I think we often take our senses for granted, like the privilege of being able to see and hear.

The Glastonbury festival happened over the weekend and superstars took to the stage to give amazing performances. British star Stormzy might have made history by becoming the first black UK solo artist to headline the annual event in its 49-year history, but it was sign language interpreter, Tara Asher, who stole the show and she has gone viral.

Footage of Asher swaying, rocking and mouthing along Stormzy’s performance on Friday lit up social media and gave new recognition to the art of bringing music to the hard of hearing and the deaf.

Stormzy is a cult figure in the British grime scene, which blends Jamaican dancehall and hip hop for a pulsating, hard-edged sound that first electrified London nearly two decades ago…. The struggle with specifically grime music is the speed and also the double meanings and metaphors because, at first listen, you won’t understand the underlying threads throughout the song.

So it’s kind of unpicking and unpacking the song and ensuring that you deliver that message that the artist is trying to get across. That’s hard for people who are able to hear… let alone those who are hard of hearing or deaf.

What I found amazing is the number of deaf people attending the music festival – who all said they were there for the vibe, the lights, to see the celebs and performers and some interviewed, said that they love to feel the vibrations of the music.

Tara Asher learned 21 of Stormzy’s songs and on Friday night started performing them with sign language – it drew a crowd of around 50 people who are hard of hearing or deaf, and before long an even bigger crowd of people watching this amazing work!

When someone chatted to her she said: “It’s very specialist. It’s very niche. It’s not something every sign language interpreter can do. I’m so glad I can do this so that those who can’t hear are able to experience more.”

RT BBCPM: Tara Asher is one of only a handful of people who specialise in signing grime songs. She’s been preparing to sign for stormzy at Glastonbury tonight and gave bbcpm a sneak preview #glastonbury2019 #SignLanguage pic.twitter.com/4zHcO2Gz5c

— Marco Mosquera Jensen (@marcomos) June 29, 2019

Video sourced from Twitter.