Many artists and entertainers believe that music is an expression of the soul. It is a medium through which people can communicate with young and old alike. This has been the case for centuries past and will continue to be the case for many more years to come.
Through music, barriers can be broken, hope restored and dreams realised.
Recently, I was fortunate enough to meet up with Muslim singer Deeyah, who took time out from her current recording schedule to talk to me about the obstacles and uphill struggles she has faced over the last 11 years in the music business.
Never a character far from controversy, over the last decade she has been unfortunate enough to find her name dragged into the media spotlight for many of the wrong reasons. Chastised and often ostracised by a section of Muslim society she has always felt that her ability to express herself creatively has been hindered by a simple lack of understanding from those who criticise her.
Born in Norway to a Pakistani father and a mother of Afghan and Persian origin, from an early age, both Deeyah and her brother embraced the musical influences their father and their culture impressed upon them.
"I was seven years of age when my life really changed because of music. As a child growing up in Europe I got to see the Eurovision song contest every year and I was obsessed with the entries from across the continent and forever singing the songs that were performed. I had this knack of hearing a tune and lyrics and very quickly being able to remember them.
"One day I was singing in the garden when my voice happened to catch the attention of my father. He approached me and asked me to sing for him. I did so and thought nothing more of it, although I remember being very proud that he wanted to listen.
"Then, a few days later he presented me with my very own electronic keyboard and told me that from now on I should practice every day after I had completed my studies."
The young Deeyah's performance had left her father impressed enough to organise vocal coaching for his daughter and also piano lessons.
"Dad didn't want me just to be a singer. He thought it was important for me to understand music and be able to play and write my own material. As anyone in the business will tell you, great success can be achieved from composing as well as performing."
Six years later and barely into her teens, Deeyah celebrated her first album deal. By the time she was seventeen she had two albums under her belt and was recognised as a promising new talent by many people in Scandinavia and beyond. It looked like everything was going her way and a major new young star was in the making.
This was in sharp contrast to the profession she would probably have chosen herself had a career in music not opened up for her.
"From an academic perspective I always thought that I would end up in law although my father had continually impressed upon me the importance of going into a career where hard work can overcome political differences or cultural prejudices and allow you to be a success.
"Through him I came to believe that music and sport were the two areas where the colour of your skin or your choice of religion could never hold you back. It was unfortunate that I would one day find this to be proven wrong."
By the age of seventeen, Deeyah's career looked like it was ready to take a step up and reach a wider audience but at just about this time she got to experience the first negative reaction to her music and it was an episode set to be repeated on many occasions over the coming years.
"Suddenly, people within the community - people that my family and I shared common values and beliefs with - began to voice their dissent over my choice of career. My father started to hear disgruntled elders suggesting I should withdraw from singing since it was in some way anti-Islamic and that what I was doing was offensive to Muslims."
The level of criticism became so intense that eventually her parents were forced to move and Deeyah had to leave the country where she had grown up and where her career had begun, to pursue a new life in Britain.
"I had to say goodbye to my family and friends because the intolerance from other Muslims just became too difficult to handle. People told me that I could expect a much more balanced reaction in the UK and that the pressures and threats that were issued to me in Norway would never happen in London."
Deeyah came to the UK with the intention of lifting her career up to a new level and in the early days the signs were promising. However, it wasn't long before her act began to incite anger from British Muslims, even though she maintains that she never set out to target them or anyone with her music.
"True Islam is all about peace and respecting your fellow man. True Islam is about tolerance. I hold these principals close to my heart. However, there a minority of extremists who appear intent upon strangling the basic rights of ordinary people by reacting to anything they don't like with death threats and violence.
"Many of my shows here in England had to be called off and I was forced to hire bodyguards following a torrent of abuse from people who claimed my act was an affront to Islam.
It was due to these scenes that the media dubbed Deeyah the "Muslim Madonna" because her Western counterpart managed to stir up a similar level of controversy among Christians all over the globe.
"It's not a tagline I'm comfortable with nor do I appreciate. I respect Madonna
as an artist. In fact along with Michael Jackson and Prince, she had the most influence on my early career but I don't want my music branded with the stamp of another artist.
"What I find most interesting about Madonna is the fact that in the Western world, even if her act is considered offensive to Christians, she has never been exposed to the same level of violence and threatening behaviour that I have by extremist Muslims who claim to be acting in the name of Islam, the religion of peace."
The video for her single, What Will Be, which was released last year, outraged many fundamentalists in the Muslim world with its provocative scenes of her stripping off a burka to reveal her bikini-clad body underneath, but when I challenged her on this she was quick to defend the film.
"This song is all about the rights of Muslim women and female empowerment and I've not heard many people point out that we also featured Muslim women in the video who have fought for freedom of expression. I knew there would be opposition to what I was doing but never to the level that I experienced. Certain TV stations were forced to drop it from their schedules after receiving death threats and I think it's a tragic shame - as a Muslim myself - that in the 21st Century there are still certain elements of society who try to deny us freedom of speech and expression."
Over the course of the next few months, Deeyah began to see her public image come under greater and greater attack and was even discredited in the UK by the MCGB (Muslim Council of Great Britain), after approaching them for help.
"I was getting a lot of hate mail and a breakfast TV show in the UK offered me the chance to give my side of the story. However, a representative from the MCGB spent most of his time pre-interview trying to discourage me from saying anything negative and when we went on air, he did his very best to prevent me from speaking and discredited me continuously.
"The most telling comment for me was when someone from the elders in the community approached me and declared: "The reason we don't like you is because you are setting an example to our daughters which will make them think they can do what they like." Why shouldn't men and women - regardless of their religious beliefs - be able to express themselves freely?"
Articles started appearing which suggested Deeyah wasn't a Muslim at all and was in fact a Hindu looking for publicity after someone had discovered her birth name to be Deepika, a traditional Hindu name. I asked her about this and once again she was insistent that a combination of over-zealous Muslims and a biased press looking to fan the flames of controversy were really responsible for this story.
"My parents are both Muslim but they raised my brother and I to be tolerant of all religions. When she arrived in Norway my mother befriended a Hindu woman whom she became very close to. This woman asked her to name her first child, either Deepak if she had a boy or Deepika if she had a girl. My mother never forgot her kindness or her request and that was how I got my name. You don't have to have an Arabic or Persian name to be a Muslim."
This year, Deeyah was forced to leave the UK and she is now based in America, recording her latest album; music she says will explore the complexities of her culture because it is "time something was done to modernise people's way of thinking".
"All the music and lyrics are my own and I feel that my new material - dealing with my life, my religion and the politics of the world we live in - is some of the most personal I have created to date, although I am sure it is still likely to cause controversy in certain circles. If people want to find fault with you they inevitably will.
"What many people don't realise is that for every death threat and e-mail of condemnation I have received, there are literally dozens of correspondences from young people, applauding me for what I am trying to do. My music is a voice for the young and I want them to embrace the positive messages I am trying to express so that they can see that there is another way. I don't write to make barriers, I write to bring them down. My performances aren't about trying to offend; they're about trying to open up dialogue and build bridges.
"For me, the worst thing is that you can expect this level of hatred from racists but when you start receiving it from your own kind, it makes it almost impossible to bear. It is without question the greatest sense of disappoint I have ever felt."
But even through all the adversity when I asked Deeyah if she would do it all again, she had no hesitation with her response.
"Without question! I feel this in my blood. My music is who I am. I never set out to be an example: other people have made me one and I have had to deal with it. But I am not going away. No matter what the level of intimidation, I am here to stay. My voice will never be silenced by violence or aggression. That is a message I feel we all need to embrace, Hindu, Christian or Muslim. In time, change will come and it will be the young - as it always is - who will make it happen."
It's difficult to find fault with Deeyah's optimism and commitment to her cause. There is no doubt that she feels passionate about what she is doing, not just because she has a love of music, but also because she believes in equal rights for everyone.
Some might argue that she is a protagonist who is using the controversy and current religious tensions to further her own career but when you analyse the sacrifices she has been forced to make, justifying such an argument seems quite a stretch of the imagination.
I believe that she has demonstrated a great deal of courage in sticking to the principals she follows and if there is need for change in the world, then surely this kind of human spirit and resilience are exactly what is required to bring it into effect.
George R Vaughan, co-founder of http://WomenTalking.co.uk/ is a UK based writer and journalist with over 15 years experience in media and communications. During this time he has worked on a number of publications, both here in the UK and Europe, as well as the US and the Middle East. The subject matter he has covered extends to a variety of different features, ranging from politics, entertainment, business and sport. He has also done some work on radio, film and web projects.