The Song

The song reflects the struggles a teenage girl had at home before residing on the streets and some of the hurt occupying her head – she is only looking for love, yet society have developed a stereotype about homeless people, its time we started looking behind the scenes. The song was inspired by an experience the founder had when meeting a 11yr old girl who had been living on the streets for 2 weeks. Not all kids choose to live on the streets or in situations that are ‘Not their Choice’.

To keep it short I was walking through Parliament gardens with a friend one night when I met a girl named Sarah. Sarah was 11 years old and had just left home, you see Sarah’s mum was prostituting herself from the house to support Sarah (when she did) and her drug habit, men were coming in and out the house and some started abusing Sarah when Sarahs mother was too drugged out to notice.

After chatting to Sarah I found out that she didn’t get to school much, but she has been idolizing her favorite singers on TV for years, you see what motioned me to this group of young kids sitting on the steps was this amazing voice I heard in the distance. I did go back looking for Sarah over the next few weeks but never did catch up with her again. Did Sarah become ANOTHER statistic? After a few weeks had passed our hot water service broke down at home. Not having the funds to fix it straight away I found myself showing at a friend’s house, then suddenly it HIT me like a ton of bricks.

‘Where was Sarah, where does Sarah shower, how many other Sarah’s are there living on the streets why are some people so cruel, who would want to rape a girl Sarah’s age, why can’t she be educated with talent like that’ ? Why do I mention Sarahs name so much – because Sarah is a person too…

All these questions were racing through my head at a million miles an hour. Then it STOPPED – We have to solve this I thought, we support all these overseas missions but what about all the real issues in our own backyard. Its time to give the kids a ‘Fair Go’.

I went downstairs to share my thoughts with Alex, a singer and song writer friend whom was letting me use his bathroom. He turned around and stated exactly what I was thinking; It’s Not their Choice bro…

There you have it, within a week I was determined to work out a way to bring attention to this real, evidential, daily social issue that we have and a way to help these kids.

‘Not My Choice’

Performed by Alex Sebastian (Outkry) and Jason Singh (Taxi Ride)

Produced by Reggie Bowman (Southern Sons)

Video by Brendan Hay (Underground Transmitter)

Written by Josh Wilkins

Find ‘Not My Choice’ on