Article in Today's Woman - Kentucky magazine

Permalink Reply by Robin on March 2, 2011 at 11:41pm

Hi Gail, Very nice article! Love seeing this publicity!!!! Thanks!!!!

Robin :)

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jennifer Steadman on March 3, 2011 at 12:44am

What a lovely article. It's lovely to see an article that talks a lot about his charity work and music career combined.

Thanks for sharing this with us Gail.

How rude of them to place Michael on the second to last page!! You could almost miss him and that would be a travesty!! Ha Ha!!

Love Jennifer XX

PS for the people who use a screen reader, I will type this article up for you tomorrow as it is almost midnight here in the UK and I'm really tired.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Helena on March 3, 2011 at 2:26am

Great article....thanks Gail!

Helena...xx..

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Gail on March 3, 2011 at 2:58am

Jennifer, I was able to copy the article...hope you see this before you type it all!!

Arts Insider Must-See By Gioia Patton
MICHAEL BOLTON
GIOIA PATTON IS AN ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT CELEBRITY PROFILER.
His Time, Love
& Tenderness
This particular Arts Insider will stand out in my memory
because, after reading the variety of ‘A-level’ achievements
associated with Michael Bolton, I quickly came up with three
completely different possible openings.
#1) Do I begin in 1987, when the then unknown Bolton (born
Michael Bolotin in New Haven, Conn. in 1953 to Russian Jewish
parents) first rose to fame as the co-writer of the beautiful ballad
How Am I Supposed To Live Without You, which became a hit
single for the late Laura Branigan?
#2) Or do I begin with the cover-version success Bolton’s had
with such R&B classics as Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay, Georgia
on my Mind, When A Man Loves A Woman…not forgetting the
aria Nessun Dorma, from Puccini’s opera Turandot, which, until
Bolton’s now-signature cover, was most widely associated with the
late tenor Luciano Pavorotti.
#3) Or, finally, do I begin with the man, who in 1993 established
the Michael Bolton Foundation (now Michael Bolton Charities),
which assists women and children at risk from the effects of
poverty, as well as emotional, physical and sexual abuse, and who
was the executive producer of the
2005 documentary Terror at Home:
Violence in America. For his dedication
to social activism, Bolton has been
honored with several Humanitarian
awards, including the Martin Luther King Award granted by the
Congress of Racial Equality (C.O.R.E.), The Lewis Hine Award from
the National Child Labor Committee, and the Ellis Island Medal of
Honor from the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations.
Ultimately, #3 stood out from the pack, and became the
primary focus of this interview. Speaking by phone, Bolton begins
by explaining the catalyst behind his charity becoming associated
with the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
In 1993, the year Bolton founded his foundation, he was
already a seasoned music superstar, having recorded such hits as
Soul Provider, Time, Love & Tenderness and was the winner of a
Grammy Award for his vocal performance of When A Man Loves
a Woman.
“I’d learned by then that celebrity in America is a kind of
‘currency,’ and you can use it to raise money, and bring people and
press attention to the causes that you’re committed to,” begins a
very friendly Bolton.
The focus of his charity in the beginning, he says “was to try to
find a way to help people struggling financially, families who were
at risk, because in my beginning years the ‘starving artist’ cliché
was unfortunately very accurate. And at that time I had a wife and
three daughters to support. It was a really, really rough time for
quite some time.”
Bolton recalls in ’93 asking Jackie Smaga, who runs his
foundation, “to look into struggling families in Connecticut
and see if we could help find a way to get people back on their
feet. And what she found out was that a lot of the shelters she
was visiting were filled with women — single parents and their
children, who were there because of violence in their homes.” He
admits: “It was shocking to me because I had not been exposed to
it growing up, and was not knowledgeable about it.”
Bolton, who has been divorced for many years, and who grew
up one of three children in a divorced household, continues: “My
father taught us that you never raised your hand to a woman.
There’s never, ever going to be justification for any violence
towards a woman in your life. It was just unthinkable in our home.”
Bolton recalls feeling “outraged!”
after he began hearing domestic
violence stories collected from
Smaga’s visits to the local shelters.
He continues: “After we
started asking, shelter by shelter, what we could do to help (some
needs were as simple as making a donation to add beds, social
workers, or people to answer the hotlines), an amazing amount
of information came in very quickly, which then pulled the
foundation into partnering with the National Coalition Against
Domestic Violence.”
Hearing those stories led Bolton to Washington D.C., where he
met with Senators and Congressman about the Violence Against
Women Act.
“And so I’ve basically committed myself through the years to
educating and talking about getting men to step forward about
domestic violence because that was the key. Because you’re
preaching at a choir when you’re speaking in front of women’s
groups who are doing this work already, and they’re looking to
bring men on board.”
On the subject of Bolton’s music, and what’s behind his decision
to record those aforementioned classics, he reveals, “I followed
my instincts, and recorded what I’d liked growing up…what had
moved me. I never thought about whether it was daunting or not
to approach an iconic song. I thought ’it’s your obligation as a
singer to do songs that people love, whether you write them or
they’re written by Otis Redding or Ray Charles.’ I don’t think about
Nessun Dorma being done by the last 20 big tenors. I just think
about how I’m going to enjoy it and how my audience is going to
respond to it.
“My audience…those are the voices I listen to mostly, because
I’m paying attention to what their experience is.”
WHEN: March 13, @ 7pm WHEre: Brown Theatre
tickets: $45-$75 CONTACT: Kentucky Center box office.
Or 502.584.7777 or visit www.kentuckycenter.org
I see a lot of my core fans at my concerts, who know all my
music. But I’m also seeing (people) in their 20s, who were
teenagers when a lot of this music was being played.
— Michael Bolton

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Mariu Lolllett on March 3, 2011 at 3:12am

Hi, Gail

Thanks a lot !!! you know how much

I love this kind of article, I like !!!

Take care

Mariu

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by sylvie boisvert on March 3, 2011 at 6:18am

Thank you sweet angelic Gail, what a wonderful article! I would have tried the link tomorrow, but God bless you for making it easy for me and Robin! And thanks to Jennifer for your good intention! :D Take care. Big hugs, sincerely, Sylvie from Canada