Michael Murphy Joins Make-A-Wish Aotearoa In Waiting Room
• The Waiting Room highlights tremendous demand facing Make-A-Wish charity
• Murphy's song includes voices of children impacted by Make-A-Wish – including his son
Make-A-Wish NZ's latest fundraising campaign – The Waiting Room – has produced more than just much needed funds for critically ill Kiwi kids ' wishes.
It's also spawned a wonderful new song from much-loved Kiwi popstar of NZ Idol fame, Michael Murphy.
The Waiting Room premise is that 'although dozens of critically ill Kiwi kids spend way more time in hospital waiting rooms than they should have to, we have the chance to make sure their wishes don't have to wait.'
When Murphy was asked if he would appear in the campaign collateral as a popstar (see above), representing a popular children's wish of 'singing on a stage', he said I can do better than that: 'How about I create a song to go with it?'
Murphy enlisted the help of friend, writing partner and Written By Wolves bandmate Davie Wong to write the song. Then a week later, and coincidentally right on cue for NZ Music Month, Murphy's 'The Waiting Room' song (click to listen) was available to stream – kindly gifted to Make-A-Wish, and released under their name.
But Murphy also had a greater personal motivation and connection for doing what he did. The child solo in the song is sung by Michael's nine-year-old son, Archie. Cont'd…/
Archie's best friend Freddie (who is also in the child's choir in the song) is a recent Make-A-Wish (MAW) recipient and currently in remission after being diagnosed with leukaemia.
Murphy explains the connection even more poignantly:
'Quite often it's not only the sick child and their whānau who begin a roller-coaster journey after a diagnosis. The young friends of the sick child also have to be chaperoned on a journey of explanation and awareness by their own families about what's happening to their mates. In this case it was my family's journey through our son's friendship with Freddie.'
Fortunately, Freddie is continuing to live his best life. The wish that Freddie was granted has been immortalised in the lyrics of Murphy's new song: ' I wanna ride with my best friend in a monster truck.'
And less than a year later, Freddie and his best mate who tagged along for that ride, Archie, are singing about their magic Make-A-Wish experience in a song created and performed by Archie's dad. Cool huh.
The just released song has already had more than 16,000 plays on Spotify – and MAW has gained nearly 10,000 new followers on the platform too. With all streaming proceeds directly supporting wishes, this gift will continue to generously generate funds of its own for MAW for years to come.
Make-A-Wish New Zealand CEO Anne Fitisemanu says the song is full of imagination and is a creative bonus for the campaign. 'Make-A-Wish New Zealand has never done anything like this before. Thank you so much to Michael and Davie for your mahi, and for making our charity a music artist!'
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