The Natural Chemistry of Amira Willighagen and Sunnyboy Dladla

From time to time Amira Willighagen becomes visibly tense around someone, including on stage. Being a good sport and a professional, she pushes through. But it seems impossible for her to completely hide her discomfort when she feels something is not right.

Amira following instructions from Alma Deutscher

One instance of this is her working with the composer prodigy Alma Deutscher. In spite of their famous collaboration and friendship, and in spite of the fact Amira is a year older than Alma, Amira never seems to fully relax in Alma's presence. She seems visibly stiff. I don't know why that is.

Another is Ben Heijnen, who I discussed in my last post, O Sole Mio - 3 Versions. His over-competitiveness makes him feel like a threat to her, and I find that understandable.

Yet another case is when Holland's Got Talent host Gordon Heuckeroth gave her her first CD at her 10th Birthday Party. There are complicated reasons why this could be that I'll have to save for a later post. But one would almost have to be blind to not see the tension I'm talking about. See the full video for yourself here.

Amira receiving her first CD from Gordon Heuckeroth

But the opposite can also be true, as it clearly was between Amira and Italian baritone Patrizio Buanne. They clicked on stage, and audiences could not get enough of them. They seemed to have a routine of the sexy Italian ladies man crooning the beautiful shy damsel, and they are great at pantomiming how fantastic they found each others' singing.

But another singer that Amira had great chemistry with was South African opera singer Sunnyboy Dladla.

Their rehearsal videos speak for themselves. Not only does Amira beam while singing with Sunnyboy, but he seems to bring out a bit of her inner flamboyance that she had so much of as a little girl, and largely lost in her teenage years.

Amira comes alive when singing with African opera tenor Sunnyboy Dladla

There is no greater example of the chemistry I'm talking about than Amira and Sunnyboy singing Amigo Para Siempre above. Check out her smile at the end. They just seem to have a simpatico. My guess is that Amira and Sunnyboy may be lifelong genuine friends.

The picture of them on the right, after another concert, shows the same comfort and chemistry. She seems fully alive.

Note: There are gorgeous videos of pre-dress rehearsals with Sunnyboy and Amira, but they don't allow embedding. If you are curious go here and here.

I shouldn't end this post without mentioning the 3-way simpatico of Amira and Sunnyboy with opera singer Cecilia Rangwanasha. They're almost giddy.