Donna Burke is an Australian actress, singer and voice over artist living in Tokyo, Japan since 1996. You may have heard her singing with the Tokyo Philharmonic live in concert in Japan and voicing roles for legendary Japanese video games. She's from a family of seven children and her mum's name is Margaret but she was called, Marg.
Donna Burke explains that her mum gave birth to seven children of which there are two sets of twins. Donna is the first born twin to a boy and the second set of twins was also boy/girl. She basically in the middle of the seven children.
To add to Donna's many talents, she is also the long time English announcer on the Shinkansen bullet train, from Tokyo to Osaka. She refers to herself as an entrepreneur, which she says she inherited from her dad. In addition to lending her voice to many genres, she also has a business called "Royal Flush" Japan Toilet Sound Maker. There's a Japanese cultural love affair with sound effects that mask any noises one may make while busy on the toilet!
The video games that she's featured on, including her singing songs and character roles in video games are Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill 2 and 3.
My guest's mum had a very rough childhood. Marg's mother, Donna's maternal grandmother, was an alcoholic. Her second husband was a pedophile. Marg and her older sister were in and out of orphanages, treated horribly while they were there. So the two sisters figured out that they could pretend that their life was better than it actually was. The two sisters felt so much shame about their broken family, parent's divorced, etc so they decided it was a good idea to dream up a different past. This was a coping mechanism which seemed to help. When Marg was 14-15 years old, her biological father eventually let Marg live with him once he saw the horrific conditions she had been living in.
Donna loved to sing and really tried very hard to get every opportunity to perform when she was a teen. Unfortunately her mom, busy with all the kids, didn't really realize how passionate Donna was and how committed she was to fulfilling her dreams of being a performer.
Come 1996, Donna realized it was time to get away from Australia and ventured on to live in Japan. She is still there today with a budding career -using her voice for singing monster hits from legendary video games and doing voice overs, including the job as the english announcer on one of Japan's bullet trains.
Marg has been to Tokyo to visit her daughter and loves spending time in Tokyo. Marg also was thrown into the spotlight because of the notoriety of her daughter's voice as the announcer on the Shinkansen bullet train. The video interview went viral and that was Marg's first experience with real fame.
Though Donna's mom had a dark childhood for many, many years, she still instilled in her children that it okay and important "to be kind to yourself and it's okay to love yourself "
Donna Burke has a wonderful sense of humor, though at times her childhood may have been a bit chaotic, her sense of humor staid intact. I so enjoyed speaking with her about her mom Marg.
One of Marg's favorite songs that Donna sings is "Sins of the Father."
"Sins of the Father" is a song from the game Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. It was first featured in the E3 2013 trailer.
The lyrics were written by Ludvig Forssell, performed by Donna Burke and composed by Akihiro Honda.
Donna also sings:"Metal Gear V:The Phantom Pain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNvD-oNNQso#:~:text=Metal%20Gear%20V%3A%20The%20Phantom,the%20Father%20%2D%20Donna%20Burke%20%2D%20YouTube
Donna Burke, the voice of Angela in "Silent Hill 2" wrote a song about her character. "no one can save me-Angela's song Silent Hill 2"
https://www.reddit.com/r/silenthill/comments/7wlnq4/donna_burke_the_voice_of_angela_in_silent_hill_2/
https://www.facebook.com/abcperth/videos/my-mum-heard-me-on-the-shinkasen/577830052962458/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=xqw49gzlO2c
Here is the viral tweet
https://x.com/TheDonnaBurke/status/1189459108052602880
SOCIALS:
https://www.youtube.com/@DonnaBurkeOfficial
https://www.instagram.com/thedonnaburke/
https://twitter.com/TheDonnaBurke
https://www.donnaburke.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnaburke1/
https://www.japantoiletsound.com/