Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Beth Blatt. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Beth thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

Sometimes we just know what we are supposed to do. A chance encounter, an offhand remark by a friend – and poof! An idea pops into our head. We have no idea how to make it happen. But as they say, Go out on a limb and the next branch will appear.

Some context: I have a checkered past. First, I worked in advertising account management. Then I performed in musicals, which took me to Tokyo and Hong Kong. There, I started to write musicals. Then, I added songs and plays to my writing quiver.

When I felt the call to be of service in a bigger, more global way, I founded my music-for-change organization, Hope Sings. Our mission: to create songs inspired by women’s success stories to inspire more transformation for women. We sing stories of change to change the stories of lives.

Sidebar: I’ve always written about women. I have this passion to tell their untold stories, to rewrite the negative ones we’ve been fed as a way to disempower them. This is how I fight for justice for women who have been “wronged.”

Back to my idea-pop. It happens one September day on a New York City playground. I hear another mom mention that the United Nations is forming an entity to support women around the world called UN Women. I say to her, “They need a theme song.”

By six months later, I’d made them one (with lots of help, of course). I’d cajoled the head of communications into saying Maybe. Written the lyric, based on pages and pages of notes about UN projects, places, people. Sweet-talked Graham Lyle who wrote What’s Love Got To Do With It” and other hits, to do the music (he sweet-talked Somalian singer-songwriter Fahan Hassan into collaborating). When UN Women folk heard the demo they recorded, they cried. We went from Maybe to Yes!

“One Woman” was the finale of the launch of UN Women on International Women’s Day. By the end of the song, every buttoned-up diplomat in the glittering General Assembly Hall was on their feet, singing along: “Shine, shine, shine.”

Over the next two years, I prodded and pushed until we had a recording/video featuring 25+ artists from around the world, icons like Bebel Gilberto (Brazil), Angelique Kidjo (Benin), Anoushka Shankar (India), Yuna (Indonesia). Miraculously, Microsoft stepped in at the last minute to make the video and pay for it all.

The song now has more than 1.5 million views on You Tube, and that number continues to grow. All from a chance conversation on a playground and a feeling in my gut. And three years of hard work from us all.

Was it meaningful? Incredibly!

For UN Women, it gave a beating heart to an unknown, “dry” political entity. The A-team international artists who donated their time and talent attracted music lovers who wouldn’t normally give a fig for “politics.” It created an identity which led to a surge in “pocketbook philanthropy” (ie donations) from all over the world.

10 years later, the song is still going strong. There are multiple recorded versions: Chinese, Arabic, karaoke, even one by a group of WHO employees/amateur musicians who joyously dedicated their weekends to the project. The song is performed live every year at the UN for International Women’s Day, and local groups sing it all over the country.

An unexpected blessing was that it turned out to be a tremendous team-building exercise for the folks at UN Women. Initially, many at the UN were skeptical about this unorthodox, potentially embarrassing undertaking. But after the hugely successful launch, they were skeptical no longer. To me, it was especially gratifying to see how proud the team was of what they’d done.

Even more gratifying was how excitement about the song reached all the way to the top. The head of UN Women, Michelle Bachelet, a serious politician (she subsequently was elected President of Chile) danced and sang along every time she heard it. Doing little hip-bumps with her remains one of my fondest memories. And Ban-Ki Moon, Secretary General of the UN, was so moved by my lyric he quoted it to conclude his speech when the song debuted at the UN, reminding the women in the audience, “Shine, shine, shine, We shall shine.”

How was creating “One Woman” meaningful for me?

1. It taught me the power of intuition. I dreamed this song into being. Every afternoon, after hours plugging away at my lists – lyrics, artists, budget – I’d sit quietly in a nearby park for an hour, listen to my binaural beats and let it come to life in my mind. Still today, I regularly get quiet, tune into my gut and set my course.

2. It made me bold. I had no idea what I was doing – though of course I never told anyone that. I had only produced a couple of songs, and never such a high-profile, complicated one. I had to cold-call superstars (well, usually their handlers). Had to call in favors, act “bigger” than I was, not be afraid to ask the stupid questions. I’m afraid no more. Well, less.

3. It taught me resilience and hard-work. Which I already knew. But this was times-twenty. I contacted at least a hundred artists, and ran into lots of dead ends (like Alicia Keys and Beyonce). But other doors flew open. Anoushka Shankar, the global sitar phenom, daughter of legend Ravi and sister of Alicia Keys, said Yes within hours of my cold-calling her publicist.

Remember, dear reader: keep asking, don’t give up. It’s a numbers game. The right ones will say yes. And find a cheerleader, as I did. I shared every step I took with her and she always replied, even when I’d failed, “You go, girl. You’re in action!”

4. Faith in myself blossomed. That I was a good enough writer to collaborate with a Grammy-winning writer. That I could “produce” this enormous baby, which involved recording and shipping an instrumental track around the world, then blending all those voices into one song in the studio.

5. It taught me to ask for what I want, for me. In my case, recognition.

There were 20 people on stage for the launch at the UN – Broadway singers, a children’s choir, Graham and Fahan. But not me. I felt small, left out (high school demons never die, do they?). I screwed up my courage and asked to be on the stage. The producers of the show were reluctant – it wasn’t their “vision.” But they finally agreed. And guess what? They decided to get on-stage themselves at the end, too.

Likewise, when the single was recorded, I asked to sing a small part and be in the video. This time, I didn’t feel like I was begging. I didn’t need permission anymore. My confidence had grown already. And you can see me in that video today.

6. It made me fully realize the power of creating something that lasts. Musicals and plays are evanescent – there is a production, and then it’s over. But a recorded song/a video is out there, continuing to inspire people. Out of the blue, friends tell me they have listened to it again. And cried again. And I feel proud and bold all over again, remembering the power of song. My purpose is reignited.

I hope this read has been useful – meaningful, in a small way. Every one of us has our own path. How you do you stay on it, through long and challenging projects like this song? Define your purpose, your mission. Follow your gut. Be resilient, work hard, keep the faith. Ask for what you need – when you’ve earned it. Be of value to someone else. And you will find, as I did, that Hope Sings in everything you do.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I walk two parallel, often overlapping, paths. I am a writer (musicals, plays and lyrics) and the founder/CEO of Hope Sings, a music-for-change organization that creates original songs inspired by stories of how real women have transformed their lives, often with the help of organizations like the UN and microfinance platform Kiva. We sing stories of change to change the stories of lives.

I am driven – in a good way – to connect people and to cross cultures in order to foster greater mutual understanding around the world. In short, to open hearts and minds, to make people feel better. From the time I started French when I was six, I have been fascinated with other languages, other countries. I was a French and German major in college, have lived in Tokyo, Hong Kong, France and Germany, and traveled extensively in Asia and Europe.

It is in my DNA to write about women. To tell their untold stories, to rewrite the negative ones we’ve been fed as a way to disempower them. This is how I fight for justice for women who have been “wronged.” This is the heart of everything I do – both with my theatre- and song-writing, and with my business.

Hope Sings partners with organizations that support women, combining the power of their uplifting stories with song. We create “anthems” like ‘One Woman” for UN Women and “Celebré” for a hospital that saves women’s lives in Haiti. Microfinance platforms Kiva and Finca offered their stories of how small loans change women borrowers in huge ways, which we shared with prominent and emerging Latina artists. We then produced the songs to generate more funders for these microloans.

When I despaired at how negative the news feels these days, I started Hope Sings Today. I interview successful creators like Tony Award-winning writer Steve Lutvak and see what brings them faith and joy in the world.

On a more personal scale, there’s Tailormade Music. We create personalized songs for special occasions, songs that celebrate people on their special days. Folks love these.

“Hope Sings” in my musicals as well. I’m drawn to stories that let us walk in the shoes of someone we may not understand – like mistresses – so we can come to be more forgiving of others, and of ourselves. I have just launched “Forgotten Women of France,” where I tell stories of women ignored or misrepresented, willfully erased or simply forgotten. There are monologues, songs, even tours of historic sites associated with these women. This work also helps Americans to better understand French culture – and vice versa. There I go, connecting cultures again.

Though I confess I do lean towards songs that inspire and enlighten, I also love to simply entertain. My Daily Ditties for Covid seem to get more attention than my big shows that take years.

On the side, I informally coach women by running Accountability Groups, weekly check-ins for small clusters of women that keep us on-track and feeling supported. This gives me tremendous joy.

I feel so fortunate to have identified a mission statement that allows me to call everything I do My Work – even writing this. In sharing about me, I hope to inspire you. To give you “permission” to change lanes when the spirit moves you – in my case, from songwriting, to theatre-making, to charitable efforts like one I created for Dramatists’ Guild artists struggling during Covid.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I had a huge career upset a number of years ago. I was writing lyrics for a new musical with a Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning writer. She decided she wanted to write the lyrics as well as the book (the “play” of the show). I was the small fish. I was out.

Up until then, my career had gone swimmingly (to milk the metaphor). The composer of this show and I were very up-and-coming. We’d won awards, been produced, had one of the best agents in New York.

Then I get the call with the bad news from the great agent (we had the same one, the three of us). I was walking on 95th Street. I couldn’t cry there. I also couldn’t breathe. There was nowhere to sit down. I kept walking.

I kept walking for weeks – trying to process, but also getting dragged down Memory Lane. Not in a good way. I’d been part of a team, now I was out (the two of them kept working on the show). Memories of my teens rocked my gut: the new girl who didn’t know anyone at the high school of 4000 kids, excluded and whispered about. I didn’t want to see or talk to any of my peers in the musical theatre world, I was too ashamed. Obviously, I wasn’t talented enough to make it. An insecurity which had always been there knocked the legs out from under me.

Finally, my survival instinct kicked in. I had to find a way to find the positive in this. To make lemonade.

I realized I was more than American musicals. I’d always been fascinated by the wider world. I’d lived abroad several times, spoke French and German and Japanese, had a French husband. What if I found a way to return to that passion? What if I could do something bigger than musical theatre – of greater value, of deeper purpose?

After many weeks of soul-searching, I claimed the domain name “Hope Sings.” I didn’t know what that meant, exactly, but knew I wanted to create songs that created change in the world, that helped people, opened hearts and minds and even raised money for those in need.

For the next 10 years, Hope Sings was my passion. I created the anthem for UN Women, songs to support microfinance organizations, a music video for a hospital that saves women’s lives in Haiti.

And somewhere in that 10 years, the insecurity and “loser” fear of musicals faded. I’ve pivoted back to writing shows – about a ground-breaking Utopian community in the US, about Forgotten Women of France. Shows where Hope Sings, too. In hindsight, I’m deeply grateful for this “setback” that sent me forward – into a new, independent, richer life.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For me, as a creator, nothing is wasted. Everything is fodder for my work. Museums, books, conversations, the weather. I see metaphor’s everywhere, meaning in every moment. Turning thoughts to things keeps me curious, alive, engaged.

I am the poster child for living the non-linear life. I have been blessed to be able to follow my heart, my gut, my curiosity, my passions. This has led me from account work in advertising to performing in musicals in the US and Japan, to writing musicals/plays/songs, to running a for-benefit music business. It’s taken me from my home-town Chicago to New England and New York, around the US, to Asia and Europe.

It can be hard to define and redefine your creative life every day. To ask yourself each morning, what is the highest and best use of my talents? In some ways, it’s easier to have a job where someone tells you what to do. But of course, it can often be less fulfilling.

Many people have the same job their whole lives. That is not for me. Friends have joked about my “f” word: focus. I have finally made peace with my restless creative drive, my need to seek out new challenges, to not repeat myself, to avoid getting stuck in a groove, no matter how successful that groove has been.

Bottom-line, I want to make people feel better. To create greater mutual understanding between cultures and individuals. To see justice served – usually for women – by reframing the negative stories we’ve received about them so we can see all sides, not demonize others.

I love that I wake up every day and have the luxury to ask myself, What can I do so Hope Sings today?

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bethblatt.com/ and http://www.hopesings.net/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blattbeth/ and https://www.instagram.com/hopesingsorg/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/beth.blatt.94 and https://www.facebook.com/hopesings/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beth-blatt-0836714/
• Twitter: @bethblatt and @Hope_Sings
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9OdR1AL6xpwHcNY6EltSrg and @bethblatt823