Well-crafted songs delivered through powerful, emotional and heartfelt vocals combined with east-meets-west alternative pop music are Ooberfuse’s trademarks.

Helen is a songwriter /singer /pianist from Australia who is currently working as a full time volunteer with a humanitarian Aid organisation in Hong Kong.
She has worked as a professional musician throughout Australia and New Zealand and also in Zimbabwe.

During the past 5 years in particular, her focus in song writing has been on social justice and humanitarian issues, and she has had the privilege of visiting many countries, and aid projects within those countries, which have influenced her writing.

One of the most significant trips Helen has made was to Afghanistan in November 2005. She was privileged to visit outlying rural areas with medical teams and experience the realities of the endless war zone this country has become.

This has influenced not only her song writing, but her desire to be more involved in the sending of aid.

Helen’s year in Zimbabwe inspired her first album, “They Told Me This Is Africa”.
The title song won the contemporary ballad category in the Australian Songwriter’s Association Annual song writing contest in 2001.
Another of her songs won the Sacred Song category and she was named the Songwriter of the Year. (http://www.asai.org.au/results2001)
The following year, “They Told Me This Is Africa” won the Rhythm and Blues category of the Australian Musicoz National contest.
Another song, “For Eternity” was recognised in the Top 5 in its category. (This song is on Helen’s gospel album, “Crosswind”).

Helen’s third album, “The Cry” was released in 2005 and reflects the issues and concerns she was confronted with in trips undertaken throughout Asia.

Her song “Don’t Tell Me” has been recorded by one of Australia’s premier youth choirs and in 2004 made it into the Top 5 in its category in the Musicoz annual awards.

A new song she has written for and about refugees has been used by the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) in Hong Kong for World Refugee day on June 20th in their national television campaign.

Helen and her family are full time volunteers with Crossroads International, a humanitarian aid charity based in Hong Kong.    See www.crossroads.org.hk

On June 20th 2008, World Refugee Day, Helen launched her new album, “ Letters from the 5th Estate”.

In the 4 ½ years Helen has been in Hong Kong, she has had the privilege to sing her songs to corporate groups, university faculty and students, school groups and to many representatives from humanitarian and justice organisations, including Amnesty International, Medecins Sans Frontiers, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, UNHCR, and Christian Action.

In January 2010, as part of World Economic Forum events in Davos Switzerland, Helen sang for social media CEOs from Microsoft, Facebook and Wikipedia.

For the past 3 years Helen has shared her songs at the Micah consultations in Thailand and Malaysia, which have focused on integral mission and social justice. (http://en.micahnetwork.org/)

In July 2008 Helen was privileged to share her music and stories in various churches in the USA.

Helen is equally comfortable sharing her music and stories in both secular and faith- based communities, in both informal ‘piano bar’ and concert styles.

Her passions and goals are to continue traveling, especially to the ‘inaccessible’ places and people that inspire much of her music; to personally practise holistic mission, and to keep writing and telling the stories of refugees, child soldiers, IDPs, the orphaned, the abandoned and the unheard.

Helen’s contact details for her albums and invitations to sing:

crosfiremusic@hotmail.com
crosfiremusic@helenmottee.com
www.helenmottee.com
www.crossroads.org.hk

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