Original version

BBC World Service

BBC World Service Radio

World Service Radio

Migrated podcast image for: Outlook

Outlook

Factual: Life Stories

True stories of ordinary people and the extraordinary events that have shaped their lives.

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

Outlook: My unknown song became a political anthem in Hong Kong

Magazines & Reviews

Matthew 'Kashy' Keegan performing

05/07/2021 GMT

My unknown song became a political anthem in Hong Kong

BBC World Service - Outlook, My unknown song became a political anthem in Hong Kong

A phone alert revealed Matthew Keegan had become an overnight pop star 5,000 miles away

Matthew Keegan had given up writing music when a phone alert revealed a song he'd recorded years earlier had turned him into an overnight pop star 5,000 miles away.

Matthew 'Kashy' Keegan knew from a very young age that he wanted to be a pop star. He just didn't know how. He spent years writing and making music and knocking on the doors of the music industry but to no avail. By age 25, demoralised and fed up, he decided to quit. He took a job at a radio station and settled into his new life. But years later, when he was home one evening, his phone started to beep incessantly. He clicked on one of the alerts to find scenes of thousands of people out on the streets of Hong Kong waving the lights of their phones through the air and his song playing on the tannoy. The song he'd written many years earlier had now, in 2013, become a political anthem in a country he'd never even visited.

Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com

Picture: Matthew Keegan
Credit: Eva Li

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Outlook

My unknown song became a political anthem in Hong Kong

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service

About BBC World Service