Amira Willighagen
‘O Mio Babbino Caro’ (Giacomo Puccini)
Maastricht - 2014
Many claim that this girl is a miracle, that she must have an old soul living within her - that through her incredible voice, Maria Callas has been reborn. But is it so hard to accept that Amira, pictured here at nine years old during one of her first true live performances, is but a naturally talented, hard-working young artist in her own right? It is her age that seems to stupefy most of her audience, as well as her undeniable expression of consuming passion that she delivers alongside her womanly voice that entrances many, both audibly and visually. Amira performs with the intensity and maturity of one who has been professionally and judiciously trained for years, with dozens of acclaimed vocal trainers already stating that Amira’s gift of expression is one they have yet to see in their own pupils. In late 2013, when Amira and her vocal chords first surfaced on a Dutch talent show, Amira found it difficult to immediately respond to the question, ‘Who taught you to sing like this?’. Her reaction was like that of someone being confronted with an unknown language; she grimaced and blinked slightly, with the exact childlike awkwardness that so many of us can remember feeling at that age. It is from this reaction that one can really see the art of this girl’s enigma: that while she supports with apparent ease an unsurpassable talent that most adults, let alone children, may only dream of achieving after years of practise, she supports with equal grace the fact that she is a child. She does not try to act older than her years, even when she sings. She couples the soul of a woman with that of a child, releasing it in the form of something that almost is, in fact, unearthly. (To view her masterpiece, as pictured, click here.)
