The young girl with a voice to rival legendary singers has perfected the art of singing in English–a language she doesn’t even speak.
Meet Elsie, a young girl of undetermined age from an unassuming fishing village in the Philippines. That’s pretty much all we know about her, along with the fact that she was born blind and has the singing voice of an angel.
Seriously, we’re not exaggerating here. Just listen to her cover of Whitney Houston’s 1992 version of “I Will Always Love You” as posted by Facebook user Darrell Burnett. It takes guts to even attempt this song, and very few people can actually nail it. Elsie is one of them.
Here’s the even bigger kicker: according to Burnett, Elsie doesn’t actually speak English, and she has never even been to school. Instead, she learned how to articulate English sounds and intonation patterns by simply listening to and memorizing English songs again and again. If we didn’t know any better, her pronunciation sounds like a native speaker’s!
Enjoy these other clips of Elsie’s musical performances in the order Burnett posted them:
▼ The oft-covered “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” originally from the 1945 musical Carousel and especially popularized by British band Gerry and the Pacemakers in 1963
▼ “Girl on Fire” (2002) by Alicia Keys (another song not just anyone can attempt!)
▼ The classic “Happy Birthday” while code-mixing English and Cebuano/Bisaya, a language of the Philippines (according to the comments section)
▼ “Just Give Me a Reason” (2013) by Pink
▼ “Perfect” (2017) by Ed Sheeran
Wow. Just wow.
As the above videos of Elsie singing went viral, many people in the comments sections are clamoring to get the attention of American TV host and actor Ellen DeGeneres to invite Elsie onto her famous talk show. Ellen is known for her human-interest stories and charitable work, and could potentially propel Elsie to worldwide recognition if she so desires.
Sources: NextShark, Facebook/Darrell Burnett
Featured image: Facebook/Darrell Burnett