Amira's family influence

The more I understand Amira's whole story, the more I realize that she had to have the family members that she did, and that her story is really the story of an exceptional nuclear family. 

I began planning this post while thinking about Amira's extremely important close relationship with her father. Amira's lightning fast singing progress as a girl is really the story of two musicians, Amira and Gerrit Willighagen. But before I get into that very important relationship, I will speak just a bit about her other relatives that played a vital part. 

To begin with, few know that Amira's grandfather on her mother's side, who passed away before Amira was born, was an opera singer. Due to her knowing opera singing from her late husband, Amira's grandmother Elsa (who lived in South Africa) recognized in Amira right away an exceptional talent, as early as 6 or 7 years old. And she would often ask Amira to sing for her. 

Above, Amira and her brother serenade Elsa in a nursing home in South Africa. Elsa told Amira that one day she would be on television. Amira was delighted to hear this, and the thought of being on television was always on her mind after that. 

Elsa's love for Amira's voice was so intense that the family put together a home-made CD just to send to her. This photograph was taken for that special CD for Elsa. Amira's mother wrote of it, "This picture with the bird was taken as a CD cover for self recorded Christmas songs for her grandmother before the whole Hollands Got Talent. The bird resembles the story from the movie series the Thorn birds. There is a legend about a bird that sings more beautiful than a nightingale or a lark and makes God in his heavens smile, a favorite of her grandmother."

Some who are spiritually inclined might notice a touch of mysticism to this story. 

Elsa lived just long enough to see her prophesy come true, when she was shown a video of Amira performing on Holland's Got Talent on YouTube in the nursing home. Within days of Amira's televised performance, the video had gone viral and Amira was being interviewed by the press and barraged with media. 

Amira on television

Hearing that Amira's grandmother was living there, the South African press went to the nursing home to interview Elsa, calling her "Amira's biggest fan."

Elsa was gracious and showed the press pictures and her CD, and that she had seen Amira on YouTube. And then she said, "She is now the world's property." 

Once again, Elsa's words were prophetic. Two weeks later Elsa passed away, and the Willighagen family flew to South Africa to pay their respects. Amira performed at her grandmother's funeral. 

The next person in Amira's family I want to talk about is her father Gerrit. Much like Elsa, without Gerrit there would be no Amira. What few know is that her rise to success as a singer was the result of a quiet duo of the pair, and Amira is entirely aware of it. In the acknowledgements for her third album, she wrote: "Dad, thank you for helping me with all my music pieces, and for being so patient if I didn’t understand. Without you I would be nowhere."

It took me a long time to see how intertwined Gerrit was with Amira's career. To begin, one must know that Gerrit was long a church organist, even before Amira was born. Amira's mother moved from South Africa to marry him. They were both Dutch Reformed Christians. Gerrit took a very active role in raising their two children in Nijmegen, Netherlands where his family had long lived. 

Gerrit once admitted he would take Amira to church with him as a baby and set her beside the organ as he played through the service. Amira said she heard classical music from the womb.

When Amira was seven she had a fit that her brother got to play violin on Queen's day, a day that children are encouraged to perform some talent in the park for pocket change. Amira decided she would sing, since she didn't know an instrument. 

And it was Amira's father Gerrit who went down to the park with her to accompany her on his hand organ. Amazingly, Gerrit saved a phone recording of the moment she began to perform publicly. The song is Nella Fantasia by Ennio Morricone, a song that would later make her famous, but one would hardly know it. But one can see the determination in the 7 year old's face. In the video Gerrit seems to not know what to make of the event, looking around as if disinterested. He would later become extremely interested. 

There are several photos and videos of Amira's gradual improvement over the next couple of years. However, it is easy to miss a point -- as it is sometimes not always in the frame of the videos. Amira is playing for the approval of her father!

As Amira's talent grew, the whole family began to perform with her in talent events. I've captured some stills from one of these called "Music Makes Friends" that took place in Colmschate, Netherlands in November 2012, over a year before she won Holland's Got Talent. The stills capture Amira's quick glances at her father, obviously seeking his approval. 

One can see for himself here. Music Makes Friends 2012. 

What only fans know is that Gerrit began taking Amira busking in the parks, and the Willighagen family, as they were known, became a local phenomenon in the ancient Dutch city of Nijmegen. In case you can't tell, that's Amira in the orange hat.

But the final clincher was Amira's reaction when she won Holland's Got Talent in 2013. Amira had begged to go on the show ever since her grandmother suggested she would one day be on TV. Her only desire was to be on the show to be on TV, and she would study the show. But it was two long years before Amira's mother gave her permission. She asked when she was 7 and her mother said absolutely not. She asked again when she was 8, and her mother, who had begun to realize Amira had an uncanny voice, having been exposed to opera as a child herself in her father, said, "Not this year. But when you are 9, you can. And then the world will be at your feet."

Amira's 2013 first audition on Dutch national television is now famous. All versions of it combined on YouTube it has had over 150 million views. It is calculated that all Amira's videos combined on all platforms have over 1 billion. 

But I want to point out Gerrit's role, and point out some details from the event. And I want to include some interesting photos I haven't shown before. First is the Willighagen family the morning of the audition sitting around the breakfast table. 

Mother had arranged for all Amira's school friends to come to the event and sit with her in the upper balcony with Amira signs to show support, while it was agreed Gerrit and Amira's brother Fincent would accompany Amira behind stage and watch from the curtains. So they had Amira surrounded with loving support. 

And next below is Amira outside the television studio in Zwolle, Netherlands, where they had to drive. She is waiting to be on TV. It was August 31, 2013. 

As Amira waits her turn, while it is only visible in the video to a keen eye, Gerrit is giving her instructions to breath. 

Amazingly, in her pre-performance interview she explains she has a dream that thousands are cheering her and she is waving to her fans. It is an event that would happen again and again for years to come. 

During her audition, the camera often goes to Gerrit waiting in the wings with the host and Amira's brother. The room can't believe what they are hearing. Gerrit seems to assure them it is real, as if revealing a long held secret. 

Then as Amira concludes, even Gerrit seems to become enrapt in the beauty of his daughter's voice. He later admitted in an interview that even he was blown away, and hearing it later on TV it was "beautiful! beautiful! beautiful!!" This next picture conveys his own astonishment. 

By the way, this was an actual audition, and was not itself rehearsed. The judges had no idea what they were going to hear. 

And in line with my central point, that Amira and Gerrit are inseparably tied, I end with this image of Amira hugging her father after the performance. I imagine it was one of the happiest moments of both of their lives. Their expressions are priceless. 

While it is cut out of the English version, in the Dutch version the final exclamation by the main judge to his colleagues after Amira left the stage was "Amazing! F--ing amazing!"

I should add one more item to this story of a father-daughter team. In 2017 Amira and her mother and brother went on Dutch television to announce they were moving to South Africa. 

What wasn't mentioned in the interview was that the father wasn't coming. Thus this event has a sad quality to it. While Amira's mother explained to the interviewer that the child labor laws in the Netherlands prevented Amira from pursuing her career in Europe, we only learned later that this was also part of a long-in-coming divorce between the mother and father. The reason, we eventually learned, was an undisclosed incurable health condition of the mother, and her desire to be in the care of her original South African family. What we won't discuss is all the sadness that the family would come to endure from this move. 

Amira was thus separated from her father Gerrit for two whole years. This long separation has a bitter sweet ending, as their brief reunion was marked by Amira and Gerrit back together again as a duo, in her finale performance of How Great Thou Art at the Christmas performance at St. Barbara's church in Dreumel, Netherlands on December 16, 2019. To the surprise of all present Amira was accompanied solely by her father on the great pipe organ. 

This is that performance by them. You see Gerrit in several shots, including from above. 

 

At the end, Amira waves her father to come and take a bow with her. What you don't see, but all who were there described later, is that after the bow Amira grabbed her father in a great big hug.

Gerrit himself later wrote of their performance: 

My compliments to Omroep Gelderland [the television channel that filmed the event] for the wonderful video footage of this song. I have never seen myself from above while playing the organ. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to accompany my beautiful talented daughter on the organ for this beautiful Swedish song during this magnificent concert! I had to monitor Amira via the mirror at the organ during her last note in order to stop the last chord at the same moment she would stop singing; in my remembrance it took ages. What an outstanding achievement of Amira!

The above photo was taken a few days before the above concert, showing how much Gerrit adores Amira. It was snapped by Jimmy Futch during the five year anniversary of Amira's nonprofit foundation Gelukskinders. 

The last photo shows Amira and Gerrit rehearsing for an earlier Christmas concert in 2017, just before her move to South Africa.