Young Girl Sings 80-Year-Old Song So Flawlessly Judges Forced To Turn Around Within First Notes

Mar 05, 2021 by apost team

For young and emerging musical artists, it can be difficult enough to sing in front of a small group of friends and family. Throw in a live audience and millions of viewers at home, and it might seem like it is a miracle when child performers can get out there and perform with ease.

A young girl named Anna proved that she is worthy of the big stage when she belted out the classic hit "Over the Rainbow." The awe-inspiring performance took place during an episode of the Dutch version of "The Voice Kids” back in 2016.

Not only did Anna sing the song beautifully and without fear, but she also showed her bravery by choosing such a traditional and well-loved song. Although many people know the song as performed by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole in 1993, the piece actually goes back to 1939.

The moving song was originally written by E.Y. (Yip) Harburg and Harold Arlen for actress Judy Garland’s role as Dorothy in the beloved film "The Wizard of Oz." Despite the song being more than 80 years old, it still retains a loyal following among fans. In any case, it is awe-inspiring that Anna picked this song to try.

The budding artist likely spent hours working on every note until she had achieved absolute perfection. Her hard work shows when she takes to the stage and belts out the tune.

Back by a live band, young Anna’s performance puts many professional singers to shame — it’s that good. In fact, just seconds into the performance, coach Marco Borsato hits his button, allowing the mentor to turn his chair around to reveal the young woman behind this magnificent voice. 

Shortly thereafter, the other mentors — Dutch rapper Ali B and singer Ilse Delange — can’t help but hit their buttons, too. In other words, it only takes Anna seconds to enchant listeners with her angelic voice. Of course, the audience also seems enthralled by the young girl’s talent, and nearly everyone gives Anna the standing ovation that she deserves at the end of her performance.

Unfortunately, however, the competition is often stiff on these talent shows, and so Anna did not make it to the show’s finals. Instead, one of Delange’s mentees, Esmée Schreurs, took home season five’s first-place prize in 2016, receiving a €25,000 ($29,850) scholarship.

With that said, Anna’s performance, which has already reached millions of viewers on YouTube, will go down in history as one of the most impressive recent renditions of “Over the Rainbow,” joining other talented musicians like Kamakawiwoʻole, Garland and Frank Sinatra. 

But how, you might ask, did such an old song become so popular? After all, it’s not often that singers on “The Voice Kids” pick tracks from decades and decades before they were born — not to mention the fact that it's a song from a foreign country for Anna.

“Over the Rainbow’s” success story is even more unlikely given that one of the song’s writers, Harburg, grew up poor on the New York’s Lower East Side in the late 19th century, as The New York Times reported in the songwriter’s 1981 obituary. Growing up, Harburg quickly showed an aptitude for songwriting, parodying songs and performing in school shows while he was still a young boy.

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Although Harburg continued writing through college, where he met and sat next to the legendary lyricist Ira Gershwin, the enterprising young man graduated with a science degree and focused on developing an electrical supply business with one of his college buddies.

“For the next few years we made a lot of money and I hated it,'' Harburg explained in an interview with Max Wilk, which is quoted in The Times article. But then the Great Depression hit, destroying the business Harburg had built. Strangely enough, however, the entrepreneur-turned-songwriter attributed at least part of his success to the economic destitution he faced during the Depression. 

“The capitalists saved me in 1929, just as we were worth, oh, about a quarter of a million dollars. Bang! The whole thing blew up,” Harburg told Wilk. “I was left with a pencil and finally had to write for a living. As I told Studs Terkel once, what the Depression was for most people was for me a lifesaver!''

One of Harburg’s most well-known depression-era hits is “It’s Only a Paper Moon,” which initially failed to gain traction but was later popularized during the final years of World War II thanks to recordings from American treasures like Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby.

But Harburg’s most memorable hit has to be “Over the Rainbow,” which was voted the 20th century’s best song in a 2001 National Endowment for the Arts survey, according to MTV.

Amazingly, however, the legendary track almost didn’t make it into “The Wizard of Oz” because executives thought the song slowed the film down, as Columbia News details. Luckily, one of the film’s associate producers, Arthur Freed, put his job on the line and told one of the studio heads that, “The song stays — or I go.”

The studio executive, Louis B. Mayer, acquiesced and replied, “Let the boys have the damn song. Put it back in the picture. It can’t hurt.”

Freed likely felt vindicated when “The Wizard of Oz” came out, as the song quickly reached iconic status.

“It might not seem obvious that a song performed by a young girl at the beginning of a fantasy movie would take on a life of its own,” said Walter Frisch, a professor of music at Columbia University. But Frisch explained that the famous ballad has a certain universality to it. “The song’s mix of hope and anxiety has allowed people to read into it their own concerns,” he added.

Since the song’s 1939 debut, the track has taken on a life of its own, making appearances in television shows and movies — along with the many different renditions from recording artists like Kamakawiwo'ole and Eva Cassidy.

When Democracy Now asked Harburg’s son Ernie in 2012 why he thought the track was so successful, he explained that, “It's a story of a little girl that wants to get out. She’s in trouble, and she wants to get somewhere. Well, the rainbow was the only color that she’d see in Kansas. She wants to get over the rainbow. But then, Yip put in something which makes it a Yip song. He said, 'And the dreams you dare to dream really do come true.' You see? And that word 'dare' lands on the note, and it's a perfect thing, and it’s been generating courage for people for years afterward, you know?"

Anna’s inspiring performance, along with the many that will come after it, is proof that Ernie was right.

What do you think of Anna’s rendition of this classic song? Do you have a favorite version? Let us know — and be sure to get feedback from your friends, family members and fellow “Wizard of Oz” fans.