Watch Cam’s ‘Life Can Be Tough. Music Can Help’ TEDx Talk
Cam may be a pro at singing onstage, but at a recent TEDx event, the country star got to try her hand at a new type of onstage activity: speaking. Click play above to watch the "Burning House" singer offer a talk at the TEDxUniversityOfNevada conference on Jan. 21.
What initially began as a request for Cam to appear as a performer at TEDxUniversityOfNevada morphed into a full-blown speaking engagement for the singer, who had a lot to say about how music can affect the human condition. Prior to her country career, Cam worked in psychology labs at both Stanford and Berkeley University, which made her a perfect candidate to talk about the power of music in her session, entitled "Life Can Be Tough. Music Can Help."
"Are you getting the most you can out of music?" Cam asks during her 11-minute talk. "I really want to remind you that music is not just the background at a shopping mall; it's not just weekend entertainment. It's a tool that our species developed to help us heal ourselves and soothe our souls.
"Music carries the burden of our heartbreak. It allows us to process grief. It reminds us that good things are coming, and it lets us know that we are not struggling alone," she adds. "So let music do its job. Life can be tough. Music can help."
Operating under the mantra "Ideas Worth Spreading," TED is a non-profit organization that posts talks online for free distribution. Speakers such as Cam are given a limited amount of stage time to share their ideas, often at independently organized TED events, dubbed TEDx events.
"It only lasted about 11 minutes ... but I was more terrified than I've ever been in my life. To share knowledge publicly means I had to first believe that I have knowledge worth sharing (and questioning myself is pretty much my superpower)," Cam explains in a press statement. "Then came the task of crafting a speech (NOT a song. Very different, for the record) that could help people see the world in a new way: a world that is full of music and has always been full of music. Why that's not an accident. How we need music on a basic human level.
"It's not new information, but it's just often forgotten that music is an essential part of our humanity," she continues. "I couldn't let people miss out on that understanding."
During TEDxUniversityOfNevada, Cam also performed three songs from her debut album, Untamed, and gave audience members a peek into the emotional inspiration that was involved in their creation. Click play below to watch Cam perform her breakout hit "Burning House," along with "Runaway Train" and "Village."
After wrapping up her first-ever headlining tour, Cam is working on her sophomore album. She is nominated for New Female Vocalist of the Year at the 2017 ACM Awards, scheduled to take place in Las Vegas, and will be sticking around Sin City after the show to open for George Strait during his Las Vegas residency.
Watch Cam Perform at TEDxUniversityOfNevada