It was two years ago that Sasha Friedman was discovered on social media after posting videos of herself covering different songs.
But Friedman soon had to put her music aspirations on hold after she was diagnosed last year with metastatic Ewing sarcoma, a bone cancer that had spread to her neck, arms, legs and lungs.
The 11-year-old Friedman is now in remission and ready to pursue her passion, and she’s kicked things off with the release of her pop single “Free To Be Me,” which was originally recorded before her diagnosis.
“It did put a little hold on my music because I was really ill and I wasn’t really in the mood to be singing because I was so sick and I wanted to sleep all day,” Friedman says.
She couldn’t play her instruments, like the guitar and ukulele, either, as a result of something called “chemo fingers.” It’s a condition that happens during chemotherapy which causes hands and feet to become red and very irritated. Friedman even had to wear gloves when she slept.
Now she’s feeling much better, and Friedman wants to use her own music to help others in the same way that listening to music helped her throughout her treatments.
“I still got to listen to some of my favorite music and that made me really happy when I was in the worst moods,” she says. “If I was so upset and I was sad and I just listened to a pop song, something that’s really relatable, it made me feel really happy and my mood immediately changed. I want my music to make people happy and help them get through hard times. When I was in and out of the hospital, I saw how many kids and others have to go through it and I want my music to make them feel like they can get through it because other people have.”
Friedman was still in chemotherapy treatment when she surprised her best friend at school by playing a then-unreleased “Free To Be Me.” A crowd soon gathered and people Friedman didn’t even know offered praise for the track.
“It was so fun to be able to dance and see all the people around that are just listening and having fun with my music,” she said. “That made me really excited.”
She wrote the lyrics about someone who is nervous about fitting in before realizing, “It’s okay to be yourself.”
“I want my music to make them feel like they can be themselves and still fit in,” she says. “They don’t have to be like everyone else. You’re not alone, you can get through anything.”
You can take my hand, you know I’ll be there to help, she sings in the song.
There’ll be brighter days when you choose to embrace who you are.
The song was released this summer and has garnered thousands of streams in the weeks since. She’s been working on four more songs with two of them set for release in the coming weeks. And she tackles different subjects, too, with one of the new tracks called “AI” about artificial intelligence and another, “There For You,” about being there for people you care about.
“I produced and recorded ‘Free To Be Me’ when I was nine but my voice has gotten better and better and now my voice has so much more soul in it,” she says. “I’m excited to have more songs out for people to hear how much my voice has changed.”
Friedman is also working on getting a band together so she can offer live performances in the near future. Additionally, she’ll sing the national anthem at the Boston Athletic Association half marathon in November. That event is presented by the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Jimmy Fund.
“I’m kind of singing for kids who have to go through something like I had to go through,” she says. “I’m spreading awareness.”
Make sure to stay connected to Friedman on all platforms for new music, videos and social posts.
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