Cape Town musician, Charlton Swart is a former childhood superstar with Autism, who spreads musical cheer each time he meets new people.
I was fortunate to meet Swart after my friend Joanne Trout filmed him singing in the corridors of the Mitchells Plain Day Hospital in Cape Town on June 7.
Trout said she was in the waiting area of the hospital and got into conversation with Swart who mentioned that he used to be a child star for his singing, but lost the opportunities.
She asked him to sing a song and filmed it, she sent me the video and mentioned that he was autistic and a patient at the hospital, awaiting his chance to see the doctor for his medication.
I posted the video of Swart on my Facebook page and within 10 hours, the video reached over 28k views and over 700 shares.
Swart went viral and this prompted me to chat to the singer about his forgotten music career.
I was met with: “It’s what I do, I sing to people when I’m on the road or at hospitals and people feel happy when I sing and I love that I can give them that joy with my voice.”
But I found that Swart was no ordinary singer just spreading cheer, his path steered away from his passion for singing when he was hit with mental health issues as he grew older.
“I was a very in demand singer when I was around 11-years-old until about 14.
“I was scouted by Jonathan Butler in 2003, went with him to Los Angeles to record a CD of my music.
“I was in Grade 7 at Imperial Primary School.
“I was there for a month and recorded half way, but then my management wasn’t happy with the deal and didn’t agree and I was pulled away from Jonathan, which I regret today.
“They should have left me to complete the music recording with him,” he said.
Swart then got to sing with Ronan Keating at the “Nelson Mandela Invitational” in 2004.
“Ronan wanted to take me to Ireland to perform with him and then my voice broke and then I couldn’t go to Ireland as my voice had changed.
“My manager then left back to England where he is from and I never got these childhood opportunities again,” he said.
Swart said he struggled to get gigs again after he was left alone.
“I then tried Idols SA and The Voice SA and never got far with that.
“I started becoming depressed and was then diagnosed with autism in 2015.
“Its hard and I hope something can happen for me again,” he said.
Swart then started painting and drawing, developing a passion for visual art and has been hooked on art for 13 years.
Swart explained his condition: “With the nature of this autism spectrum, it goes into depression, schizophrenia, bipolar and more.
“My brain is on a level where I don’t receive emotions as normal people does, I am sensitive and it’s hard to control,” he said.
Swart relies on his monthly medication called “Olanzapine”, which calms him.
“Art and singing soothes me and helps me relax. But I really rely on my medication, I can’t do without it.
“I feel that it all came crashing for me when my career was ended, which triggered me to find out that I was indeed autistic. I am putting my faith and focus on God who is the only one who can delete this autism file from my mind,” he said.
Swart says he also has a “strange” condition that nobody can diagnose yet.
“As a child, I never spoke to other kids or played with other kids, my parents didn’t notice that anything was wrong with me.
“I would sit in a corner when children fought, as I was afraid.
“In high school I discovered that I wasn’t okay, I found that I have something in me that doctors still can’t diagnose.
He explains: “When I come between a lot of people, trees, cars, buildings, clothes hanging on the washing line, it’s like those things stay with me and move with me and can read my mind. It feels like all those things can read my mind and like my brain is exposed openly to these objects. Doctors said it’s a sort of schizophrenic thing and I then feel like I want to be alone. This is really a challenge for me and no medication can solve that part.
“My mom wasn’t educated about my condition as a child, so I was never treated for it.”
He joined a social club for people with special needs and met his wife, who is also autistic and the couple got married.
They have been married for eight months now and are expecting a child.