If ever there was a city that hides its light under a bushel it’s Birmingham. But not anymore. Today, millions of eyes will be on the city for the 2022 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony.
It’s finally time for my home city, a young vibrant multicultural city to shine on the world stage. To show off.
And show that there’s more to Birmingham than baltis, Peaky Blinders and Cadbury’s chocolate.
I hope that’s exactly what we do for the next 12 days - because showing off is usually shunned by Brummies. It’s not who we are. We just get on with it.
The self-deprecating Brummie humour has always been part of my identity and proudly so.
But others see what we have sometimes hidden.
The buzz Jamaican triple gold winner Usain Bolt created when he thanked my home city on TV after training here in the run-up to the London 2012 Olympics was something that delighted Brummies.
He later went on to “big up” Brum again in an interview following the 4x100m relay victories. Bolt did more for Brum PR than the actual city has done in years, I thought.
Technically, I’m Black Country than Brummie. I was born in West Bromwich, in Sandwell, just over the border. I’ll never forget that thrill of ‘going into town’ - Birmingham city centre, as a young girl.
Every Saturday, my mom, me and my sister would get the No.79 bus and face the clogged traffic of Soho Road through Handsworth, with its colourful shopfronts and bhangra music blaring from vehicles.
Today it is even more ethnically diverse, with Polish and Pakistani shopkeepers working side by side.
Handsworth is one of many areas where visitors will see exactly why Birmingham represents the Commonwealth.
Of course, Birmingham has its issues - a glamorous global event is not going to change that - but there are many positives of this city.
And this includes the accent, which happily will be referenced in tonight’s ceremony.
Years of London living has not changed mine at all. In fact, I think it’s got stronger. It gave me a rich sense of identity that I wouldn’t want to lose.
When I returned to Birmingham in 2013, I was amazed at the physical changes.
The brutalist eyesore that was the old library was replaced by something altogether more modern - a giant gift box-looking building - and the largest library in Europe.
It was opened by adopted Brummie Malala Yousafzai less than a year after she was shot by the Taliban for championing education for girls.
We also had a swanky new rooftop restaurant - and even a Michelin-starred dining scene.
Instead of having the massive football teams and big soap celebs up north, my city gets its kudos from its food. We gained our first Michelin star thanks to Glynn Purnell in 2005 and now have five Michelin-starred restaurants in the city. That’s four more than Manchester.
Our Brum big five includes Opheem, helmed by Aktar Islam which became the only Indian Michelin-starred restaurant outside London.
And we all know about the baltis, but the West Midlands is also home to the Desi Pub phenomenon.
Half a century ago, when American civil rights activist Malcolm X visited the city, he witnessed first-hand the segregation in bars and pubs. The British boozer was not a welcoming place for non-whites back then, but over the last few decades, Indian landlords have breathed life into old pubs by serving up curry and other Indian ‘desi’ delights with beer.
These pubs exemplify positive multiculturalism at work - bringing communities together.
This is the city of a thousand trades and inventions, including the world’s first photocopier, cooker, whistle, camera and commercially available computer.
It also invented the classic ink pen nib in 1822. Brummie John Mitchell, invented a machine that pioneered the mass production of steel-nib pens at a time when most people used quills. Games visitors can learn about it by popping into the city’s Pen Museum.
If they have time, they should also visit The Coffin Works - yes, a museum for coffins. Both are situated in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, where almost half of the UK’s jewellery is made. Incidentally, we do have a bit of an obsession with Quarters. There’s the Gun Quarter, Gay Quarter, Chinese Quarter, Creative Quarter and Irish Quarter to name a few.
We also have our own Floozie in the Jacuzzi!
The impressive £3.5 million fountain The River sits gracefully in Victoria Square in the city centre. It was created by Indian sculptor Dhruva Mistry CBE RA in 1993 after he won an international competition to design it.
Brummies affectionately nicknamed it the Floozie and the name has stuck ever since.
I love Birmingham’s quirks that sit comfortably alongside the big things everyone should know about. For example, Birmingham University’s Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower is the tallest free-standing clock tower in the world.
And Tony Bennett described Birmingham’s Symphony Hall as the” finest concert hall in the world” when he performed there in 2017. Music is a big thing in Brum.
This year it was named the best music city in the UK - no other place in the UK can boast such a wide range of sounds: The Move and Steve Winwood’s The Spencer Davis Group Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Steel Pulse and UB40, from The Beat, Fine Young Cannibals, Apache Indian, Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy, Roy Wood, Ruby Turner, The Moody Blues, Ruby Turner, Joan Armatrading Ocean Colour Scene, and, of course, Duran Duran.
“Other cities have had their music defined geographically, like the Mersey sound. But nobody has defined a Birmingham sound because the bands that come from here are so diverse,” says UB40 drummer Jimmy Brown.” The music reflects the diversity of the city. That is our strength.”
Bandmate Norman Hassan added: “It’s really down to the diversity of the people. It’s a beautiful melting pot of people, their cultures and cuisines – that’s why we love living here and have never left.”
Famous Brummies included scientists and inventors Matthew Boulton, James Watt and William Murdoch, leading Birmingham to be the first manufacturing town - and key figures of the Industrial Revolution.
We also have Brummie acting greats including Julie Walters, Martin Shaw and Tony Hancock.
Romance writer Barbara Cartland was born here. Lord of The Rings author J. R. R. Tolkien grew up in Birmingham and based many of the locations from the trilogy on real-life parts of the city. And of course, more recent talent includes telly faces Cat Deeley, Emma Willis, Adil Ray and Alison Hammond who will be “the voice” of all the Commonwealth Games venues.
We have Birmingham Royal Ballet and The Birmingham Art Gallery and Museum, which houses the world’s biggest collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings. One of our finest artists is Temper. His ground-breaking 2001 exhibition “Minuteman” at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery was the first by a solo graffiti artist in a public art gallery - ever.
Last year the historic Grand Hotel reopened after a glittering £45million restoration. It first opened in 1879, and past guests include Charlie Chaplin, Winston Churchill and Martin Luther King. Most recently, it accommodated Hollywood star Tom Cruise.
Our city skyline is glamorous too - with a gorgeous mix of historic and modern Brum architecture. But away from the city centre, it’s in the towns and suburbs where you’ll see the heart of Brum at work. The community spirit is strong all over the city and was particularly highlighted over the pandemic. Hall Green couple Sapphire Poles and Stephen Palmer set up an essentials delivery service collecting and delivering groceries to Covid-19 high risk individuals.
Recently, thousands of Brummies have signed a petition backing Smethwick 75-year-old Gurmit Kaur’s battle against deportation to India.
Kingstanding, north of the city, was the scene of a fatal gas explosion this summer. Neighbours rushed to help in the immediate aftermath of the blast in the search for survivors. One described how they “formed a human chain and passed each other rubble piece by piece." Pub bosses also opened up their doors to the families evacuated from their homes. The landlady said: “You have to do what you have to do. Put yourself in their shoes. They have lost everything, and think ‘what can you do’. Even just to sit and have a cup of tea.”
That’s my Birmingham - a big city with an even bigger heart.
