What Words Cannot Describe - Evgenia Medvedeva & Amira Willighagen

Russian figure skater Evgenia Medvedeva and Dutch Soprano Amira Willighagen have never met. However, an observant artist combined their talent here. Amira was 13 years old when she performed composer Ennio Morricone's theme to the movie Once Upon a Time in the West, 'Your Love,' in Utrecht in 2017. Evgenia Medvedeva, who was 17 when she gave this figure skating performance, was the 2018 Olympic silver medalist, a two-time world champion (2016, 2017), a two-time European champion (2016, 2017), a two-time Grand Prix Final champion (2015, 2016), and a two-time Russian national champion (2016, 2017). Incidentally, the composer Morricone, known for his movie themes and winner of seven Academy Award nominations, is still alive. He is 91. I wonder if he has ever seen this video and what he would have thought.

Morricone composed this song for the 1968 Spaghetti Western Once Upon a Time in the West, directed by Sergio Leone. In the movie the song was originally wordless, sung for the film by Edda Dell'Orso. Here it is as it was originally heard in 1968 (cued to the start of the song in the film): Movie theme.

The following words were later added:

I woke and you were there
Beside me in the night.
You touched me and calmed my fear,
Turned darkness into light.
I woke and saw you there
Beside me as before
My heart leapt to find you near
To feel you close once more
To feel your love once more.
Your strength has made me strong
Though life tore us apart
And now when the night seems long
Your love shines in my heart...
Your love shines in my heart.

Here the lyrics are superimposed to Amira's album rendition so one can follow them.