the lyrics, but in exchange, he asked her to change her style. “You have talent,” he told him with a confident smile, ”but what the public wants now is something more modern, something more commercial. If you adjust, we can go far.”
The thing is, Nora felt she was caught at a kind of crossroads, mostly because Marco wasn't offering her what she really wanted, but rather a distorted version of herself, an image she didn't recognize. But of course the fear of remaining invisible and being in deep financial trouble pushed her to accept it, she convinced herself that anything would be better than the nothingness she found herself in.
Over the next few months, Nora struggled with the idea of selling herself. As you can imagine, it's not the same as it used to be. Now she doesn't control anything, she can't choose the genre she was most comfortable with, or the lyrics that expressed what she wanted or the most appropriate message. Marco her producer only limited himself to give her a lyric that would sell more, for him she was merely a tool to produce money not a person with her own aspirations. In fact the concerts Nora gave from then on were increasingly cold and mechanical. The connection she used to have with her audience disappeared. The thing is that she no longer sang with her soul, she only sang because that was what was expected of her. It was very sad.
That's when the moment came when everything fell apart. During one of those concerts, Nora forgot the lyrics to one of her songs, well it wasn't really hers. An awkward silence filled the place as she tried to remember the words. The audience began to murmur, so she began to feel embarrassed. It was then at last when she suddenly realized that she could no longer live this way. She was not the artist she wanted to be, she was not the person she had dreamed of being. That was the breaking point. That's when she decided it was time to go back to her roots and get it right.
That day Nora abandoned her contract with Marco and left behind the image he had created of her. She knew it wouldn't be easy, because now she would lose her earnings from the last concerts she had done. That was compensation for breaking the contract. But it was worth it. From there he decided to start again, but this time at his own pace. She started writing her own songs, lyrics that spoke of her pain, her dreams and what it really meant to be herself. The music that came out of her, this time was genuine. She had to go back to the small bars, to the impromptu performances where people knew her as the singer of the band. But you know friends over time, her audience started to come back, attracted by her voice, and of course by the authenticity she now had. It is true that she should have done it before, in fact she regretted it, but well at least she tried and she was succeeding.
What do you think Nora's life will be like from now on, do you think it will be easy and everything will fall from the sky? Or will she fail? Well friends, I leave that to your judgment. I think everyone should give Nora the ending they think is perfect.
Credits: The images used are free to use and royalty free. They were taken from pixabay.
Original article by (martinte)
