M4MH: Ed Sheeran, James Arthur, Anne-Marie & More Perform In Bid To End The Stigma Around Mental Health

London's Roundhouse was last night witness to the very first Music 4 Mental Health event featuring a barrage of music artists, all taking to the stage in aid of normalising the coversation around Mental Health, and it was AMAZING.

Part of the #IAMWHOLE campaign, and in partnership with mental health charities YMCA, The Mix and CALM, the show was spearheaded and hosted by Jordan Stephens saw all the acts on the line up share equal billing.

Global superstar Ed Sheeran opened the show with acoustic versions of mega hits 'Castle On The Hill', 'The A Team', 'Perfect', 'Thinking Out Loud' and 'Shape Of You', plus a rarely-heard performance of Justin Bieber’s ‘Love Yourself’.

Speak Your Mind is the name of her debut album so it was a perfect fit to see Anne-Marie on the line up who, among her stripped-back hits, performed ‘Perfect To Me’, a song laying bare all her insecurities and encouraging people to speak out about something when you feel alone.

The singer joined Jordan for a chat following her performance reiterating that point. "For me, I was struggling for a long time when I was younger and I didn’t even realise," she admitted, "and then I got a bit older, and I started talking to people and researching about it online, and I tried to listen to myself and figure out what was going on with myself.

"I struggle with anxiety and there’s a lot of things I battle with everyday, but its getting easier, and the more I talk to people, honestly, it helps so much."

WATCH ANNE-MARIE'S 'PERFECT TO ME' VIDEO:

She added: "Life’s tough! No one can go through life without a problem or an issue, so as soon as we all start recognising that the better. Just because you think your problem’s not as big as something else that you’ve seen online, or as big as your friend’s who’s just told you about something, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have to talk about it…your problem is important."

Elsewhere in the night, in an applaudable show of vulnerability, rock and roller and self-proclaimed ‘lad’s lad’ Louis Berry opened up for the very first time on stage about his eight-year battle with anxiety, while Olly Murs, lyrics in hand, tackled ‘Talking To Myself’, one of his yet-to-be-road-tested new album tracks with a sentiment close to the night’s subject matter.

https://twitter.com/ollyofficial/status/1064277925351034882

Hussain Manawer took us on an emotional spoken word rollercoaster, UK rock band Nothing But Thieves returned to support the campaign, having last year reworked their single 'Broken Machines' for the cause, while Ella Eyre and Professor Green brought the bangers as the evening catapulted to it's conclusion.

The night was rounded off with an acoustic set from James Arthur, no stranger to speaking about mental health, saying onstage: "I like to think I’m an ambassador for this subject, I’ve suffered massively myself and the most important thing I’ve learned is that it’s OK not to be OK. It’s huge to just accept that and talk about it and help other people."

To see so many artists give up their time for such an important conversation was truly overwhelming and we can't wait to witness the day that there's no stigma surrounding Mental Health issues. Everyone involved with #IAMWHOLE and the M4MH show last night should be extremely proud of themselves and we hope it'll return bigger and better next year.

For more information about the work WHOLE, YMCA, The Mix and CALM do, click the links below:

WHOLE: https://www.whole.org.uk/
YMCA: https://www.ymca.org.uk/
The Mix: https://www.themix.org.uk/
CALM: https://www.thecalmzone.net/