Suzanna Dee (also known as Sue Drake) is a songwriter, vocalist, industry coach, and artist development mentor working at the intersection of music, wellbeing, and personal transformation. With a career spanning over 25 years, she first emerged as a topliner in the late 1990s with global dance releases including ‘Evolver’, and ‘Blue Skies’ by Evolver; championed by leading DJs such as Tiësto and Paul van Dyk.

Her vocals have featured on internationally successful tracks including ‘Show Me Heaven’, a Top 40 official hit featured on Ministry of Sound and Clubland compilations, contributing to multiple Gold and Silver discs. Recently her collaboration with Craig Connelly and James Cottle wrote ‘Be As One’ which featured the stunning vocals of Liel Kolet which topped Beatport Beatport Top 10 Trance Main Dance Floor and played out in many Festivals such as Luminosity, Rong and Passion to name a few.

As a trusted collaborator, she has worked with renowned producers and labels including Anjunabeats, Black Hole Recordings, Warner Music and artists such as Freemasons, Aurora, and Signum. She also recorded as the sole backing vocalist on the Spice Girls’ Forever album and many more. She has also been ask to Judge on BBC One (All Together Now as one of ‘The 100’) along with Open Mic UK and Undiscovered Talent UK.

Alongside her singing career, she is Songwriting Lead at Continuum Music Artist Retreats and works through Love Vocals, where she supports artists in developing their craft while navigating the emotional realities of the industry. Her approach is grounded, insightful, and deeply human, empowering artists to build sustainable, authentic careers.

Burnout in the music industry isn’t random - it follows a pattern. A cycle of survival where creatives push through pressure, overextend, disconnect, crash, and rebuild… only to repeat it again.

This panel breaks that cycle down — and helps attendees identify exactly where they are within it.

We’ll also acknowledge that burnout doesn’t look the same for everyone. It can present as exhaustion, loss of creativity, anxiety, emotional numbness, high-functioning overdrive — or as deeper industry trauma that leads some to quietly struggle, withdraw, or leave altogether.

Drawing on the Continuum framework — developed through our work with artists and our retreats in the Scottish Highlands — we’ll explore how survival mode becomes normalised, why burnout keeps recurring even at high levels of success, and what it actually takes to interrupt the pattern.

Through a clear, relatable model, the audience will be guided to recognise their position in the cycle — whether they’re in overdrive, depletion, or recovery — and understand how to move forward. We’ll also share how we actively support artists to step out of burnout, rebuild safely, and re-emerge with greater clarity, resilience, and creative connection.

Led by a panel of mental health professionals alongside legacy music industry recording artists, this session brings together both clinical insight and lived experience at the highest level. Attendees will leave not just with awareness, but with grounded strategies to break the cycle, navigate industry pressures, and build a more sustainable, long-term career in music.

Presented by Love Vocals, with its mental health division SoundMind and Continuum retreats — supporting artists through burnout, recovery, and sustainable careers.