Interview: André Hattingh Talks to Us About Her New Song GATHERING THE STARS

Leading SA actress, singer and television personality André Hattingh has recorded a new song called GATHERING THE STARS, released on 28 March. The song is a tribute honouring the over 142 SA showbiz personalities who sadly passed away (COVID-19 and other reasons) in the past two years, during lockdown.

The full music video is available on YouTube.

We were lucky enough to chat to the star about the song and the process of writing it.

BWW: I'd like to start by saying thank you for creating this tribute to those the industry has lost, it's really moving. I was told the song started as a poem. Can you tell me about the process of writing the poem and transforming it into a song?

André: I felt I had to do something, so many of my beloved friends were dying during lockdown so I wrote a poem. Lockdown has brought out the 'poet' in me and I posted many poems on Facebook. Lots of people enjoyed them. I can say it has been a kind of therapy for me.
GATHERING THE STARS started life as a poem. I posted it on Facebook and somebody commented, "Hey, André, this sounds like one of your songs." I guess this was in my mind when one evening, standing in the kitchen, reeling after hearing of yet another friend's passing, the chorus came to me:
We're gathering the stars
The show will still go on
After you've gone
you'll still linger on
In the hearts that you've won.
My husband, Anthony Akerman, heard me singing it and said, "Hmm, I think you should do something with that song." So, I guess I wrote the body of the song as a poem, and then I got the chorus with a tune. Then I set the poem into a tune that would fit with the chorus. This is how it evolved from poem to song.

BWW: The title is lovely - GATHERING THE STARS. Where did that come from?

André: I write many songs and most of them come to me without really thinking. I suddenly get a catchy phrase or tune and then develop it. GATHERING THE STARS was complete inspiration. I wrote the song about a year ago. Last week I visited my late husband Peter Noel-Barham's grave. A friend had recently been buried in the same cemetery, so I decided to 'visit' while I was there. I had an emotional experience when I read the epitaph that I had engraved on Peter's tombstone. He had written the poem himself before he died and had used similar words. Perhaps they were lingering in my mind from then.
For every meeting holds the seed of parting.
We are but vagabonds of God
Blowing where the spirit wills,
Hopefully leaving behind
A little of what we have garnered
While gathering up the stars.

BWW: Tell me about the process of gathering the names and photos that feature in the video. That list is very long of people we've lost.

André: The song has taken an entire year's journey from writing to the launching of the video. This gave me ample time to post many posts among my theatrical friends and colleagues, asking them to update the list of lost entertainers with any that I may have missed out on. It has been a long process, but I've been helped along the way by many friends, correcting and updating for many months.

BWW: I've been asking all performers this question because I think it's so important for the world to understand how hard the entertainment industry was hit in the last two years - how have they been for you? Were you able to keep creating at all?

André: The entertainment business has suffered hugely. I personally had to cancel many concerts and my husband who is a scriptwriter and playwright has been unemployed during this time. Neither of us receiving any income from our professions. When you ask, "have I been able to create?" Yes, absolutely, this has been an extremely creative time, in spite of the lack of income. I have almost completed a book of poetry, and written many songs inspired by lockdown, etc. My husband has written several wonderful plays. It has been a time of creativity in spite of the darkness of not having any outlets for our work.

BWW: And finally, what are your hopes for the song? Where would you like to see it go?

André: I would be very happy for my tribute to be seen and shared by all people who have lost someone special. Perhaps not even just for people in the industry. The sentiment is still the same if we regard the world as a stage - the show will still go on and all people who are no longer with us will still linger on in the hearts that they've won.
Of course, I also have a big dream. A dream that my song will be incorporated at the Oscars as a tribute to all the Stars that have passed away. Up till now I have never seen an Oscar ceremony playing a song as appropriate as GATHERING THE STARS, during the screening of film clips of the great stars who are no longer with us.
Hey - maybe Barbra Streisand would like to sing it!
Ah well, we can all dream...

Photo credit: Anthony Akerman

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