Amira Willighagen

Amira Willighagen (born 27 March 2004) is a Dutch soprano singer who won the sixth season of Holland's Got Talent in 2013, at the age of nine.

Amira Willighagen speaks several languages including: Dutch, Afrikaans, and English because she was born to a Dutch father and a South African mother whose mother tongue is Afrikaans.

She grew up surrounded by classical music.

At the age of seven, during a holiday in the United Kingdom, she heard the aria "Nessun Dorma", performed by Luciano Pavarotti.

In that period she looked at her brother Fincent playing the violin, their mother Frieda also played the violin and the father Gerrit played the piano.

She did not know how to play instruments, so she tried to sing vocally.

At the beginning, before taking singing lessons, Willighagen learned by herself to sing opera arias, using YouTube tutorials.

That's how she discovered her talent and passion for music.

Even her mother was surprised when she heard her the first time singing.

Two of her first public appearances took place in 2012, at the "Music makes Friends" festival in Colmschate (accompanied by her family) and as a solo singer in the Emmaus Children's Choir, singing a Dutch version of the song "Nella Fantasia".

After two years of practice and performance improvement, she was ready to participate in the show Holland's Got Talent.

Indeed, she won the admiration of the jury, the public and millions of people from all over the world who saw her on television and on the Internet.

Willighagen auditioned for Holland's Got Talent and so impressed the judging panel with her version of "O Mio Babbino Caro" from Puccini's opera Gianni Schicchi that within seconds the judges were staring in awe and disbelief.

Her performance rapidly became a YouTube hit, with over 150 million combined views, as of January 2024.

In the semi-finals, she performed Gounod's "Ave Maria".

"You're a star who belongs on stage!", said Dan Karaty, one of the judges, after her performance in the semi-finals.

In the final she sang "Nessun Dorma", from Puccini's opera Turandot.

She won the competition with over 50% of the votes of the TV-viewers and audience.

After the success from Holland's Got Talent, during 2014 Willighagen was invited to various TV shows: at South African Internet station Channel24, on 21 March 2014 at Omroep Gelderland (Netherlands), on 11 May 2014 at Life4You – Carlo & Irene on RTL 4 (Netherlands), on 7 June 2014 at Willkommen bei Carmen Nebel (Welcome to Carmen Nebel) on ZDF (Germany), at RTL (German TV channel), performing "I Have a Dream", on 20 August 2014 at Susana Giménez on Telefe (Argentina) and on 21 December 2014 at Du côté de chez Dave on France 3.

In February 2014, Willighagen recorded her debut album, Amira, accompanied by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.

The album contains 10 tracks, including the songs she performed during Holland's Got Talent.

Other tracks from this album are "Nella Fantasia", "Song To The Moon", and "Pie Jesu" from Requiem (Lloyd Webber).

The album was released in the Netherlands on 28 March 2014, reaching a Gold status only two weeks later.

André Rieu invited Willighagen to follow a masterclass in London, after a member of his orchestra saw her in the Holland's Got Talent audition on YouTube.

Then, on 11 and 12 July 2014, she appeared with André Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra in Maastricht, during the recording of the album Love in Venice.

Amira's first international performances took place at the Starlight Classics Concerts in Somerset West, South Africa on 28 February and 1 March 2014.

On 30 April 2014 she performed in Las Vegas as part of the prize she received when winning Holland's Got Talent.

Amira's performances include appearances in the Netherlands, South Africa, Belgium, USA, Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, France, Poland, Hong Kong, Argentina, Mexico, Malta, Monaco, Iceland, Austria, and Botswana.

On 8 November 2014 Willighagen visited the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome to receive the International Giuseppe Sciacca Award 2014.

She held also Christmas concerts on 15 December 2014 at the Royal Albert Hall London, on 19 December 2015 in the Petrus Canisius Church in Nijmegen, The Netherlands (where she sang "See, amid the Winter's Snow", "Panis angelicus", "Sancta Maria" and "Ave Maria" by Gomez), on 21 December 2015, in the St. Jacobs Church, The Hague, on 16 December 2017, in the St. Steven's Church in Nijmegen (where she performed "Dormi, Fili", "Onse Vader", "Jerusalem", "Panis Angelicus", "See, amid the Winter's Snow", "Stille Nacht / Silent Night", and "How Great Thou Art"), on 15 December 2019, in Nijmegen ("Joy to the World" was one of the songs in the program), on 16 December 2019 in Dreumel.

In November 2015, Willighagen released her second album, Merry Christmas.

Besides a selection of well-known Christmas carols ("O Holy Night", "Silent Night", "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing"), the album contains various famous arias and hymns ("Panis angelicus", "Ave Maria (Vavilov)").

The albums Amira and Merry Christmas were produced by the record label Sony Masterworks.

In 2015, Willighagen participated, on 4 April, at the Sanremo Junior Festival in Malta, in September in the show "Superkids – die größten kleinen Talente der Welt" ("Superkids – the biggest little talents in the world"), broadcast by the German TV station Sat.1, where she performed "Ave Maria (Vavilov)" and in December in Madrid.

In 2016, she sang at the Vacation Festival (Festival della Vacanza) in Lecce, Italy (on 28 May), at the Conservatory of the North West University, Potchefstroom (on 23 November) and also she performed "Nella Fantasia" in the Afrikaans Is Groot concert (in November).

At the end of July 2016, Willighagen performed at the Classics Is Groot concert held in Pretoria, South Africa, where she sang "O Mio Babbino Caro", "O sole mio" (in duet with Patrizio Buanne), "Nella Fantasia" ("In My Fantasy"), composed by Ennio Morricone (originally released by Sarah Brightman in 1998) and the well-known song "My Way" (together with the other artists).

In 2017 she sang, on 20 May, at the Aqua Musica concert in Steenbergen, The Netherlands and on 2 December, in the Max Proms concert held in Utrecht, performing a short version of "O Mio Babbino Caro" and "Your Love" (the theme of the movie "Once Upon a Time in the West").

At Classics Is Groot 2017 she performed "Nessun Dorma", "Flower Duet" (with Corlea Botha), "Amazing Grace" and "My Way" (in group).

On 2 and 3 March 2018 she sang again at the RMB Starlight Classics concert.

On 9 December 2019 Amira performed in the Sint-Jacobskerk, The Hague, which was recorded and later broadcast on 25 December 2019 on Omroep MAX public broadcasting television.