Meet Olivia Haynes, a Vienna based musician that uplifted her community through music

“When will you realize, Vienna waits for you,” Olivia Haynes sings, strumming her ukulele on the balcony of her apartment in Vienna. 

Image credit: Olivia Haynes

Throughout the world, there have been videos circulating of people performing to their neighbours while cities remain on lockdown. Haynes was inspired by seeing videos from Italy - she said, “I thought it would be cool to try it out here, but I also was pretty sure that someone would yell at me. Austrian and Italian culture [are] very different from each other and Austrian grandmothers are notorious for yelling ‘Ruhe!’ when neighbours make any noise. It basically means ‘Shut up.’” 

Haynes wanted to bring light and fun into her neighbours’ lives through music. “I’ve been singing for as long as I remember. I’m from a musical family.” Haynes has also been playing the flute for 14 years and ukulele for 8 years. Originally from the United States, Haynes came to Vienna to do social and community work with a multilingual and multicultural Baptist Church. Haynes was initially supposed to stay in Vienna for a year but decided to stay longer as she fell in love with the city and created a community for herself. The work that she does is centred around music and the arts and aims to connect her church to the local community. Haynes said, “I love helping people come together, especially people who wouldn’t normally meet [...] and music can often be a big part of that.” 

Haynes did more than just entertain her neighbours; through her music, she was able to build a community among her neighbours. She was initially surprised that her neighbours enjoyed her playing as her first performance ended in applause. Haynes said, “So often in Vienna and in many places, we live next door to people who we never really talk to, but I started seeing that change over the course of this lockdown.” Haynes saw her neighbours poking their heads out of windows as she was playing, waving and greeting one another. She noticed as the weeks went on, a few of her neighbours would come down to the courtyard and listen to her music there while practising social distancing. She was delighted to see her neighbours conversing in the courtyard after her set was finished for the night. 

Over the course of Austria’s lockdown, Haynes has sung over 150 different songs and played 45 different songs on her flute. Some of her favourites included “Wake Me Up When Corona Ends,” a song parody that she wrote from Green Day’s “Wake Me up When September Ends.” Haynes wrote it in order to express her feelings and mourn with the rest of the world at the time of the lockdown. Haynes also sang an original song that she wrote called “If I Were a Bird,” which allows her to lift her anxieties up to God. Haynes said, “My faith is really important to me and playing this song helps me recenter on the goodness of God during tough times.” 

Haynes performed her last concert on May 14 right before Vienna lifted more lockdown restrictions. For her last concert, she decided to play her last song in the courtyard of her apartment complex and invited her neighbours for food and celebration of the lockdown starting to lift. Haynes said, “When I came downstairs for the last song, I saw so many friendly faces waiting for me. When I finished playing, some of them handed me flowers, chocolates, and sweet notes. I was absolutely overwhelmed with their appreciation.” 

Haynes’s neighbours shared that they loved how her sets added structure to their day when they didn’t have much going on. Others shared that they loved her voice and didn’t want her to stop playing. Many were grateful for the encouraging songs that Haynes played throughout the lockdown. Haynes said, “My main goal really was to encourage people. That doesn't mean that I always played happy songs; I strongly believe that you can't really encourage others without being real about the darkness, but I wanted to let people know that they weren't alone. It was good to hear that I achieved that even in a small way.”

Even though the last few months of lockdown have been difficult for the world, Haynes said that the song, “Vienna” by Billy Joel lifted her spirits. Haynes said, “It was a good reminder for me that the city I loved and the rest of the world that I want to experience would be still waiting, after all, this was over.”

Olivia Haynes’s artist page can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/OliviaHaynesSings