How can she be beautiful too?

Amira Willighagen is a high ranking athlete. She has had numerous first place trophies in long distance, 400 yards, and steeple chase, ranking at the top in her region of the country of South Africa. She is also a very serious philanthropist. She established her nonprofit charitable organization Gelukskinders (lucky children) when she was just ten years old, and continues to manage it closely to this day. She is a first rate student, ranking third in her class in High School. She is considered by millions of fans to be one of the finest sopranos in the world. On top of singing, she has branched into producing her own concerts, something unheard of at her age. And yet on top of being athletic, charitable, highly intelligent, as well as a world class singer and now entrepreneur, she just happens to be incredibly beautiful at times. Her ability to look beautiful is unique in that she can look beautiful in so many different styles. I wish to share three photos of Amira that show that she can look like entirely different people -- yet is beautiful in each. A woman who had been considered beautiful her whole life once told me that beauty is something one must have a talent for. Amira was not born a beauty queen. In many pictures she is very plain. But she controls her appearance and projects beauty if the situation calls for it. In truth I don't understand this gift she has myself. Below is a picture of Amira from a duet with soprano Miréya Derksen, a true beauty queen. That's Amira on the right. My theory about this photo is that Amira did not want to upstage Miréya, who obviously relies to a great degree on her looks. When you hear them sing together, you see that Amira blows Miréya off the stage as they say. So Amira had to pull back in her looks to give Miréya space. That is my take on it.

Here is another demonstration of Amira projecting beauty when the lights come on as it were. The following two photos come from back stage footage from her African Christmas concert in 2020. She seems rather plain, hardly the diva we've come to expect. Yet here she is under the lights moments later. Amira is not just pretty in the normal sense. She has the gift of beauty. She knows how to be beautiful. It is a talent like singing or being an athlete. It is part of her overall genius. And it must be added to all her other gifts.

Since I am on this topic, I will make one more comparison of photos to show the two sides of Amira. First is an especially plain picture of Amira from her daily life and one of the most exotic of her from a concert. It is like she is many people at once as she chooses. It is more than lights and makeup and hair. It is mood and character. It is Amira herself.

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A reader left this response to this post on another platform:

I just found your blog and read quite a bit of it. I find your analysis of Amiras' beauty and how she manages to manifest it perfect ! It is something I have noted and remarked upon in the past. The camera loves Amira the performer who, it seems is somehow a different person then Amira. Don't know how she does it or how it happens but when she is "on" she is stunningly beautiful and almost seems to glow and project the manifestation of who she is. Reminds me of some of the best old time movie actresses. You would barely recognize them on the street but on the stage or big screen just Stunning. I guess that's the "it" factor all the producers talk about. Whatever it is, Amira has it in spades. It's not make up and costumes and hair either. It's more like turning on a light. What ever it is, it's the perfect complement to her vocal gift. I thought you expressed who and what Amira is in your blog posts. Great job.