FEATURE:
Hard for the Heart
How Duffy’s Brave Revelation Will Give Strength to Other Women
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ON Tuesday (25th) evening…
many of us reacted to something horrible that was reported. It has been almost a decade since Duffy released her second studio album, Endlessly. Many of us have been wondering whether she will release more music and why she has been away from the spotlight for so long. Although there are personal reasons why she stepped back from music, a post on her Instagram revealed some shocking news. I woke up yesterday and saw the news reports in this article from The Guardian:
“Aimee Duffy, the Welsh pop singer known as Duffy who retreated from the public eye following her hugely successful debut album Rockferry, has said she was drugged, held captive and raped by an unidentified person.
In a statement on her official Instagram account she said: “The truth is, and please trust me I am OK and safe now, I was raped and drugged and held captive over some days. Of course I survived. The recovery took time. There’s no light way to say it. But I can tell you in the last decade, the thousands and thousands of days I committed to wanting to feel the sunshine in my heart again, the sun does now shine.”
She does not detail when the attack happened, but said she came to the decision to reveal the attack after a journalist had contacted her: “He was kind and it felt so amazing to finally speak … In the following weeks I will be posting a spoken interview. If you have any questions I would like to answer them, in the spoken interview, if I can.”
Duffy, 35, adds: “You wonder why I did not choose to use my voice to express my pain? I did not want to show the world the sadness in my eyes. I asked myself, how can I sing from the heart if it is broken? And slowly it unbroke.” She pleaded for support, and for no intrusion into her family life.
With a vintage pop sound that matched contemporaries like Amy Winehouse and Adele, Duffy’s 2008 debut album Rockferry was sensationally successful. Powered by the chart-topping single Mercy and the ballad Warwick Avenue which peaked at No 3, it became the UK’s biggest selling album that year, and won her three Brit awards. It eventually sold over 9m copies worldwide, and was a hit in the US, reaching the top five and winning a Grammy”.
A lot of people reacted to the news yesterday and on Tuesday and, with the news still fresh and impacting others, there will be shockwaves felt for a very long time. I have seen a few Twitter posts that ask how many incidents like this we will see. We have all seen the news involving Harvey Weinstein, and how he has been brought to justice for the vile sexual assaults he perpetrated over many years. In Hollywood, there is the #MeToo movement, which has spread to the wider world. I have posted an article that asked whether music needs a similar movement because, over the past few years, there have been many cases of sexual assault and rape in the music industry.
From artists like R Kelly and Ryan Adams accused and put in the spotlight, to artists like Kesha and Duffy speaking out about their ordeals, one wonders how many other women in music have bene affected. Sadly, there are too many cases of women being abused and assaulted, and something needs to change. We do not know the details of Duffy’s situation – and whether she was raped by someone in the music industry -, but her words and courage will give other women the courage to speak out. One can only imagine how hard it was for her to type that Instagram post, and what it has been like living with what she has for so many years. One has a horrible feeling that there are other women in the music industry who have faced something similar to Duffy; who have either been silenced or have not felt like they could speak up until now. Ahead of International Women’s Day on 8th March, I do think more discussions need to happen regarding women in music and how they are treated. Whether women affected by sexual abuse are victims of men in the industry or those outside of music, I think there need to be campaigns that shine a light on a problem that is not going away. It is complicated regarding resolution and progression, but artists like Duffy will start movement and, as I said, give other women the courage to speak about their experiences. I really wanted to write something following the news about Duffy, as it is a shocking and upsetting thing to hear about. Let’s hope that she will be okay and, I know, everyone in music will send Duffy…
SO much love.