Every time I listen to Emma sing, tears come to my eyes and my spirit soars. It is good to be alive, and hear an angel sing. The story about the song is true. It sat on a shelf for 20 years until the composer started working with Emma and knew that it was "meant" for her. He also wrote the songs "Laat mij een Vlinder zijn" (let me be a butterfly), and "Strijder" (Warrior) for Emma. Thank you for your reaction video.
Thank you for noting the contributions of Andre & the orchestra. He & his musical family have been the ideal cosy and safe environment for her to make progress with this past year. And his video editors know what they are doing to set up the tugging of the heartstrings. And your final comment about having someone to be there - this is why I try to be there for my grandchildren. Having a mental age of about 6 has served me well - so far...
I’m a 84 yr old guy. I watch Emma every day . She makes my day. Thank you! thank you! thank you !for playing Emma‘s “Dancing on the Stars”. She is an unbelievable talented little girl bound for a great future! A heavenly Angel with a golden voice!! Emma has 4 songs on itunes 2 in dutch, 1 french, 1 english. I have them all. Play in my car, home, phone all over. She also has performed in many great venues. I also donate to her cause like we all should. Check out other performances from 12-16. Thanks again.
Some members of the orchestra help with Emma's schooling. She has a pass to do it on-line. As Emma is 'under age' she needs a guiding adult, with her medical situation her mother fits this role very very well and can help with her pumps which she needs for 22 hours out of 24. So Nathalie gets to travel with Emma everywhere!!! I suspect other members of her very close family sometimes take a stint.
With a voice as beautiful as she is, you feel her emotion and it fills you with joy and wonder! Her courage is undeniable, and the power of the song is undeniable, as well! Thank You for this
After watching the 'Voila' video, I too wondered if Emma would be just another one-off. Then I watched the video of her Voice Kids Journey, and began to think, wow! ...she really has talented. Not long after, I saw her performance of Demi Lovato's 'Father" at the Margraten Memorial Concert, and I knew exactly then that Emma was no one-off, but actually a super talented young girl who was going to make an indelible mark in the world of music. Everything she has done since has only reinforced that view. She is an absolutely phenomenal talent!
You commented on how much the crowd appreciated her, even before she started singing. OF COURSE THEY DID …. THEIR GIRL IS BACK HOME IN TRIUMPH !!! Emma comes from Kerkrade, just down the road from Maastrich, the home base of André and his orchestra, and the town where this concert is taking place.
Nice reaction, thank you. Tjeerd Oosterhuis is a welknown singer/songwriter/composer and a friend to Emma. He wrote two songs specially for her: "Strijder"(warrior) and "Laat mij een vlinder zijn" (let me be a butterfly). Emma always prepares very well before she sings a song. If you watch the songs she sang at a number of commemoration concerts (Father, Hero, You raise me up) you can see her visiting the WW2 military cemetaries preparing and making sure she can give the songs the sincere depth they deserve. For me I really appreciated her speech, though to my opinion she forgot one very important person: Her mother, who is always there for her, accompagnion her, disconnecting her from her feeding tubes, reconnecting her after her performance. That's the support to make it possible to physically possible to pursue her dreama Greetz from the Netherlands, Jacques
I listened to this song from the first hour it was released and are listining it every day sinds, like I did with Voila a year ago. Emma is pure magic and a nice addiction to me❤❤.
Thank you for this emotional reaction , we went to the concert of Andre Rieu at Maastricht , right in front of the stage at about 35 meters distance. Just as Emma started singing, an emotional bomb exploded in the square with the song DANCING ON THE STARTS and afterwards VOILA which earned a standing ovation for several minutes. Her beautiful voice touches your soul with the support of the orchestra, an evening to remember for a livetime.
Thank you for your response... To think that Emma had to renew the outlets of her stoma in the hospital 5 days before this admission. Something that has to be done every 5 months. Normally this is done under anesthesia, but Emma does not want this, because of possible damage to the vocal cords by the tube in her throat. Now it also went wrong and this was clearly visible during the rehearsal of this song. Then she stood on stage with winter clothes on... All this gives a powerful strong Emma, who knows what she wants.... Tjeerd Oosterhuis has already written two songs for her. Butterfly and Warior Dancing on the stars has been on the shelf for 20 years until Emma came across this text during a visit to his studio. She went to Andre with this and together they put the music to this text
Emma can whisper and it sound powerful. Her strength which she radiates. Andre constantly keeps both eyes on her and follows her. The orchestra follows Andre. So Emma leads. And than they come to this wonderful cooperation. A 70 strong orchestra and chorus, they don't blow her away but support her.
De videoregistratie van dit concert is heel mooi, maar het live te beleven is magisch en overweldigend. Ik was aanwezig bij één van de open lucht concertreeks van 12 stuks in Maastricht op het Vrijthof en allemaal uitverkocht met ca. 12500 toeschouwers elk en elke keer staande ovaties, ook bij alle buitenlandse concerten. Andre Rieu noemde maar een paar steden waar ze al opgetreden heeft maar het waren er al veel meer. De wereldtoer krijgt een vervolg vanaf begin september waarin eerst Zuid-Amerika bezocht wordt met een tiental concerten en vervolgens in oktober en november weer een aantal landen in Europa. Alle concerten zijn overal uitverkocht met minimaal 10000 tot ongeveer 15000 bezoekers. Emma brengt elke concert dezelfde uitmuntende zang ten gehore. Emma is echt fenomenaal. Haar kleding en juwelen zijn helemaal afgestemd op haar nieuwe song op basis van sterren. Alles is compleet af. Ga door met jouw goede werk en bedankt voor jouw hartverwarmende reactie.
The song writer wrote this song over 20 years ago and tabled it. Emma brought it to Andria and asked if she could sing it. It was beautiful. I love this little girl you should react to I want to be a butterfly also. It is an amazing song
That's a very thoughtful reaction to Emma's performance of her first big song that's not a cover, you summed up so well why Emma has the effect on so many that she does, and for me, this performance redefined perfection, Voila last year on the same stage was perfect, now this year, we have to recognise that with the additional and new technical aspects she delivered with Dancing, she moved the bar so much higher, and then delivered something that was so far above it, and her own introduction, spoken so perfectly in her third language made it more so. I've watched it more than a few times now, and have picked little subtle expressions and gestures that are an indication of what's coming, when she's about to drop a vocal explosion, which she does several times, her facial expression changes slightly, and her lip curls, it's almost as if she's saying 'I'm coming for you, and I'm going to go deep into your heart and emotions, and I'm not taking prisoners,' and then, with no warning, she drops a vocal explosion that devastates the area around her, it's visceral, from experience, you don't just HEAR Emma's words in a live concert, you FEEL them, right to your core, and it has to be a very hard heart that is not deeply moved by that effect, and captivated by the emotional bombs that she drops. It's not even just that, the entire song is building towards that amazing close, Andre builds the music with the orchestra, it becomes more intense as we move through, and then the key lift, and then the power and sustained length of those incredible top notes, given her tiny frame and stamina issues, they are fantastic. It's already had nearly 4 million views since release, and has been trending on several occasions. While Emma had significant stage experience, Voila was her first appearance with Andre, Emma had learned it (phonetically, it was the French entry to Eurovision 2021, sung by Barbara Pravi) because the words so express her life experience, she was born with Gastroparesis, to keep her alive, she was put on tube feeding at 9 MONTHS, for 22 hours a day, so she's never had the experience of eating normally, she can only eat very small pieces of rice cracker, with slivers of other foods on them to let her experience the flavours, so effectively, she cannot share in any of the normal experience of meals with other family members, or close friends, and to make it worse, as the medical profession struggled to diagnose her, they didn't fully diagnose her till she was 10, during those intervening years, things like her gag reflex was damaged, so she can't vomit, which is a serious issue for her condition, as her stomach doesn't properly process and pass food through, and vomiting would be a regular issue for most sufferers of this disease, and though she never even mentions it, there are other physical pain issues around gastroparesis, but she seems to ignore it. In addition, her growth was significantly delayed, even now, at 16, she's still only 1 Mtr 50, and weighs around 50 Kg, so still tiny, and as a result, her stamina is significantly reduced compared to most, she struggles to climb more than 2 flights of stairs, even longer walking such as through a large airport is a challenge, made worse by carrying 2 feeding pumps in a shoulder bag or similar for 22 hours a day, the equivalent of a boat anchor, but she absolutely refuses to allow her disease to define her, and is determined to live as normal a life as possible, but on a bad day, she does sometimes resort to using a wheelchair. Her first ever appearance in a show, during Covid, so no audience, was in 2020, she was a tiny 12 at the time, the concert was arranged by her brother, Enzo, and among other things, she sang a powerful version of 'Opportunity', ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-oMyqCs6zZP4.html I love the way she ends it with a spoken, 'I guarantee', and that beautiful smile that says she absolutely meant it, and at the same time knew she'd just nailed that performance, it happens a lot, that cute smile at the end of a significant performance, it was the same with Voila, she turned to Andre, arms wide, with a smile, no words, but it was clear what she meant, 'How was that?', and Andre's response said it all, one word, 'Fantastic', the embrace and bringing her back for more of the standing ovation, a wonderful moment, and they happen on a regular basis. Her next major appearance was the Voice Kids contest in 2021, which she won, ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-20gXikNRjbo.html A very different event, she performed with the Maastricht Star Male Voice choir, singing 'Hallelujah', ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-o3uskk3objU.html She's also sung this on last Christmas on Dutch TV, with a full orchestra, a strong performance ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-9qVHQuPQud0.html , Earlier this year, in May, Emma was honoured to be asked to perform as part of the annual commemoration events in May of this year to remember the huge number of lives lost liberating the Netherlands from German occupation in WWII, she sang at several events across the country, the most prominent being a duet with April Darby, singing ' When you believe', ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YG8WV1GFt_c.html This concert was in Amsterdam, in the presence of the Dutch Royal family, and a significant number of high ranking politicians, and she absolutely nailed the performance. For me, her strongest performance of this series was in the Hague, a Demi Levato cover of a technically challenging song, 'Father', and she absolutely excelled in this one, an incredible performance. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zXWBj7-edWU.html From the same concert, another cover, 'Hero', ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-rohP0V3ECRY.html From the same series of concerts, 'You raise me up', ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NIXB7TbeMvw.html A beautiful home video recorded several years ago during Covid, A Disney film cover, 'Part Of Your World' - @halle (The little mermaid) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-itxs-aNyRJY.html Another song that is special to Emma because of her health situation, a Miley Cyrus cover, 'The Climb', recorded for Tube feeding week. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dOhzlDEuCBg.html When I Get There - @PinkVideoVault, unaccompanied, a song about the passing of a very close friend, given Emma's own situation, so incredibly deep and moving, just incredible. Translation of the note in Dutch, Last night my dear friend Angela became a star! I'm going to miss you incredibly much, but every time I look at the starry sky I know you're looking back ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-0nIpN86mw6E.html A very recent upload, a home karaoke session, from 2021, so she was just 13, she does a very creditable performance of a Michael Buble song, SWAY ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Dl3YYfUZHJo.html I hope this gives you a wider feel for where Emma has come from, and more importantly, where she's going, there is no doubt that as long as her health situation doesn't worsen, she will be making bigger and better waves for a long time to come, and it's more than clear that she is very happy and comfortable working with Andre and his orchestra at the moment, I am hoping that will continue beyond the end of the 2024 tour season, while it's also good that she can and does do other work outside of the significant demands of the world tour with Andre. I will close with my normal appeal to everyone reading or listening to this channel, and to those who know me, my apologies that my recent comments are more repetitive than usual, I'm struggling with typing as a result of an injury that has one wrist in a splint, but Emma deserves and needs as much support as possible, as her foundation works to help find better treatments, or even possibly a cure for this awful disease, her foundation is almost unique in terms of the work they are doing, there's been very little research into what is a devastating illness, the effects on the sufferers are huge, and her situation hasn't changed since that first appearance with Andre last July, she is still tied to her two external feeding pumps for 22 hours a day, and I know from very recent social media posts, she still finds that hard to cope with at times, despite that she's loving the singing with Andre. Emma's foundation can be found at gastrostars.nl Please, 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, hopefully, the work of her foundation will find a cure. Please also be very careful if you post or respond to anything from Emma on social media, her increased visibility has resulted in significant numbers of bad actors creating fake accounts, and looking for money to fund 'special operations', or to get access to fan web sales or VIP event tickets on payment of a significant initial membership fee, they are ALL fake, the ONLY valid web site that supports Emma and others like her is the gastrostars site, and she NEVER makes private message appeals for donations or support, and NEVER sends private messages or similar asking you to make contact, or log on to an external site to claim the wonderful prize you've won, they are all fake and fraudulent. One of the main people in Gastrostars is a surgeon who has a lot of experience in treating 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.
@@Herka5420 Having seen Emma's recent posts from holiday, that only serves to keep me saying whatever I can to get as much support as is humanly possible for her foundation, it's clear that she needs all the support she can be given, to help her maintain the incredible personality she has, there is so much that she never speaks of, side effects of the disease and the ongoing treatment, the mental anguish she has to cope with every day, we are so lucky that she has such a determined focus, and is not willing to let the disease define her, a lesser personality could be easily forgiven for buckling under the unremitting strain of just living every day, many do, but Emma's made it so clear that she is a warrior, and determined to fight, and yes, that drive and determination has massively impressed me, I can absolutely identify with the way Andre feels about her, I'm very close to his age, and it's clear she's also much loved by the the rest of the extended family, it's going to be interesting to see what they put together for this year's Christmas show in Maastricht, last year was so good, and this year has the potential to be even better, Emma certainly has the skill, it's all about choosing the right songs for her, and we know she will deliver.
Thanks for ( again ) a great reaction , to " our " Emma .. that we doe share with the world , and I doe complete with You comments at the end ..and You vieuw on the world in these times ! ... greets from the netherlands
Emma Kok performed together with April Darby the song *_”When You Believe”_* in Amsterdam on Sunday May 5th 2024 during the Liberation Concert on the Amstel (a river that flows into Amsterdam from the south). The National Liberation Celebration was in the presence of the king, the queen and the prime minister. The ladies are accompanied by the Royal Military Band 'Johan Willem Friso'. LINK: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YG8WV1GFt_c.html
In case you have not been told, Emma released a new video for a preview of next years Disney concert. She was outstanding as usual. You will like it I’m sure.❤
You say "I do not like this girl", and you explain why. I understand that. But you can also try to look it from another view: Emma is an example for young and old: not take anything (including good health) for granted and live your dream as best as you can in the circumstances you have. Watch Emma's videos together with your kids. Because Emma is young herself it will probably speak to them more as if you are only telling it to them. All her social media (including Instagram) are in English because Emma wants to reach many people. André Rieu, his orchestra and Emma are having a musical chemistry between each other which is so, so special. André and Emma did make this arrangement together. André Rieu told that in a recent interview: "Emma and I have taken the time to work on it to let the melody and the lyrics "grow" into our mind together so we could give it the full meaning Emma is feeling at it. And we love to work with Emma on tour: she is motivated, knows what she wants, is kind, is in for a joke and she is no diva, Emma is just Emma. In fact she is such a beast on stage. I have never seen that before at a singer her age.. And she does it this good at every day we are performing, this is not "a lucky accident". By the way: only 2-3 day's before this performance Emma was in hospital for the (very painful) replacement of her feeding tubes, which has to be done every 5 months. Usually it will take about 15-20 minutes, but this time "it went a little wrong" and Emma had to hold on for an hour. "Very painful" because when she turned 13 Emma has decided, in her own words, to choose for her voice: no tubes in her throat, no anesthesia.... Talking about motivation (and courage..). One day after that ordeal she showed up for the finale rehearsal. And here she is, I understood this is filmed on July 4 and 5, at full throttle!! And another thing: speaking in public is a huge challenge for many people. Here Emma does that completely relaxed in a foreign language (her first language is Dutch) and in front of a 12500 audience. You know, I don't have kids but I know when I must have respect for a person: Emma is one of them. As André Rieu told at the start of the video: Emma is joining him and his orchestra on the World Tour 2024. From the very start it she is completely included in the orchestra group, not as a little girl who has lots of health issues but as "one of them". They have good talks and when needed pep-talks (Emma sometimes is struggling with herself, as we all can imagine), they make fun, they help her with on-line school. Emma's mother is also there to give Emma the extra care she needs. So she is very well cared for AND she is enjoying every second of it. When Emma turned 16 (last March) they were in Greece: André Rieu invited her entire family and her friends in Athens (without Emma knowing that) to present her the 16th Birthday of her lifetime. That's the kind of human he is... I think it is good to mention that. I mean: we always see this man as a musician with his violin and in classic black costume, but we never talk about his humanitarian side.
This is my first time seeing one of your reactions and I thought you did Emma justice. She is incredible. I looked at some of your reactions, all the different people. There’s one missing. Another young lady from the Netherlands, Amira Willighagen. She taught herself to sing classical music at the age of nine years. Her ear for music second to none. She started on Hollands got talent , moved on to Andres stage and haven’t looked back. She is now 20 years old and every performance of hers is absolutely beautiful. I would suggest starting with her debut on Hollands got talent and look for English subtitles.
