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SINGAPORE : American jazz singer Melody Gardot owes her life to music, literally. Music gave Gardot a new lease of life after a fateful accident in November 2003, when a large car ignored a red light and crashed into her while she was cycling.
Gardot, who was just 18 at the time, suffered severe injuries to her head and spine while her pelvis was shattered in two places. She was bedridden for over a year, during which time her muscles atrophied and she could not even stand up.
Her injuries were so serious that she had to re-learn how to do basic tasks like brushing her teeth and walking. She also had short-term and long-term memory problems and was forced to wear dark glasses almost all the time, as the injuries had left her hyper-sensitive to light and sound.
It is virtually impossible for her to she lead a normal life after suffering such injuries, let alone become a musician. But she succeeded with the help of music.
After seeking help from numerous doctors, Gardot met one who believed that the cure was to find something she liked to do and use that to pass the time.
When told that Gardot used to perform in piano bars, the doctor "just lit up like a light and said 'you have to do music'".
She did, and the music gradually helped heal the damaged neural pathways in her brain that have prevented her from functioning normally, though Gardot, who still has to wear dark glasses, admits that she has some ways to go before achieving complete normalcy.
"If not for music in my life, I would still probably be struggling the way I was before. Because until that, they [her doctors] have found nothing that has really worked so progressively and so quickly to repair the problem...
"Because of music, my brain healed," said the 23-year-old.
Gardot had since gone on to release "Lessons: The Bedroom Sessions" in 2005, an album containing songs she wrote while in hospital, as well as the albums "Worrisome Heart" in 2008 and "My One and Only Thrill" a year later.
She is also on tour "11 months out of the year" but was so impressed by her recovery that she has begun taking time out of her busy schedule to create a Music Therapy programme, with the help of an American research institute, to help others like her.
"I am very passionate about it [working on and promoting Music Therapy] because I believe that the world is a huge place, and if we only live about a hundred years, I think the true key to happiness and fulfillment is by aiding and assisting others."
Despite having suffered so much at such a tender age, Gardot is convinced that the accident might actually have been a blessing in disguise, as it changed the way she thought about music and prevented her from taking things for granted.
"I was turned on to music as a child but never in a way like I was after the accident," she said.
"I think in the long run, it will be a blessing more than a burden because I see often, maybe too often, that people, while achieving things, become too comfortable and so they lose some of their passion or they lose some of their gratitude because things become very easy," added Gardot.
"Nothing is easy for me yet."
- CNA/ha
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