I appreciate your enthusiastic reaction to Emma's performance here. She is such a captivating and delightful young artist, with off the charts talent. These early performances of her's clearly portend the extraordinary performer she has become. Still only 16 years old, she has already made an indelible mark on the world, and promises to continue to do so for a long time to come. That kind of talent and ability cannot be repressed. Emma is a generational phenomena. She is truly one of a kind. All the best.
You've seen the start of Emma's rise to fame with Andre Rieu, and he mentioned the disease that she is suffering from, but he didn't go into details about it, and if I explain a bit of that, the depth of this song, released 12 months earlier, and written specifically for Emma will become so much clearer, Emma was born with gastroparesis, a paralysed stomach, but it was not properly diagnosed until she was 10, as it's so rare in newborn, and those early years were huge trauma for her, she was put onto external pump tube feeding at 9 months, and is tied to those pumps for 22 hours a day, so the 2 hours a day she can be free of the pumps are precious to her, they are her freedom, the time she can be unrestricted and able to perform as the singer that she aspires to be. Because of the problems of physically moving the pumps, her growth was delayed by the disease, she had to use a small trolley to move the pumps around, and she was bullied, and called awful names by her peers, it had a huge effect on her at the time, and even now, at 16, she's tiny, 1 Mtr 50, and around 50 Kgs, and her stamina is not as good as would be normal for her age, she struggles with more than 2 flights of stairs, or even longer walking distances, and at times, uses a wheelchair to get around. Due to the early age she had to go on to pump feeding, she has no memory of normal eating, and even milk is a problem, and that means that even normal social functions that are based around meals are a problem for her, she can't participate in meals, so that denies her so many other aspects of the social relationships that are a accepted part of family life. Andre Rieu invited her to meet him after she won Ministars in 2023, he'd seen a video of her singing a version of Voila that was very similar to the orignal sung by Barbara Pravi in the 2021 Eurovision song contest, it was placed second. During the visit to Andre's studio, they decided that she would sing Voila in Maastricht for the summer concert series, but it would be a modified version, suited to the orchestra, and that meant it was slowed down, and it gave Emma the time and space she needed to truly LIVE the song on his stage, which she did, incredibly powerfully. The video you saw of Voila was recorded on the first night of the Maastricht concerts, and it was the first time it had been performed live, prior to that night, they'd only been rehearsing, and all of the orchestra, and Andre had problems with tears and emotions during rehearsals, due to the power of Emma's performances, but on the first live performance, all of them were able to manage their emotions, and the result, as you saw, was Emma delivered a stunning performance that earned her a standing ovation of over a minute from the 12,500 audience that was there to witness the arrival on the scene of a new star. Emma's song was the expression of her dream, to soar like a butterfly, to be able to walk away from the pressures and issues that are an every day reality as a result of her disease, and that first night, in so many ways, as she walked out on to Andre's stage, she soared like the butterfly of her dream, she dominated the stage, the orchestra and the audience, so powerfully and with so much presence. The theme of the song is a deep desire for change, to become the butterfly that's emerging from the chrysalis state in the cocoon, and soaring free, to become what it's meant to be, and casting off the shackles and restraints that were part of the development, to be able to fully live and see the dream. The deep segment is very evident in a different version of the video, recorded in the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam, ruclips.net/video/Zcxan9R5s4E/видео.html the significant bit starts around 2:02 and goes through to about 2:40, she sings 'if only for a day, or even for a count of 10, I'd just like to live as another', a deeply emotional statement of her desperate longing to be free of the limitations and restrictions of being tied to the feeding pumps for 22 hours a day, and as she sings the words, her eyes close, and she shakes her head from side to side, and then her head goes down to silence, as she contemplates her true situation, no matter how desperate her deep desire for freedom, for now, there is no release, no change that can be made for it to happen, there is no cure for gastroparesis at present, and she has to face the numbing reality that her life can't change for now, and at that point, she makes her decision clear, she is NOT going to let her disease define her, she IS going to fight her way through like the warrior she truly is, and then, she starts singing again, rises to a new high note, and makes it so clear that she will not give in to it, she is going to become the singer that she knows she can be, and that of course is exactly what happened 12 months later when she physically walked out onto Andre Rieu's huge stage in the town square in Maastricht, and performed the new version of Voila for the first time ever. Mentally, she was the butterfly of her dream, Andre had worked his showman's magic on her, he'd had 4 dresses made for her, and when they saw them, they both knew that the stunning black dress was the right one for her, and more than that, he gently helped her make that difficult transition from the good girl singer into the young woman who was ready to emerge and become the mega star that she was destined to be, any day now, the video of Voila will go over 60 million views, and that's only on RUclips, there's a similar number of views on other social media channels. When she walked out onto that stage, she was the new Emma, she came out on to that stage visibly and emotionally a beautiful, strong, powerful, serene, composed, competent, driven and dedicated young woman, and that first night on Andre's stage was the start of the fulfillment of her dream that she'd sung so beautifully 12 months earlier. At the end of that first ever live performance of the new version of Voila, in front of what was probably her biggest ever audience, 12,500 people, at the end, as she punched the air in triumph, that cheeky smile said it all, she knew she'd nailed the performance of her life, and Andre's reaction to her confirmed it as she turned to him and threw her arms wide as much as to say 'How was that?' Andre's eyes, the smile, the hug and embrace, the one word, 'Fantastic' and the call back to take more of the minute of standing ovation she got, they were the confirmation that her star truly had risen, and in so many ways, that first performance was a special night. It was followed the next day by the invitation to go with Andre to Malta, to be a part of his Christmas concert series, and to tour the world for a series of 75 concerts throughout 2024. Emma has become so much more than just a singer, she is an incredible performer who can rise to any situation, this coming weekend, she will perform with Military band at the MotoGP event in Assen, singing the Dutch National Anthem, and in recent weeks, as part of the annual liberation commemoration concerts, she performed an incredible version of a Demi Levato cover of a song, 'Father', it was a huge performance that was absolutely stunning, and significantly differerent from the version she's sung only a few months earlier, and this new version went for an even higher top note she'd not sung before. ruclips.net/video/zXWBj7-edWU/видео.html Around the same time, she also did a duet at the Amsterdam liberation event, she sang with April Darby, 'When you believe', in the presence of the Dutch Royal family, and many high ranking politicians, it was another stunning high power performance. ruclips.net/video/YG8WV1GFt_c/видео.html There is so much more about Emma, many other songs on RUclips, but for now, that's enough to be going on with, I'm out of space due to youtube limits. I will close with my normal appeal to everyone reading or listening to this channel. Emma's situation hasn't changed since that first appearance with Andre, she is still tied to her two external feeding pumps for 22 hours a day, and I know from recent social media posts, she finds that hard to cope with at times, despite that she's loving the singing with Andre. I make no apologies for adding this, Emma deserves all the support she can be given, as her foundation works to help find better treatments, or even possibly a cure for this awful disease. Emma's foundation is almost unique in terms of the work they are doing, there's been very little research into a devastating illness, the effects on the sufferers are huge. Emma's foundation can be found at gastrostars.nl Please, if at all possible, join me in making a (regular) contribution to her foundation, to enable them to help patients like Emma, and research this awful disease that has affected her from birth, and requires her to be tied to the pumps and feeding tubes since she was 9 MONTHS old, for 22 hours a day, hopefully, the work of her foundation will find a cure. One of their main people is a surgeon who has a lot of experience in dealing with gastroparesis, and she is not only a surgeon, but also suffers from the same disease herself, to the extent that as a result of her condition worsening, she's had to leave her role in the hospital, and she is now dedicated to the foundation, and working to help find possible new treatments, or even better the cure that will free people like Emma to live a more normal life, rather than be tied to the feeding pumps for so many hours every day. It will be so good if the work of Emma's foundation can lead to a better treatment, or even a cure, which will free her to do more singing, and it may be people here who make that possible.
Nice how you interpreted this song in a more generic meaning. Of course, for Emma it point directly to her disease, where she's always connected with tubes to her feeding pumps and heaving them carrying around in a big bag. And where she does have good but also bad days, fysical and mental.
Some of her posts on an another social media site, made when she is feeling down or troubled, are absolutely heartbreaking in their poignancy and candor. True to her warrior nature, however, she always bounces back.
![EMMA KOK Slays DEMI LOVATO's Song Father [ Reaction ] | UK 🇬🇧](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/FD9WK8QSJn8/mqdefault.jpg)
I appreciate your enthusiastic reaction to Emma's performance here. She is such a captivating and delightful young artist, with off the charts talent.
These early performances of her's clearly portend the extraordinary performer she has become.
Still only 16 years old, she has already made an indelible mark on the world, and promises to continue to do so for a long time to come. That kind of talent and ability cannot be repressed.
Emma is a generational phenomena. She is truly one of a kind.
All the best.
You've seen the start of Emma's rise to fame with Andre Rieu, and he mentioned the disease that she is suffering from, but he didn't go into details about it, and if I explain a bit of that, the depth of this song, released 12 months earlier, and written specifically for Emma will become so much clearer, Emma was born with gastroparesis, a paralysed stomach, but it was not properly diagnosed until she was 10, as it's so rare in newborn, and those early years were huge trauma for her, she was put onto external pump tube feeding at 9 months, and is tied to those pumps for 22 hours a day, so the 2 hours a day she can be free of the pumps are precious to her, they are her freedom, the time she can be unrestricted and able to perform as the singer that she aspires to be.
Because of the problems of physically moving the pumps, her growth was delayed by the disease, she had to use a small trolley to move the pumps around, and she was bullied, and called awful names by her peers, it had a huge effect on her at the time, and even now, at 16, she's tiny, 1 Mtr 50, and around 50 Kgs, and her stamina is not as good as would be normal for her age, she struggles with more than 2 flights of stairs, or even longer walking distances, and at times, uses a wheelchair to get around.
Due to the early age she had to go on to pump feeding, she has no memory of normal eating, and even milk is a problem, and that means that even normal social functions that are based around meals are a problem for her, she can't participate in meals, so that denies her so many other aspects of the social relationships that are a accepted part of family life.
Andre Rieu invited her to meet him after she won Ministars in 2023, he'd seen a video of her singing a version of Voila that was very similar to the orignal sung by Barbara Pravi in the 2021 Eurovision song contest, it was placed second. During the visit to Andre's studio, they decided that she would sing Voila in Maastricht for the summer concert series, but it would be a modified version, suited to the orchestra, and that meant it was slowed down, and it gave Emma the time and space she needed to truly LIVE the song on his stage, which she did, incredibly powerfully.
The video you saw of Voila was recorded on the first night of the Maastricht concerts, and it was the first time it had been performed live, prior to that night, they'd only been rehearsing, and all of the orchestra, and Andre had problems with tears and emotions during rehearsals, due to the power of Emma's performances, but on the first live performance, all of them were able to manage their emotions, and the result, as you saw, was Emma delivered a stunning performance that earned her a standing ovation of over a minute from the 12,500 audience that was there to witness the arrival on the scene of a new star.
Emma's song was the expression of her dream, to soar like a butterfly, to be able to walk away from the pressures and issues that are an every day reality as a result of her disease, and that first night, in so many ways, as she walked out on to Andre's stage, she soared like the butterfly of her dream, she dominated the stage, the orchestra and the audience, so powerfully and with so much presence.
The theme of the song is a deep desire for change, to become the butterfly that's emerging from the chrysalis state in the cocoon, and soaring free, to become what it's meant to be, and casting off the shackles and restraints that were part of the development, to be able to fully live and see the dream. The deep segment is very evident in a different version of the video, recorded in the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam,
ruclips.net/video/Zcxan9R5s4E/видео.html
the significant bit starts around 2:02 and goes through to about 2:40, she sings 'if only for a day, or even for a count of 10, I'd just like to live as another', a deeply emotional statement of her desperate longing to be free of the limitations and restrictions of being tied to the feeding pumps for 22 hours a day, and as she sings the words, her eyes close, and she shakes her head from side to side, and then her head goes down to silence, as she contemplates her true situation, no matter how desperate her deep desire for freedom, for now, there is no release, no change that can be made for it to happen, there is no cure for gastroparesis at present, and she has to face the numbing reality that her life can't change for now, and at that point, she makes her decision clear, she is NOT going to let her disease define her, she IS going to fight her way through like the warrior she truly is, and then, she starts singing again, rises to a new high note, and makes it so clear that she will not give in to it, she is going to become the singer that she knows she can be, and that of course is exactly what happened 12 months later when she physically walked out onto Andre Rieu's huge stage in the town square in Maastricht, and performed the new version of Voila for the first time ever.
Mentally, she was the butterfly of her dream, Andre had worked his showman's magic on her, he'd had 4 dresses made for her, and when they saw them, they both knew that the stunning black dress was the right one for her, and more than that, he gently helped her make that difficult transition from the good girl singer into the young woman who was ready to emerge and become the mega star that she was destined to be, any day now, the video of Voila will go over 60 million views, and that's only on RUclips, there's a similar number of views on other social media channels.
When she walked out onto that stage, she was the new Emma, she came out on to that stage visibly and emotionally a beautiful, strong, powerful, serene, composed, competent, driven and dedicated young woman, and that first night on Andre's stage was the start of the fulfillment of her dream that she'd sung so beautifully 12 months earlier. At the end of that first ever live performance of the new version of Voila, in front of what was probably her biggest ever audience, 12,500 people, at the end, as she punched the air in triumph, that cheeky smile said it all, she knew she'd nailed the performance of her life, and Andre's reaction to her confirmed it as she turned to him and threw her arms wide as much as to say 'How was that?'
Andre's eyes, the smile, the hug and embrace, the one word, 'Fantastic' and the call back to take more of the minute of standing ovation she got, they were the confirmation that her star truly had risen, and in so many ways, that first performance was a special night.
It was followed the next day by the invitation to go with Andre to Malta, to be a part of his Christmas concert series, and to tour the world for a series of 75 concerts throughout 2024.
Emma has become so much more than just a singer, she is an incredible performer who can rise to any situation, this coming weekend, she will perform with Military band at the MotoGP event in Assen, singing the Dutch National Anthem, and in recent weeks, as part of the annual liberation commemoration concerts, she performed an incredible version of a Demi Levato cover of a song, 'Father', it was a huge performance that was absolutely stunning, and significantly differerent from the version she's sung only a few months earlier, and this new version went for an even higher top note she'd not sung before.
ruclips.net/video/zXWBj7-edWU/видео.html
Around the same time, she also did a duet at the Amsterdam liberation event, she sang with April Darby, 'When you believe', in the presence of the Dutch Royal family, and many high ranking politicians, it was another stunning high power performance.
ruclips.net/video/YG8WV1GFt_c/видео.html
There is so much more about Emma, many other songs on RUclips, but for now, that's enough to be going on with, I'm out of space due to youtube limits.
I will close with my normal appeal to everyone reading or listening to this channel.
Emma's situation hasn't changed since that first appearance with Andre, she is still tied to her two external feeding pumps for 22 hours a day, and I know from recent social media posts, she finds that hard to cope with at times, despite that she's loving the singing with Andre.
I make no apologies for adding this, Emma deserves all the support she can be given, as her foundation works to help find better treatments, or even possibly a cure for this awful disease.
Emma's foundation is almost unique in terms of the work they are doing, there's been very little research into a devastating illness, the effects on the sufferers are huge.
Emma's foundation can be found at gastrostars.nl
Please, if at all possible, join me in making a (regular) contribution to her foundation, to enable them to help patients like Emma, and research this awful disease that has affected her from birth, and requires her to be tied to the pumps and feeding tubes since she was 9 MONTHS old, for 22 hours a day, hopefully, the work of her foundation will find a cure.
One of their main people is a surgeon who has a lot of experience in dealing with gastroparesis, and she is not only a surgeon, but also suffers from the same disease herself, to the extent that as a result of her condition worsening, she's had to leave her role in the hospital, and she is now dedicated to the foundation, and working to help find possible new treatments, or even better the cure that will free people like Emma to live a more normal life, rather than be tied to the feeding pumps for so many hours every day.
It will be so good if the work of Emma's foundation can lead to a better treatment, or even a cure, which will free her to do more singing, and it may be people here who make that possible.
Nice how you interpreted this song in a more generic meaning. Of course, for Emma it point directly to her disease, where she's always connected with tubes to her feeding pumps and heaving them carrying around in a big bag. And where she does have good but also bad days, fysical and mental.
Some of her posts on an another social media site, made when she is feeling down or troubled, are absolutely heartbreaking in their poignancy and candor.
True to her warrior nature, however, she always bounces back.