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My unknown song became a political anthem in Hong Kong

Matthew Keegan had given up writing music when a phone alert revealed a song he'd recorded years earlier had turned him into an overnight pop star 5,000 miles away.

Matthew 'Kashy' Keegan knew from a very young age that he wanted to be a pop star. He just didn't know how. He spent years writing and making music and knocking on the doors of the music industry but to no avail. By age 25, demoralised and fed up, he decided to quit. He took a job at a radio station and settled into his new life. But years later, when he was home one evening, his phone started to beep incessantly. He clicked on one of the alerts to find scenes of thousands of people out on the streets of Hong Kong waving the lights of their phones through the air and his song playing on the tannoy. The song he'd written many years earlier had now, in 2013, become a political anthem in a country he'd never even visited.

Get in touch: [email protected]

Picture: Matthew Keegan
Credit: Eva Li

Available now

41 minutes

Broadcasts

  • Mon 5 Jul 202111:06GMT
  • Mon 5 Jul 202117:06GMT
  • Tue 6 Jul 202102:06GMT

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Podcast: Lives Less Ordinary

Podcast: Lives Less Ordinary

Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected