Ukrainian 7-year-old who sang Frozen song from bunker opens charity concert in Poland

Three weeks ago, seven-year-old Amelia Anisovych shot to international fame with her rendition of “Let It Go” from the film “Frozen” in a Kyiv bomb shelter. Last night, the same girl, now a refugee in Poland with her grandmother and brother, sang the Ukrainian national anthem to open a charity concert.

The “Together with Ukraine” concert featured performances by an array of Polish and Ukrainian musicians and actors. It raised 5 million zloty (€1.1 million) for Polish Humanitarian Action (PAH), a charity that has been helping Ukrainian refugees, more than two million of whom have crossed into Poland.

Perhaps the biggest star of the show was young Amelia, who opened last night’s concert by singing the Ukrainian national anthem in front of an audience of thousands at a packed Atlas Arena in Łódź.

Amelia came to prominence when, soon after Russia’s invasion of her homeland, she was filmed singing the popular Disney movie song from a crowded bunker. The video has been watched by millions around the world.

Kristen Anderson-Lopez, the co-author of “Let It Go”, wrote to the “Little Girl with the beautiful voice” that her singing was “like a magic trick that spreads the light in your heart and heals everyone who hears it”.

Days after it was recorded, Amelia’s parents sent her and her 15-year-old brother Misha with their grandmother, Vira, to Poland. The parents, who run a medical supplies company, stayed behind to cook meals for troops, reports The Sun.

Last night’s concert was transmitted on television in 50 countries around the world, according to presenters Marcin Prokop and Alina Makarczuk, who is herself Ukrainian and who spoke of her father fighting on the front line.

Amelia was joined on stage by Ukrainian singer Tina Karol. Among the other performers to feature in the show were Stanisław Soyka, Kayah, Vito Bambino, Natalia Przybysz, and Anita Lipnicka.

Polish vocalist Krzysztof Zalewski performed Czesław Niemen’s classic “Dziwny jest ten świat” (Strange is this world) with Ukrainian singer Daria Psekho, while Polish-Ukrainian band Dagadana also took to the stage.

There were other artistic performances too. Ukrainian actress Liudmyla Smorodyna and Polish actor Andrzej Seweryn recited – in Ukrainian then in Polish – “Testament” by the 19th-century poet Taras Shevchenko, who is often considered the founder of the modern written Ukrainian language.

Seweryn then quoted the famous line by the soldiers defending Snake Island on the first day of the Russian invasion: “Russian warship, go f*** yourself.”

Before the concert finale, a performance of John Lennon’s “Imagine”, Prokop announced that more than 2 million zloty (€427,000) had been raised from text messages sent by viewers as well as from ticket sales, reports Gazeta.pl.

American conglomerate Discovery Inc. – the owner of the Polish station, TVN, that broadcast the concert – supported the cause with half a million dollars (over two million zloty). Proceeds from advertisements raised another million.

All money raised from the concert will go directly to Polish Humanitarian Action, a charity that helps the victims of humanitarian crises and natural disasters, and which is currently providing food and other forms of support to people internally displaced in Ukraine and refugees coming to Poland.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, over two million people have crossed the border into Poland. The Polish government estimates that around three quarters of them remain in Poland.

The influx has been met with a mass mobilisation by Polish state institutions, businesses, religious organisations, and civil society to help the new arrivals, providing them with accommodation, food, services and other forms of support.

Main image credit: Marcin Stepien / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Ben Koschalka

Ben Koschalka is a translator and senior editor at Notes from Poland. Originally from Britain, he has lived in Kraków since 2005.