Spread the LOVE.

Quote by Ian Axel introducing his song "This Is The New Year".

Think about it. It's true. I mean what does the New Year stand for? It's being open-minded, open-hearted, it's colourful and bright, it's loud and exciting. And most importantly: It stands for being with your friends and family.

Last week I experienced such a New Year, but let me start at the beginning.

I met up with one of my best friends Anna at the Frankfurt main station at midnight to go on a bus to Hamburg, about 500km north from us. The ride was uncomfortable and weird and I didn't get to sleep much, so what we did right away when we arrived in Hamburg in the morning is go to sleep in a decent bed in our hostel.

When we got up again at about noon, we decided to see as much of the city as possible, as whe had never been there before. So we walked through the shopping streets, went to the city hall, crossed a lot of bridges and relaxed in a nice park, before we came to the harbor. It was the hottest day in the week and maybe also one of the hottest days in the past few weeks, so we enjoyed a few breezes watching the ferries and people go by (one of our favorite hobbies is people-watching xD).

After that we headed back to our hostel to get ready for what was coming up - a benefit event called "Feels Like Home" featuring two artists we were excited to see live - Greg Holden and Ian Axel.
So when we got there and sat down first near the bar and later in the front row beneath the stage, I decided to tweet that we were about to see these guys live. What came totally as a surprise was Greg tweeting back to me saying that they were backstage both reading my tweet. - We freaked a bit (hm, maybe I freaked a bit more) and couldn't wait for the show to start. I shot him a tweet back saying we were front row and that he should wave at us.

Greg came onstage first and enchanted us with his voice and songs. He also expressed his gratitude for being here in Germany and for all of us to have come, as it was his first time playing here.

"He sang a nice set of about 5-6 including the song "Bar On A" for which he brought Ian and another talented singer-songwriter called Jonatha Brooke onstage. The three of them had never met before, even though at least Greg and Ian had already played at the same bars and even share the same friends. The result was absolutely amazing. They sounded as if they had never done anything else.


When he came to his second-last song "The Art Of Falling" I cheered a bit, which got his attention. He gave us a big shout-out which you can check out in this video right here:


As an encore Greg covered "Walking On Sunshine" and made the whole audience participate - what a treasure!! You can check that one (and all the other videos) out here.

After two very interesting readings by Daniel Tobias Etzel and Heinz Strunk, plus an incredible performance by Jonatha Brooke, Ian Axel came onstage.

When he began to play the piano, the whole room fell into an appreciative silence. He told us that he had been playing since he was a little kid and that when he started singing about three years ago it changed his whole life. You could feel that. You could feel that this was where he belonged and what he was meant to do.

It all came crashing down on me when Ian brought Greg back up onstage to do the song "This Is The New Year". You can check out the performance here (to at least understand a part of what I'm talking about):


I had tears streaming down my face and was totally moved by it, a feeling I had never experienced before.

In the end Ian played a song on this Ukulele called "Say Something" (you can also check it out here), which I ended up covering a few days later when I was back home (if you want to see it, it's here). It means the world to me and owns a big place in my heart.





After the show everybody met up at the bar and had a couple of drinks. We waited for a quiet moment to walk up to the guys and thank them and talk a litte. They were the nicest people ever. Ian even remembered me from Twitter and said "Aren't you the girl from Twitter?" and then asked me if he could give me a hug. What a sweetheart.

As you can see the event was a total success. Not only for "Feels Like Home", but also for us listeners. We gained the respect and love for incredible artists and we will definitely be seeing them again.

So after I uploaded the cover of me singing Ian's song "Say Something" he shot me back a very adorable message thanking me for the support, assuring me that we'll meet again and prasing me for my cover.

"We all have purpose in each other." he wrote. So true.


Thank you. All of you. "What an experience that was." I agree.

- Antonia -