It's logical that people from bad times will reflect their feelings in their communication. Music is part of the communication. If you lived it, you can do it.

This may be a dream, but I'll say it anyway: I was supposed to be married last year, and I bought a gown. When I meet Nelson Mandela, I shall put on this gown and have the train of it removed and put aside, and kiss the ground that he walks on and then kiss his feet.

There's no excuse for the young people not knowing who the heroes and heroines are or were.

My singing, if you want to call it that is merely another medium of expression. Just an instrument I play. That's how I see my voice.

Everything that happened to me as a child involved music. It was part of everyday life, as automatic as breathing.

How can you be an artist and not reflect the times?

By the time I was eight I was taking classical piano lessons and I wanted to be a concert pianist. But that didn't work out. I graduated from high school and my formal education ended.