Amira Willighagen

Amira in May 2016

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Amira   NL 1  gold 04/05/2014 (12 weeks) Merry Christmas   NL 16 December 26, 2015 (1 week)

Amira Willighagen (born March 27, 2004 in Nijmegen ) is a Dutch - South African up- and - coming singer in the field of classical and pop, based in Potchefstroom , South Africa .

Career

Willighagen became famous in 2013 when she took part in the talent show Holland's Got Talent at the age of nine and won it. With her interpretation of the aria O mio babbino caro from Giacomo Puccini's opera Gianni Schicchi , Willighagen delighted both the jury and the audience during the auditions. In this context, Willighagen stated that she had never had singing lessons and that she had taught herself classical opera singing using YouTube videos.

After her talent show victory , Willighagen was celebrated as the new “opera prodigy” , especially on the boulevard . She was signed by the classic label Sony Masterworks and initially managed by her father Gerrit Willighagen. The focus was and is always on the marketing of Willighagen as a “world class artist” and “the netherlands most promising opera talent”.

In February 2014 Willighagen recorded her debut album Amira in England . It was released on March 28, 2014 in their Dutch homeland, where it went straight to number one on the charts and within two weeks reached gold status for 10,000 copies sold or downloaded. In total, it stayed in the NL Top100 album charts for twelve weeks. Her debut was released in England in April and in Germany on May 30th, but clearly missed the top 100 album charts in both countries.

Before and during the studio recordings for the album, Willighagen was supported by a singing teacher for the first time. It was about the singing student and children's choir director Maike van der Wiel. As Willighagen himself announced in a documentary on the Dutch local broadcaster TV Gelderland, the collaboration with a singing teacher ended in 2016 after she expressed concern about the strenuous classical repertoire of the then twelve-year-olds and advised her to play age-appropriate pieces. Willighagen appeared primarily as a guest interpreter at opening and charity galas, festivals and celebrations in the private sector. However, the big breakthrough was denied.

In August 2015 Willighagen recorded her second studio album, which was released in Germany on November 20, 2015 under the title Merry Christmas . The record company Sony provided an experienced singing teacher for the recordings. Nevertheless, the response to the second album was much more subdued than to the debut. Merry Christmas only entered the Dutch album charts at number 69, then slipped to number 84 and then stayed in the top 100 for a total of seven weeks during the Christmas business. In the Belgian charts it only reached number 200.

Her third album "With all my Heart" was released on March 2nd, 2018 in South Africa. Since the end of May it is u. a. available for download in Germany and since July also in the USA.

Setbacks and a fresh start in South Africa

In 2016 Willighagen's career stuttered. After breaking up with her singing teacher, she went without voice training for months. A concert tour through the USA that had been planned since 2015 was repeatedly postponed and finally canceled. Under the influence of her South African mother Frieda Brand, Willighagen visibly shifted her creative focus to South Africa . The collaboration with Sony Masterworks ended at the beginning of 2017. In the middle of 2017 it was announced on their homepage that Willighagen had been signed by the production company of the nationally successful pop musicians Ewald and Arnold Coleske - Coleske Artists - who they are marketing under the artist name "Amira". At the same time their third album With all my heart was announced for the same year . However, the release has been postponed to the first quarter of 2018. At the beginning of March 2018, With all my Heart was first released on the South African market, but missed the top 100 album charts. With this album Willighagen deviates for the first time from the previously exclusively pursued opera course. It mainly contains pieces from the pop and classical crossover area as well as some live recordings from the 2017 edition of the South African music and entertainment format "Classics is Groot".

At the beginning of 2018, Willighagen, now almost 14 years old, moved to South Africa with her mother and brother. As a reason for the move, her mother gave u. a. the lack of recognition of her daughter in the Netherlands: “Amira is taken more seriously in South Africa. In the Netherlands she is not accepted by the elite, she does not consider her a real opera singer. ”Another argument is the much looser compulsory schooling in South Africa, which should allow Willighagen to do bigger concert tours next to school in the future.

Amira Willighagen has been running a charity project called “Gelukskinders” (German: Glückskinder) in South Africa since 2014. From her fees she finances playgrounds for disadvantaged children in the townships around Potchefstroom through the foundation of the same name . So far (as of August 2020) 15 playgrounds have been built; a 16th is being planned.

"Best International Female Opera Star 2019"

In November 2019, according to her Facebook account, Amira Willighagen received the "International Mediterranean best female opera star 2019 award" at a gala held by the largely unknown Organization for Diplomatic Relations in Naples , Italy . According to the certificate published on Facebook, she was honored for "exceptional artistic talent" and for her "determination to promote friendly relations and peace between nations, regardless of their political regime, race, traditions and religion". However, there are no independent, reliable sources that confirm the official award of such an award. The artistic value of this award is also questionable. The Mediterranean Awards are presented annually in Naples by the Fondazione Mediterraneo, founded in 1989 by the photographer, gallerist and architect Michele Capasso , in various categories with the declared aim of promoting commitment and initiative in international peace and understanding work. Amira Willighagen has been committed to helping disadvantaged children in the townships of her South African adopted home since 2014 by donating playgrounds. Connections of the Fondazione Mediterraneo to professional facilities and institutions of classical music or opera, which would qualify for a profound assessment of skills in this area in an international context, were not known to date. As a result, a Mediterranean Award in the "Best Female Opera Star International" category had never been presented before. Especially since Amira Willighagen has so far not appeared in the opera field either locally or internationally. In addition, Willighagen was neither officially listed as a prize winner nor mentioned in any other way as part of the PR accompanying the event on the organization's homepage.

Discography

• Amira (2014)
• Merry Christmas (2015)
• With all my heart (2018)

swell

1. ↑ Amira Willighagen in the Dutch album charts
2. ↑ Awards for Music Sales: NL
3. ↑ http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwclassical/article/STAGE-TUBE-9-Year-Old-Amira-Willighagen-Wins-Hollands-Got-Talent-20131230
4. ↑ https://www.vip.de/cms/amira-willighagen-neunjaehriges-opern-stimmwunder-startet-durch-1924978.html
5. ↑ http://amira-online.com/booking/
6. ↑ http://amira-online.com/welcome-to-the-new-amira-online-com/
7. ↑ AmiraFans - Amira's first CD comt eraan!
8. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from November 27, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
9. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN-DOKdIaxU
10. ↑ http://www.amazon.de/Merry-Christmas-Willighagen-Amira/dp/B014QHQSYE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1448537486&sr=8-2&keywords=amira+willighagen
11. ↑ http://hitparade.ch/album/Amira-Willighagen/Merry-Christmas-290184
12. ↑ http://amira-online.com/amiras-3rd-album-released/
13. ↑ http://amira-online.com/amira-in-the-studio-to-record-3rd-album/
14. ↑ https://www.omroepgelderland.nl/nieuws/2143124/Operaster-Amira-13-verhuist-naar-Zuid-Afrika
15. ↑ https://www.gelukskinders.org/en/
16. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/Amira.Willighagen.Zangeres/posts/amira-received-the-international-mediterranean-best-female-opera-star-2019-award/2587118378035733/
17. ↑ https://www.michelecapasso.org/
18. ↑ https://www.fondazionemediterraneo.org/index.php/en/iniziatives/mediterranean-awards
19. ↑ https://www.fondazionemediterraneo.org/index.php/en/component/search/?searchword=Willighagen&ordering=newest&searchphrase=all&limit=20

Web links

Commons : Amira Willighagen  - Collection of Images

• Official website