Let’s Talk About Overdosing: Enjune, Mac Miller & Demi Lovato

In this blog post, I won’t review music in the first place. This time I want to write about a serious topic which is also strongly related to the music industry. Let’s talk about musicians and overdosing. Many musical legends died because of an overdose in the past, famous and incredibly talented artists like Amy Winehouse, Whitney Houston, Prince, Michael Jackson and not long ago the rappers Lil Peep and Mac Miller in last September. There is one more death and especially a song, which inspired me to write this blog post. It’s the newly released single “Be Alright” by Enjune. He wrote this song for Evan, his close friend and bandmate, who relapsed and died of an accidental heroin overdose.

Their friendship started back in the 7^th grade when Evan convinced Enjune to take up guitar lessons. They formed their own band and played together till mid-January of 2018 when the tragic event happened. He also had lost his father to cancer and then his best friend to overdose within an 18-month span. So, after a long depressive phase, he had emerged a new mission to create music on a serious level. The boys always dreamed of making music together, therefore Enjune decided to fight to make their dreams come true. Now he declares that:

“Writing and playing music has always been the most therapeutic, it means for me to escape from stress, sadness when I need to confront it. I’m finally at a point where I feel confident enough to share my creations outside just close friends and family. I don’t care about big-time fame or fortune. If my words and melodies are able to help others then the purpose has been served. I’m grateful enough to be able to play and express myself artistically through music.”

He wrote “Be Alright” with two of his mentors, Dan Sadin and Andrew Heringer, who support and believe in him. He started writing it a few weeks after the death of Evan. The words “it will be alright” gave him the strength to pass this dark time. In my opinion, this song represents pure emotions beginning in the slow guitar riff as an intro, then with the first vocals and lyrics, continuing in the upbeat instrumental bridge and finally in the outro. It’s an appropriate song to slow down, to breath in and exhale slowly, to listen in nature during a walk. The message that “it will be alright” can awaken a little hope in everyone’s heart. This song is actually Enjune’s first single of his upcoming EP “Teal Dreams” which will be released in late summer this year. I want to emphasize that all money raised through streams of “Be Alright” will be donated to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. So please buy and stream where ever you can.

You know that I am a huge Demi Lovato fan. I am Lovatic for 10 years now. I know Demi’s story or I thought I knew it until she overdosed in last July. 2018 was one of my worst years regarding my personal life but one of my biggest dreams came true and I saw Demi Lovato live on tour in Zurich last summer. It should have been the best day of my life but it wasn’t since I also had one of my term exams from Psychology at the university on the same day. My exam went horrible and I failed not because of the concert, no, I just wasn’t well prepared enough and the exam was also very hard. Therefore, I couldn’t enjoy the concert at all. I was pretending to enjoy the night because the little Eren in me has been waiting for this event for half of his life. One week later I had my second exam but I was in a burnout syndrome-like condition and couldn’t study for this exam at all, so I failed this one too. One month later when I experienced that I had failed both exams and one day later when I also heard about Demi Lovato’s overdose my dark summer just got darker, let’s call it summertime sadness. I have never been that much unproductive and passive during summer holidays, that was also the real reason why I stopped blogging last summer. My motivation to do anything was gone.

After I heard and read about Demi’s overdose. I started questioning being a Lovatic, I felt so sorry for her and couldn’t understand why she let this happen to her, she had a relapse. Her song “Sober” was probably the cry for help. I never thought that she could go so far. The fact is to do drug is dangerous, risky, and unhealthy. If you want to get high listen to good music. Music is my drug. The following days after her overdose I was crying every time I watched a video of her or read something about her. She was the empowering inspiring pop artist who helped her fans with their personal issues. She also wrote the book “Staying Strong 365 days a year”. And then she was the one who needed help immediately. Suddenly everything felt like a big lie to me. I was so upset angry at her but also sad and pity at the same time. Then I realized that I can and shouldn’t judge her. Yes, she stopped being sober and had a relapse even an overdose, but at the end of the day, she is a human. I was just thinking why? She was on the top of her career and she worked so hard for this. New album, a world tour, collaborations with Cheat Codes, Christina Aguilera and DJ Khaled. And then suddenly with an overdose, everything went from the top to rock bottom. But that’s life you never know when it’ll go up or downwards. But how Enjune sings everything will be alright at the end. As a lovatic I gave Demi the time she needed to recover, she took a social media break, went to rehab and know she is fortunately sober again. I’m proud of her.

I also want to mention Mac Miller in this blog post. I wasn’t a big fan of him but I knew his relationship with Ariana Grande and their collaborations. He died because of an overdose last September and this is not ok. I was so upset when I saw him trending on social media for this reason. Unfortunately, he wasn’t the first artist to die due to overdose and I guess he will also not be that last one. Wikipedia even has a list with each artist who overdosed and died for each decade. The list shocked me. I don’t want to lose talented artists due to drugs and overdosing. I don’t want to see more names on this list. This shouldn’t be the way talented artists die, nobody should die this way. People should get help for their addictions. So please get help if you need it or if you know someone, who should get help, support them to get help.

Demi showed that you can recover again after a relapse. I believe that God gave her a second chance and she really shouldn’t take it for granted.  She got so much hate on twitter lately just because she tweeted a meme about the rapper 21 savage being British and writing his verses like a British Queen with a feather. Other mean Twitter users started to offense her about her overdose. They told her to overdose again and to die, to do heroin, called her a crack and more mean stuff like that. She definitely doesn’t deserve so much hate. Now she deleted her twitter account, which is also not ok, she has lost a main source of connection to her fans. But I want her to be happy and if people treat her wrong on twitter it’s her right to do so. I’ll share some screenshots of the tweets just for the case you’re interested in them and also to show my source.

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Overdosing and drug addiction is a serious issue we should talk about and help the victims to get sober even after a relapse and not drag somebody down because of it or for something they did in their pasts and regret it now. People can change with support. Let’s all be supportive and not hurtful and condemning. I believe that everything will be all right in the end. Feel free to comment your opinion on this topic in the comment section and to share this blog post with a friend.

Please don’t forget to check out Eljune’s debut single “Be Alright”.

Follow him on:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/enjune.music/

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/enjunemusic/

Spotify: