Motivational Music Artist Alex Boyé holding concert at La Grande Fairgrounds
By Shannon Weidemann (McKone) on Thursday, October 28th, 2021 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
LA GRANDE– Multicultural, Multigenerational and Global Artist Alex Boyé is coming to La Grande this Saturday night.
This one show event is Boyé’s “The Bend Not Break Tour.” This is a unique blend of motivational music with motivational speaking segments in between from various dynamic thought leaders in the mental health field in a ‘live’ mega concert setting, packed with powerful visual imaging and effects,” said Boyé’s PR contact.
The concert will take place Saturday, October 30 at the Union County Fairgrounds at 1:00 p.m.
Magician and motivational speaker Brad Barton will kick off the entertainment at 12:30 p.m.
This event is open to all ages and free for everyone.
“I’m thrilled to come to La Grande to spread the message of hope and love,” Boyé said. “Our kids want to help; they are tired of not talking about suicide prevention and mental health. They want to express openly and conversate. They want to help in the fight – they don’t want to lose another friend, another mother, father, sister or brother.”
Boyé spoke with Elkhorn Media Group staff earlier this week and gave some incite into what brought him to this point in his life.
(Q) Could you introduce your self and give us an idea of how you started on this path?
(A) The name is Alex Boyé, I’m a recording artist, from London, England, originally. I live in the U.S. now.
When I was 16 years old, I was going through suicidal thoughts. I was going through a really, really tough time. I don’t know who my dad is and my mom moved to Nigeria for eight years. So, I lived with foster parents and I was very lonely and kind of going through some hard experiences. And when I was 16, I wanted to take my life and my plan was to go to a nightclub and just basically dance, because that was where I got my release, and then I was gonna take my life. But what happened, though, just changed everything on the dance floor when a DJ played a song that just totally related to me. It was like the song was speaking to me and was like ten years’ worth of therapy in like three minutes and 58 seconds, and I changed my mind. I went in the club suicidal, and I came out with a glimmer of hope, and I realized it was just that, it was the smallest amount of hope that I needed. That just kept me going and I always wanted to do, at some point, what that DJ had done for me.
Music is so powerful, and it can actually save lives, but I think we actually do it accidentally, you know what I mean? So, I wanted to make it more deliberate and use music and speakers in between, you know mental health workers, and thought leaders to have an experience with people and talk about suicide prevention, but through music and through entertainment and through inspiration.
We’ve had some amazing experiences so far with this and even to the point of saving lives , so it’s something that I love to do. I love music anyway, and I’ve always wanted to find a way to do something that’s bigger than myself and these suicide prevention concerts are exactly what that is.
(Q) How long have you been doing the concerts? Did you start doing this?
(A) Well, I’ve been doing it for the last four or five years in different capacities. I became an Ambassador for the American Foundation for Suicide, Prevention about four years ago, and I would do events with them and sing one or two songs, and but I’ve always wanted to do a whole concept. So, this pretty much started about two, three years ago.
(Q) What are some things that people can expect to hear from you this weekend?
(A) I think, really most importantly, it’s just good news. I think that with everything that goes on today, there’s not enough of it and really music saved me, and I know that it can do the same thing for other people too. It’s been known to slow down your blood pressure to increase our serotonin and to even just make you smile. And so, those are the type of things that I love to get involved in. And I think most important things, especially, with kids, with the youth, there’s a lot of anxiety, there’s a lot of stress, and there’s a lot of suicide ideation and many things that are connected with, you know, nobody knows what the exact cure is. Sometimes it’s one thing for one person and one thing for another.
Studies have shown that music plays a very great big part in easing people’s anxiety and stress levels.
(Q) How can people learn more about your music? Do you have a YouTube channel or Facebook, or anything like that?
(A) Yes, I have them all:
You can find me at https://alexboye.com/
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alexboyereal
On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/AlexBoyeReal
Twitter: https://twitter.com/alexboyereal
(Q) Anything else about what you do or about the performances or messages that you wanted to share with us today?
(A) Well, I think the key is that we’ve done something great already, the fact that we’re talking about suicide prevention, and that’s really my goal to just get people to talk about it more because people are not talking about it. It’s taboo. People are embarrassed to talk about it in their families or if something has happened in their families, they think it’s better to keep it quiet, but it’s the total opposite and my goal is to get out in the open and have us all talk and have a conversation like we do at dinner.
