SINGER REACTS to 15 Year Old Emma Kok Sings Voilà André Rieu Maastricht 2023 | SO MANY EMOTIONS!!!

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Chapters
0:00 - Introduction
0:38 - Emma's Story
3:01 - Reaction
8:35 - Final Thoughts/Review
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I highly suggest you listen to the original song without my commentary:
15 Year Old Emma Kok Sings Voilà – André Rieu, Maastricht 2023
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Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.
Non-profit, educational, or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.

#EmmaKok #AndreRieu #Reaction

[jackmeeks]

She took 12, 000 people and held them in the palm of her hand. A truly magical moment, I can not wait to see where this dream takes her ❤

[UnusSedLeo-wl]

I have seen this 1, 233 times and I am in tears everytime. She touches your soul, this little angel.

[HuseinSkalanic]

Thank you so much for your reaction. Emma is simply fantastic. Since four months I support your foundation Stichting Gastrostars😢❤👋🌍

[hectorteodosio]

I am from the Philippines, in the part of the Visayas, where the world famous Boracay Island is located. I am now 72 years old, a lawyer based in Iloilo City, and never have I experienced the rushing of my emotion not until I hear Emma’s Voila. I feel I am one of the very few in this part of the globe that have seen and hear first, Emma singing Voila. My deepest gratitude Emma. I will support your Foundation.

[OnlyShadow]

Emma is attached to 2 feeding pumps for 22 hours a day. She says she only feels free in those 2 hours when she can put the tubes away and really get out and around... she sings.
BTW her parents are both accomplished musicians and her older sister is alsona singer. (You see her in the video - their dad bumped Enso when Maestro Rieu talked about him and Sophie is sitting next to them. Mom was backstage to help disconnect her pumps before she went out.)
She has 2 originals released: Laat Mij een Vlinder Zijn (Let Me Be a Butterfly) which is absolutely beautiful and metaphorically about her 2 hours of freedom each day. The other is Strijder (Warrior) and also about the strength her illnes has given her.
To make her even more amazing, she doesnt speak French, just Dutch and English (possibly German whichbis strongly related to dutch) she learned Voilá phonetically. The original artist's arrangement is more of a pop song and IMHO nothing special. Maestro Rieu worked with her to make the performance uniquely hers, and you see the result. They changed it to a 3/4 time signature and really put her voice on showcase. (That last note was an E-flat 5 belted from her chest voice... amazing for even a young soprano to finish out like that and especially amazing for any 15 year old.)
Note the Disney Princess Musicians - the Johan Strauss Orchestra is world famous as is Andre Rieu. It is almost unheard of for the orchestra to give the vocalist a standing ovation, but there they are along with 12, 500 in audience, most in tears, as was i and i dont speak french either.
Aside from her originals she also has many equally amazing covers. Hallelujah, again with Maestro Rieu.
Demi Lovato's "Father", performed at the American WWII cemetary. The video looks to have been shot on a cell phone and quality s not great but still extremely touching... you can see the FOH sound guy off stage losing it and being consoled by a stage hand.
All her performances from The Voice Kids are on youtube.
Her foundation is Gastrostars.nl

[ericzeichert]

Anyone who can sing dee dee dee with such intensity that you can picture a carousel or merry go round picking up speed and gradually spinning out of control is someone who is very much worth paying attention to.

[christianmichael]

Wild how she is in control of that entire orchestra. André is staring so intensely at her because he is conducting them to *her* pace. Also she *learned* French for this lol.

[firesong]

I am 75 YO and this performance brought me to tears. Emma reminds me of a young Edith Piaf.

[theunknownmodeler]

i'M 65! This is the first time I cried watching you show!

[Cherlindrea]

This is an Eurovision Song Contest song. In 2021 Barbara Pravi sung this for France. The song and the singer didn't impress me so much. But this arrangement by André Rieu, slowing it down, turning it into a true chanson, sung by this beautiful, brave, vulnerable girl, became so impressive! Gorgeous ❤

[RobertDeMartin]

We just listened to something we will never forget. How could we? We wish her all the success she is deserving of. She has become an instant inspiration for people in the world who live with illness and other handicaps and will now attempt to do things in their lives which they thought might have been impossible to accomplish. God Bless Emma.

[InconspicuousMango]

If she is this good at 15, I cant wait to see how incredible she will be in the future :D

[neiloliver]

I've probably seen the original video a hundred times and at least fifty different reactions to it, and the power of it hasn't diminished one iota. It's one of those bolts out of the blue that changes everything, it elevates you just from witnessing such an incomparable thing, this young woman putting her whole soul out there, and the conductor with the presence of mind to give her his stage, his orchestra, the beautiful production to preserve this moment for posterity, knowing the whole world needed to see it, that after all the madness and destruction in the world, people are still capable of being moved by such an honest, natural, dignified display of the human spirit. It's magnificient.

[louisminten]

Stunning, amazing, outstanding, overwhelming. Put all these words together and you get Emma Kok. WOW

[Nueral]

This video was breathtaking and her voice is so angelic and powerful I loved how she warmed every single person hearts that was there

[kplkasteel]

Watched many of your reactions and it's the first time I see you this emotional. Rest assured, you rare not the only one as you can see even grown man are brought to tears.
I have watched her performance so many times and still each and every time I feel the tears well up.

[stevecgarry]

Aileen, there is indeed a youtube channel of Emma's songs, and there is a wide range, and they are indeed incredible, what's not clear from Andre's introductions, Emma was born with this awful disease, and had to be put on tube feeding to keep her alive when she was only 9 months old,

Another dramatic effect is that her growth has been delayed, she's still tiny, 1 Mtr 51, and still only around 50 Kg, and this affects her stamina, there are days when more than 2 flights of stairs while carrying the ever attendant equivalent of a boat anchor, or even walking longer distances, such as through a large airport, they are problems, and she at times has to use a wheelchair, but despite all of these issues, and regular surgery to replace her 'mickey button', the interface of the tubes through an abdominal stoma, she endures at least 30 minutes of intense pain if things go according to plan, longer if there are problems, as she refuses anaesthetic to avoid any risk of damage to her voice from the gas, she's on the tubes for 22 hours a day, and you're right, the 2 hours a day when she can be free to sing, that's her therapy, her release, and she's found a way to take all the emotions and feelings that surround her illness, good, bad and (her words) just weird, she's taken all of them, and made them a part of her personality, and the best way I can describe it, she is powerfully vulnerable, and she lets that vulnerability be exposed on the stage when she sings, she's not looking for sympathy, she's risen so far above that now, she refuses to let her illness define her, she has determined to rise above it, to live as normally as possible and to devote her time and life to being the best possible singer she can be, and in that respect, she is absolutely doing that, Voila, the video that in so many ways marks the start of her meteoric rise to fame has now had over 46 Million views in less than 8 months, and there's similar numbers on other social media sites.

Her rise to fame started with Voice Kids in 2021, and there's a very good video of her progress through that time, and it shows so clearly how tiny she was in comparison to her competitors, but she absolutely rose to the challenge, and even then, her singing has so much quality to it.

Her next significant major event was winning Ministars, singing a very different arrangement of Voila, which was the French entry in the Eurovision song contest for 2021, sung by Barbara Pravi, Emma learnt the song phonetically, as she doesn't speak French,

Ministars, singing to Barbara Pravi video, the look on her face at the end is priceless, she absolutely nailed it.

That video came to the attention of Andre Rieu, and Emma was invited to visit his studio, and 'they clicked', the result being a decision that Emma would sing Voila on Andre's stage in the summer concerts in Maastricht, a series (in 2023) of 12 concerts during July, they are huge, 12, 500 audience every night, they sell out months ahead.

Andre, his team and Emma massively changed the song, they slowed it down, changed the tempo, and added the key change, and the repeat of the third verse, and all of those changes meant Emma had the time and space to not just perform the song, she LIVED It on Andre's stage, Andre has described her as a 'pdium beest', a stage beast, when she's on that stage, she's the smallest one there, but the incredible power of her personality gives her the ability to absolutely dominate the stage, the orchestra and the audience, regardless of the size of that audience, and that was exactly what happened when she walked out on to Andre's stage that first night, there were tears all round at the emotional strength of the performance, the only reason the orchestra were not shedding tears as well was because they'd had to steel themselves not to, they had plenty of practice during rehearsals, every one was regularly shedding tears at the incredible power of Emma's performances, and that was exactly the same that first night, it's even more incredible when you factor in that this was Emma's first appearance on Andre's stage, and the first ever live performance of this version of Voila.


When Andre intorduced her and she then walked out on to that stage, mentally, she was somewhere else, she was seeing the fulfillment of her dream, expressed in her first single, released a year earlier, Laat mij Enn Vlinder Zijn, let me be a butterfly,
written for her, it's a deep and soul searching expression of her desperate desire to be free of the contstraints and restrictions of her disease, to be able to soar free into the heavens and fly free, in the studio version of the song, it's so clear, between 2:02 and around 2:40, she sings 'If only for a day, or even for a count of 10, I'd just like to live as another', and as she sings those words, her eyes close, she shakes her head, and then her head goes down and she's silent, as she has to face the reality of her situation, there can be no change, no freedom from the daily tie of 22 hours attached to the pumps, and no freedom, as there is no cure for now, that's why she's created the foundation, to try and help patients like her, and improve treatments, or maybe even find a cure.

Then, her head comes up, and in the song, she soars to a new height, a new high note, she decides that she will not let her disease define her, she will not give in to it, she is going to rise above it, to live her life on her terms, and become the singer she knows she can become.


In July, she walked out on to Andre's stage, but mentally, she was in a different place, she was the butterfly of her dreams, and she mentally soared above the stage, above the orchestra, and the audience, and by sheer strength of her personality, she dominated them all, from the moment she launched into the song, before even the orchestra played a note, she was driving that whole time, Andre was guiding the orchestra based on getting his cues from Emma, as she put all of her being, all of her emotions and feelings, both good bad and (her phrase) wierd, into that performance, and it's hard to realise that this was the first ever live performance of this version of Voila, and Emma's first appearance on a stage with Andre, there's no evidence of stage nervousness, or concern, far from it, at the end, as she hits that top note, and punches the air in triumph, that cheeky grin says it all, she knows that she has nailed what is for now the defining performance of her life.

Andre had also worked his magic as as the consummate showman that he is, he had 4 dresses made for Emma, and when they saw them, they both made the same choice, the stunning black dress, and Emma's comment was that when wearing it, she's 'Strong and powerful'.

Andre helped Emma make that difficult transition from being a very capable and good girl singer into the young woman he knew was ready to emerge, as she walked out on to that stage, mentally, she was the butterfly emerging from the cocoon it spent so long in, and the New Emma that walked out onto Andre's stage emerged and soared, she was visibly and emotionally a beautiful, strong, powerful, serene, composed, competent, driven and dedicated young woman, but at the end, just for a moment, the 15 year old girl emerged again, and she turned to Andre, threw her arms wide, and her look said it all, 'How was that?'

Andre's eyes, his smile, the hug, the kiss, and the call back to acknowledge the ongoing standing ovation from the audience, they said it all, Emma had massively achieved a new high, she truly had arrived, and despite this being the first of 12 appearances, Andre had the confidence the following day to invite Emma to join him in Malta for 2 concerts, to be a guest artiste in the Christmas show series in Maastricht, and to then become a guest star for the 75 concerts of the 2024 world tour, and we're already seeing how much trust he has in her, she's performing songs that are very different, and in ways that in 15 years of watching Andre, I've not seen happen in the way they are with Emma, and we know from other videos on Youtube, Emma has a place in Andre's heart, he is being very protective of her, to avoid causing any health problems, and I won't be surprised if she is still working with Andre beyond 2024, she certainly is very much loved by the extended family that is the orchestra, and seems to have slotted in very well with them.

I close with what's becoming my signature when talking about Emma, and yes, it means a lot to me to be able to do this, she is a very special individual, and she deserves as much support as it is possible to give her.

Emma's foundation can be found at gastrostars.nl

Please, I appeal to all readers and subscribers of this channel, 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.

[WeebleWobble]

The desperation when she sings"ne partez pa" - "dont leave" breaks me every single time.

[robmartin]

Incredible talent, voice and performance indeed! Hats off to Emma for fighting for her dream, despite her physical issues.
FYI André Rieu is a mega star in central Europe, especially in the Netherlands and Germany (as far as I know). Emma is blessed to have him as patron and mentor.

[misterc]

This young person is art in perfection!

Starting several times one bar before the orchestra alone proves a somnambulistic security in what they do.
She demonstrates incredible hearing and incredible tone stability. Her sensational holding of the notes, ending every word - not a wrong beat. Not a wrong note.

Her incredible swinging between her belly and head voice, her completely natural vibrato, her oscillation between delicate breath and powerful vocal volume.

"Ne partez pas, j'vous en supplie restez longtemps" - this heavenly and angelic fragility.

Her beat and tempo, her unearthly jump a semitone higher without orchestral help.
Her completely natural singing of Chancon's typical chant, only to unpack an unearthly vocal volume moments later.
And above all - her absolutely professional interaction with the audience and the orchestra, her phenomenal stage presence. the whole time she is talking to the audience - at 15 years old!!!! Many 50-year-olds can't do that.

This girl is a new Edith Piaf. But not the dark, black, hopeless and pain-tormented Piaf - but a fun-loving, thirsty and incredibly strong young artist.

In my opinion, Emma has lifted the French chancon into a new sphere. This girl doesn't sing music - she IS music.

And if there is a god - with Emma he has created a work of perfection! From the first note it leads the master, the orchestra and the audience. I've never experienced
anything like that. And especially not from someone so young.

That brief smile from the blond short-haired female violinist behind her sums it all up in a heartbeat.