A young Ukrainian girl silenced a room full of people hunkering down in a bomb shelter as she sang a moving rendition of “Let It Go”.
The little girl, known only as Amelia, performed the song from the animated film Frozen, in an effort to lift everyone’s spirits during the ongoing Russian invasion.
A woman named Marta Smekhova shared the video on Facebook on Thursday, explaining that she had received permission from Amelia’s mother.
She wrote: ‘From the first word in the [bomb shelter] came complete silence… everyone put their business aside and listen[ed] to a song by this girl who was just beaming light… even men couldn’t hold back the tears.’
“Our children radiate light, and even in a raw dark basement it does not blink, but ignites even brighter!”
“Way to go Amelia!!!”
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In the video, Amelia sweetly but confidently sings “Let It Go”, giving a word-perfect version of the Ukrainian translation.
Everyone pauses what they are doing to listen to the girl, whose age is not known.
Some people lie on the floor, while others sit or stand while filming her performance on their phones.
The crowd erupts into applause when she finishes the song, with one voice heard saying, "Bravo! Bravo!" as the little girl holds her hands in front of her face.
It was not known where in Kyiv the shelter was, or when the video was taken.
An English translation of her Ukrainian post said: “Seeing in one of the Kyiv bomb storage, how children draw bright pictures in half-darkness, I, of course, couldn’t silently pass by… stopped, praised, offered to do a little exhibition to somehow decorate this not so happy place.”
She had helped a young boy and girl paint pictures to decorate the bomb shelter, she continued, and found the girl to be “friendly” and “talkative”.
“She told me that besides drawing, she loves to sing… and whispered shared her dream that she wants to sing on a big stage in front of the audience…
“So what’s the matter ? – I’m saying, now we’re organising… do you see honey how many people are here? that’s what you sing for!”
Amelia was “worried” as she had never performed before, Marta said, and was concerned people wouldn’t listen.
But her concern was clearly for nothing.
The video caught the attention of the original singer of “Let It Go”, Idina Menzel, who voices Elsa.
“We see you. We really, really see you,” the Tony-winning actress and the voice of the movie’s Elsa tweeted.
She followed her comments with two hearts in yellow and blue, the colours of the Ukrainian flag.
