It's a common complaint among
diehard reality-watchers that when a young singing-show contestant takes
on an older artist's material, the wannabe's lack of life experience
makes it impossible for them to bring enough true grit to the stage. But
when tiny "Norway's Got Talent" hopeful Angelina Jordan took on Billie
Holiday's "Gloomy Sunday" this week, she not only somehow tapped into
the world-weary song's raw emotion, but she seemed to be channeling
Billie herself.
And she's only 7 years old.
Angelina's audition rendition of
the late jazz legend's 1941 maudlin ballad — a song about social
injustice and personal heartache so deeply depressing, it was reportedly
banned by the BBC for being damaging to wartime morale and has been
linked via urban legends
to multiple suicides — brought to mind a baby Billie. Or at least a
baby Amy Winehouse. And Angelina's performance elicited both tears and a
standing ovation from the stunned judges. But just how much did this
sweet child grasp the gravity of what she was singing?
"I felt something special about
it. It's hard to explain in words," said Angelina, explaining to a
Norwegian television station that she speaks English and "understood
[the song] very well … when I sang it for my mum, she said that this
song is nice, but it was an incredibly sad song."
This young girl obviously has a
very old soul. And she obviously made it to the next round of the
competition. Check out her performance of "Gloomy Sunday," which is
going viral as of this writing, and prepare to be wowed...and compare it
to the original recorded by Billie (when she was 26 years old) below:
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