Not many people would even think of getting a chance to come face to face with Madonna, but for singer and activist Emmanuel Kelly, he will be one of the very few sharing the stage with her at the first of its kind World Cup Half Time Show.
Alongside the Confessions singer, Justin Bieber, Shakira, BTS, Burna Boy and more, in a special show curated by Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Emmanuel will join some of his musical heroes for the performance of a lifetime.
As he prepares to meet Madonna – whom he describes as an artist who has created a whole “generation of music” – he just has one question on his mind. “I’m just going to embrace the moment. I’m going to ask every one of them, ‘Hey, listen, can you please just put me on your songs?'” he tells us in an exclusive chat ahead of the Half Time show.
Just four weeks ago, Emmanuel heard from Chris with an offer he couldn’t refuse. The pair have been friends for some time now, with Emmanuel having joined the band of their iconic Music of the Spheres World Tour. He was also part of the Club World Cup Half Time show last year, curated by Chris too – but having starred in the other, he didn’t think there would be any chance of doing this one too.
“About four weeks ago, it wasn’t even gonna happen. I sent Chris a text and said, ‘Hey, congratulations.’ And he wrote back saying, ‘Do you wanna join?’ I didn’t tell anyone but my partner and then suddenly we got this email from FIFA and Global Citizen confirming it all, as if it was planned all along,” he recalls.
Emmanuel’s current predicament is a far cry from the start of his life. He had a devastating and tough childhood, being found as an infant, abandoned on a battlefield in Iraq, before being taken in by those at Mother Teresa Orphanage in Baghdad where he met his now-brother Ahmed. Because of his birth mother’s exposure to chemical warfare, he was born with underdeveloped limbs.
When found by his future adoptive mother, Australian humanitarian Moira Kelly, in 1998, him and Ahmed moved to Australia two years later and following surgery, which allowed him to be fitted with prosthetic limbs, he became a citizen of Australia in 2009.
A viral appearance on Australia’s X Factor in 2011, where he was voted off before getting into the top 24, and it wasn’t long after that he came to meet the Coldplay star. They were introduced several years ago through a mutual friend, with Chris quickly giving Emmanuel the nickname “natural antidepressant”. The pair’s bond has only grown over the years, with Emmanuel describing his friend as more like a “brother”.
“I grew up in Iraq and I was a brother to a lot of people in that orphanage where I had to take care of these kids. I always say the only thing thicker than blood is love,” he tells us,
“In an entertainment industry that sometimes focuses too much on the superficial, Chris was there for me. For the first time in a long time, I was in a very dark place. It was then I met Chris.
“He became a brother to me. He became a mentor. He became a guide. He became the shining light. He feels his purpose is spreading love and happiness and joy and he has been doing that for so many years. He gave love and joy to me in a time of darkness and in a time I really needed it.”
As Emmanuel’s fiancé Joanne so wonderfully puts it: “In Chris’s mind, Emmanuel just has the secret to joy. He values him as someone that, despite everything he’s gone through, he approaches everything from a perspective of joy.”
Summing up the half time show for us in just a few sentences, Emmanuel didn’t want to give anything away but he did tell us the focus was on unity and love.
“There’s more good in this world than there is bad. We see the bad more so we just need to start focusing on the good more. Focus on the good, love yourself and global unity. That’s the message of the show.”
As well as his musical endeavours, Emmanuel co-founded 0utlyer, which has a mission to employ 1,200 differently abled people in the entertainment industry across film and television production and music and live events curation company.
“Our goal as a company is to help the world and reshape the question. It’s not about what this community needs or necessarily what can we do for this community; but it’s how do we repay the favour of what the community’s already done. There’s two billion people that have already done, but done it in the shadows and we need to shine a light of what this community is actually doing,” he says.
Emmanuel has also just released a new song called Hello. “Hello just sends a message about loving yourself. When things are down and out, just smile to yourself. Smile in the mirror. Tell yourself you love yourself.
“Go up to some random individual on the street and just say hello to them. It brings joy. Sometimes the simple thing of just saying hello to somebody, you don’t know what that does to that person.”
*In further news Kelly has now signed with UK-based Champions Speakers the UK and Europe’s leading keynote speaker agency , and will share his story via a series of inspirational public speaking events, bringing his message of resilience and inclusion to audiences across business, education and beyond.
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