The Agenda with Steve Paikin (Audio) - A New Voice for the Old Standards

Episode Date: December 20, 2024

How many 16-year-olds these days love Ella Fitzgerald? Young musician Ellie Maxwell sure does. After being adopted from South Africa, Ellie now lives with her family on Manitoulin Island. She joins us in studio to share her story and to sing an original song. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Follow and listen wherever you get your podcasts. One day this past summer, I was attending a weekly farmer's market in Kagawong on Manitoulin Island when, in the distance, I heard a voice singing. I couldn't see who the voice belonged to, but it sure sounded like Ella Fitzgerald. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that voice belonged to Ellie Maxwell, a 16-year-old originally from South Africa, now living on Manitoulin Island. I thought to myself more people have got to hear this kid sing. So here she is, Ellie Maxwell, along with her mother, Mary Mendez de Franca. And it's so good to have both of you here in our studio. Thank you so much for inviting me.

It's so good to see you again. I'm going to start with your mum, okay, because I want to get some of the background. When did Ellie come into your life? Ellie came into our lives in 2008, and it was at the end of what seemed like a very long adoption process. My husband and I at that point had four biological children, but I had retired from my nursing job and we'd been hearing a lot about the need for adoptive parents and hadn't really realized until then how many abandoned babies there are all over the world, not just Africa. But we started looking into it very

seriously and chose South Africa as our country to adopt from. And we had three boys and one girl at the time, and they were all very excited about the idea. But our daughter did say that if we adopted a boy and gave her another brother, she would run away. So we knew it had to be a little girl. So that was the start of the process. And two years later, two years of paperwork and having a social worker come to our home

interviewing us, police checks, it is a long process. But finally the day came when a picture was sent to us. And it was a picture of Ellie, baby Ellie. And she was how old? And she was just a few months old at that point. And we were told a little bit, the little bit that was known about her. And that is that she had been found abandoned

in a small town in South Africa. So you don't know who her birth parents are? We know. We have no idea. She was found abandoned outside an auto repair shop. They took her in and advertisements were put in the local papers to see if any of the parents or biological family would turn up.

Nobody did. So she went into an orphanage at that time and she seemed to be a perfect match for our family. We had submitted a whole family study with pictures and everything like that. So once we got that picture we had very little time to say yay or nay and of course we said yay. Did you actually go to South Africa to pick her up? Yes we had to go actually the adoption had to be finalized in the courts in South Africa. So we just made the necessary arrangements for care for other children and we got on

a plane and we were very soon changing diapers and feeding milk bottles again. Elie, how much do you either want to know or need to know about your life before you got adopted? I think I really wanted to know when I was younger, and then I didn't want to know anymore because I had such a wonderful family and they loved me so much that it didn't matter what necessarily my biological family looked like because my family loves me so much. So you're not tormented at the knowledge of what came before? I was for a very long time. I really wanted to know.

I mean, for a long time, I was like, do I look like my biological mother? That's something that really I struggled with for a while. But then my mom's perfect for me. So yeah, it doesn't trouble me anymore. How do you like living on Manitoulin Island? It's so much fun, honestly. I mean, the win't trouble me anymore. How do you like living on Manitoulin Island? It's so much fun, honestly.

I mean, the winters are quite cold. Only goes down to about minus 30 or 40 there, doesn't it? Yeah, but I love Manitoulin. The people there are so kind. Let me ask you the obvious question, which is wherever you go on Manitoulin Island, there is almost a 99.9% chance that you're going to be the only black face where you go.

Yes. How do you deal with that? It also used to, I used to struggle with that as a kid because I was like, nobody looks like me. And it's a really funny story because my mom was driving me to, I forget, it was a kid's club or something like that. And I asked my mom, when am I going to turn white? And so, you know, my mom's kind of driving,

she's like, oh, how do you deal with that question? But, yeah, it doesn't trouble me as much as it used to. But. It used to be, once about to get. Yeah, it used to trouble me quite a bit, because I would, you know, you look anywhere, there's nobody who looks like you, and you know, at the time, television didn't necessarily have a lot of black people.

So you kind of feel isolated. But now I'm older and it's better. Mary, I presume, I mean, you must have thought at some point we're about to bring a black child onto Manitoulin Island, which is 99.99% white. How's that all going to work itself out? Absolutely. And we were working with a wonderful adoption agency here in Toronto. And the question almost made us abandon the quest until I had a conversation with the

man who led this adoption agency. And I was voicing all my concerns. And he said, Mary, are you and your husband going to love this baby? And I said, absolutely. We're going to love her to the moon and back and even more. So he said, that's all you need to know. You love her, and the rest will fall into place.

And so it has. When did you discover that she could sing? Very early on. I think as soon as she had a voice, like as soon as she started speaking, she started singing. And one of our older boys, who is also musical, said, oh my goodness, mom. She just sings absolutely on key key and she has perfect pitch.

So he noticed it. I'm not musical. How do you find a music teacher on Manitoulin Island? Not easily, not easily. But again, there we were fortunate. We found a retired music teacher who, although he had retired, he was willing to take Elion. He heard her sing. And so that's how her lessons started when she was about eight years old.

But it wasn't long after he started teaching her that he said, she needs more than I can give her. And at the same time, the COVID years started. And fortunately for us, we found a wonderful singing coach in the States. Hope to this day, we have never met in person. Oh, so you do it all on Zoom. Yes. You get lessons on Zoom.

Yes. And what, he or she? She, Charmaine. Charmaine. What does Charmaine put you through in terms of trying to get you to be better? Vocal warm-ups, stretching my range. Right now I struggle with mixed range, which is between the chest voice and the head voice.

And so it's a little bit of a rocky thing when you're trying to transition. So we're working on that right now and we've been working on that. When I heard you sing at the Farmer's Market, you were not singing Taylor Swift or any new stuff. You were singing stuff from the Great American Songbook, like the stuff that we grew up with. It's not really, I was gonna say, it's not your music, it's more our music, but even then, it's not even our music.

This stuff goes back 100 years. How do you know all that stuff? Well, it's because of my dad. Because every evening after supper, he'd lie down and he'd play jazz and I'd sing along with it or I'd dance with it. And so I just, I knew all these songs and then once I finally got my first iPod, I got all of his songs downloaded onto it.

So that's all I listened to. And who are your favorite singers? Ella Fitzgerald. You do love Ella. I love Ella Fitzgerald. Whitney Houston, Barbara Streisand, I mean. Those are great choices. Yeah.

Now, full disclosure here, we want to hear you sing, but unfortunately we can't have you sing Ella Fitzgerald because the cost of clearing the rights to have you sing that would be astronomical. So, the good news is you're going to sing something that you wrote yourself, right? Tell us about the inspiration for the song you're about to do.

So it all started with my story and coming to terms with I was abandoned. And that's a difficult thing for a child to understand and to be like, why was I abandoned? Why wasn't I good enough to keep? And so I struggled really with communicating my feelings. So my aunt wrote this beautiful poem. And when I read it, I felt so connected with it

because I can't always voice my feelings that well, not through music, because music is how I express my feelings often. And so when I read this poem, I thought, I can really do something with this. So we contacted a producer, Britton Cameron, who I'd worked with previously on another original song, Better Days.

I was like, can we please work on this? I'd love to do this. So we worked with the producer, Cameron and my aunt, Auntie Deb and me. And so, you know, I tweaked it to what I feel like. But it all came from a beautiful poem. And the name of the song is Lucky, which you are, aren't you? Yes, you are lucky.

OK, I'm going to take this microphone, I'm going to move it where X marks the spot, and we can't wait to hear you sing. Thank you. Okay, Ellie Maxwell, it's over to you. While the land where I was born to me is unknown, Far, far away some distant time zone, The faces of the ones who made me remain erased And the lines that tie me cannot be traced No, I don't know the ones I left behind Nor if someday your past will be a lie As we'll be alive But I know I'm lucky

Lord knows I'm lucky And it sure feels good To be lucky Lord knows I'm lucky, Lord knows. I'm lucky, saved by a five-letter word. My sweet mother married, so full of grace. I feel safe and grounded, wrapped in her embrace.

There ain't nothing' that my papa Can't teach me to do And that's a place where I'll run When my heart feels blue With all I have, won't let me behind to leave So I'm gonna give back More than I receive But I know I'm unlucky, Lord knows

I'm unlucky and it sure feels good To be lucky Lord knows I'm lucky Saved by a five letter word The moon and the stars Please stop and they stand I know it's crazy But sometimes my gift Is the burden I bear

The crown that I wear Because I'm lucky, Lord knows I'm lucky And it sure feels good To be lucky, Lord. I'm lucky, saved by a father. Whoa. Nara Udna. I'm feeling lucky. Yes, I am. Oh, yeah. Oh, I'm feeling.

I'm feeling lucky. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord, thank you Lord. And I want that. Say, fire, fire, let it work. Oh my goodness, Ellie, you're so amazing. I'm getting all of a clem just listening to that song. How about that?

I'm going to move this microphone back. I mean, when you hear your daughter and what she can do and mention you in that song the way she did, go ahead. What's in your head? Oh, I tear up. And I've heard it so many times already. And to this day, I still tear up. And it makes all the hard parts of adoption, all the fears that we had prior

to bringing her home. It just puts it all into a beautiful perspective, and it makes it all so worthwhile. Young lady, you have a gift. You know this, right? You have a gift. What do you want to do with this gift? I mean, whenever I perform, I try

to look out in the audience and see who's listening to me. And when I look out and I see people being touched and feeling emotion, I want to give people that emotional response. I want to bring joy to people. And so I love to sing not only just because it brings me joy, but other people. And so... But do I infer that you want a career as a singer, as a professional singer? So I love to sing not only just because it brings me joy, but other people. But do I infer that you want a career as a singer, as a professional singer? I do want a career.

You do, you want that. Yes. Do you know how to make that happen? I do, I'm working on it. Well, do share, because obviously this is something that a lot of people want, and not easy to make happen. So how does it, where's the golden road that you go on, a lot of people want and not easy to make happen. So how does it, where's the golden road that you go on to make it happen?

Well, practice every day, that's a big thing. Practice every day. Honestly, listen to inspirational things because sometimes, you know, I didn't pass an audition. So I was like, oh, that's awful, I didn't pass it. And then I start to question myself. But So I was like, oh, that's awful. I didn't pass it. And I start to question myself. But whenever I listen to my parents,

they're like, no, Ellie, you're good at singing. You can do it. And so my mom and my daughter are such inspirations for me, just to push me to making that golden path. You know, at some point, she's going to come to you and say, mom, I've got to go to Juilliard in New York or something like that. That's only probably $85,000 a year.

So what's going to happen when that request comes down the line? Well, we would do our very best to make it happen. And in fact, I'm not going to mention any names, but there is a wonderful older man on Manitoulin Island. He's a retired businessman and he is into all the jazzy music from the past and has heard Ellie sing. He has been so touched that just out of the blue he has sent us money. He said, I just want to make sure that she keeps getting the lessons that she needs to have

So here here you go. I bet I know who it is. You're gonna tell me off camera. Yes I want to know I want to know yes Ellie I want to ask you one last question. How often do you think to yourself my goodness? Had Steve and Mary not come to get me, what would my life be like now? Yes, I think about that a lot still. I thought about it a lot when I was younger.

And it's unimaginable. I don't know what would happen to me. And I think that just makes me so thankful to my parents because I wouldn't have my brothers and sisters. I wouldn't have my brothers and sisters, I wouldn't have the opportunities I have. I wouldn't even live in the house I have. So. You wouldn't be living on Manitoulin Island.

No, I wouldn't be living on Manitoulin Island. So I think when I think about it, I'm just filled with so much gratitude that my parents did that for me. And yeah, I try to think about what would happen if I wasn't adopted, but I don't get very far. So. Well, look, we wish you all the luck in the world. You have such a talent. I try to think about what would happen if I wasn't adopted, but I don't get very far. Well, look, we wish you all the luck in the world.

You have such a talent. I mean, to have the chance to sit there two feet away from you and listen to the power of that voice was really very special. So Mary, thank you for coming here today. Ellie. Thank you. Keep on going, kid. Thank you for inviting me.

Thank you for having us.