![]() ![]() ![]() She used her success to share her inspiring life story with thousands of people across the UK. Lizzie was a charismatic, engaging force of nature on a mission to effect change. Lizzie won two national awards for her contribution to music, and she actively encouraged a number of learning-disabled artists to develop careers in the music industry. The album was a rallying call for people with learning disabilities. It charted her key life experiences and she described it as “eclectic, wide-ranging and with lots of soul”. In 2009, she released her debut album, Loud and Proud. Lizzie Emeh on stage at the Roundhouse, Camden, for the launch of her Meds EP in 2019. From 1999 to 2007 Lizzie toured with the Heart n Soul Experience across Europe, performed for three consecutive years at Glastonbury festival, and took Heart n Soul Unplugged to Asia. Her career really started to develop in 1999 when she was discovered by Heart n Soul, a creative arts community based in south-east London. From the age of 11, Lizzie boarded at Parkwood Hall cooperative academy, a school for children with learning disabilities, in Swanley, Kent. Music was a key part of Lizzie’s childhood, and she started singing aged 10. However, at four years old she proved the doctors wrong, and throughout her life she continued to defy the odds. Her parents, Kathleen (nee O’Neill) and Jonathan Emeh, were told she would never walk or talk due to severe medical complications. In 2009 she made history with her debut album, Loud and Proud, becoming the first person with a learning disability to release an album of original songs in the UK.īorn and brought up in west London, Lizzie was of Irish and Nigerian heritage. My friend Lizzie Emeh, who has died aged 44 after a short illness, was a pioneering artist and songwriter who championed the rights of people with learning disabilities in the UK. ![]()
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