2020 has been wonderful and terrible. On one hand, we’ve lost people we care about. Many are sick or out of work, or both. Our frontline workers are exhausted. Musicians all over the world suddenly found themselves in quarantine back in March, instead of on the road where they belong — and we’re all missing the days when going to a concert, giving someone a hug, or walking down the street without a mask on was considered a part of normal life. No one knows what the future holds.
But in spite of it all, good things have happened this year as well. When we asked for your support of the local music community with the compilation album Love in a Time of Quarantine, you gave it. When we asked you to buy virtual tickets for the band’s online streaming concerts or behind-the-scenes music video launch event for“The Man Who Sold the World,” you bought them. You tuned into Tori Sparks’ Balcony Concerts week after week in quarantine, writing to say hello from all over the world. You sent us photos wearing your Glass Mountain Records masks while social distancing. You kept in touch. You kept going. You Zoomed with work colleagues and Skyped with friends and family. You found things to laugh about. You didn’t give up. You supported the artists and musicians you love, and you supported each other. You gave us hope.
This year the small but mighty team at GMR has stayed busy, and so has Tori, in spite of 99% of all concerts in promoting her album Wait No More vanishing into thin air. Her collaborations with Metropolitan magazine and ScannerFM radio have supported the local arts scene, and her work with the Musician’s Union has helped in the fight to protect artists’ basic rights in this time of crisis and instability. She helped pioneer the streaming concert movement back in the spring, and she used her interviews by press all over the globe to speak out against injustice.
Tori’s voice has been heard in ads for Marcilla Café, Festina Watches featuring actor Gerard Butler, the English-language kids’ television program Kids&Us. Now, she’s gearing up to present her fifth Barcelona In The Round Concert on January 17th, and is in the process of trying to reschedule as many concerts as possible for the coming year. And tune in tomorrow at 11am to Radio Kanal Barcelona, where Tori will be the guest co-host of the annual end-of-the-year program on The Club with Lucas.
2020 has been unprecedented, but it has also shown us who we are. We are fighters. We are rock and rollers. We are not alone, and together we will get through this. We wish you and yours the very best for 2021, and thank you again for everything this past crazy year.