A charity recording brought a West End performer together with young singers to help more people understand Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. You Are My Song is now available to watch on RODtv.
When Darren Day agreed to sing on You Are My Song, he was lending his voice to a cause he was only beginning to understand. The singer and actor later acknowledged that, before becoming involved, he had known very little about Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, or FASD. His participation became an opportunity to learn—and to help introduce the subject to a wider audience.
Released in September 2022 for FASD Awareness Month, the charity single paired Day’s lead vocal with a choir of around 30 children and young people with neurodivergent conditions, including FASD. It brought together Adoption UK Scotland’s FASD Hub and Voice in a Million, with a song written and arranged by James Hawkins. The young performers were central to the project, contributing their voices to a campaign about experiences that are often poorly understood.
The starting point was a conversation between Hawkins and Voice in a Million co-founder Jo Garofalo. Jo wanted a song that could raise awareness while giving young singers something meaningful to perform together. Her involvement was personal: as the adoptive mother of a daughter with FASD, she could speak directly about family life and the challenges of finding understanding and support.
Hawkins began by listening. Alongside conversations with Jo, he sought poems and other writing from people with FASD to help inform the song. He wanted its emotional content to reflect their experiences, with an uplifting melody that a choir could share.
From that research came the idea at the heart of You Are My Song: the connection between music, communication and the people we depend upon. Hawkins described being drawn to the role singing could play in expressing feelings, and to the steady presence of supportive family and friends. Those relationships gave the song its direction.
That makes the choir’s participation particularly significant. A recording offers a chance for an audience to encounter the performers through something they have helped create. Their contribution is there to be heard, alongside a professional singer whose familiar voice can draw new listeners to the project.
The charitable purpose extended beyond the recording. The single was created to support FASD Hub Scotland and its work with families, helping turn public interest into practical support. Raising awareness matters, but so does providing somewhere for parents and carers to find information, guidance and a community that understands their circumstances.
For viewers coming to the subject for the first time, the music provides an accessible place to begin. You can appreciate the performance, then take a moment to learn why these singers came together and what they hoped the recording would achieve.
You Are My Song is available to watch on RODtv, bringing Darren Day and the choir’s collaboration to an audience who may be discovering both the song and its purpose for the first time.
