UPLANDS: Told at nine she couldn’t sing, Maryann wrote her own anthem and sang it at the Royal Welsh College

Maryann Enereba was nine, and living in Nigeria, when she was sent out of a school music practice for not being able to sing.

“I was heartbroken,” she said. “I walked out of the room crying and sat on a staircase sobbing.”

Now the Uplands singer has written an anthem of her own, and performed it at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in front of delegates from across Wales.

‘Instead of singing, I was asked to conduct the group’

A school chaplain found her on the stairs. When she told him she had been thrown out of the music club, he took her back and pleaded with them to let her stay.

They agreed, with a twist. “Instead of singing, I was asked to conduct the group!” she said. “Looking back now it’s quite funny, but at the time I was devastated.”

“What stayed with me wasn’t just being told I couldn’t sing, but also the kindness of someone who believed I deserved another chance,” she said. “Even after that experience, I refused to stop singing.”

‘We Go Together or Not At All’: the anthem for Mastering Diversity Wales

After moving to Wales, Maryann built a career in communications and community engagement, and kept singing.

The anthem was her idea. She approached Bernie Davies, founder of Mastering Diversity Wales, and told her she would love to write one for it.

“If I’m honest, I didn’t fully believe I had the ability to write and compose something like that, but Bernie believed in me and kept encouraging me,” she said.

“One morning, after praying about it, the words I’d been scribbling down suddenly started making sense. I quickly recorded a voice note and sent it to Bernie, and she loved it straight away.”

Her friend Caleb Joshua, a musician, worked on the music and arrangement with her and Charis.

The words include:

We go together or not at all
We have obeyed the clarion call
Creating a path for everyone
We go together or not at all

She first performed it at the Mastering Diversity Wales conference in Cardiff, to delegates from businesses, community groups, public services, education and charities.

“Writing and performing it was a special moment for me because it brought together two things I’m passionate about: music and celebrating diversity,” she said.

From care homes to The Voice UK auditions

She won the Swansea Summer Ball auditions in 2024, and has sung at community events, care homes and public spaces.

She has also been invited to perform at the British Pharmaceutical Awards, and took part in the first, online stage of auditions for The Voice UK.

Her equality and diversity work has been recognised with a Race Leader Award from Swansea University, she says.

She hopes her story will encourage others, particularly young people who have faced rejection or self-doubt, to keep believing in themselves.

Author

Kit Peters

Kit Peters is a journalist and the editor of Swansea Bay News, covering Swansea, Neath Port Talbot and Carmarthenshire since 2020.