A video clip of a Ukrainian girl, Amelia, singing Frozen's "Let it Go" from a bomb shelter in Kyiv went viral yesterday. Even the film's original Elsa, Idina Menzel, took notice.
The video was shared on Facebook by Martha Smekhova, who stays in the same bomb shelter as Amelia.
A beaming light in a bomb shelter
On her Facebook post, Smekhova said there was complete silence in the bomb shelter when Amelia sang. Everyone stopped what they were doing and listened to Amelia's singing. She described Amelia as a "beaming light ...even men could not hold back their tears." Amelia's singing earned her a round of applause from everyone.
Amelia and other Ukrainians sought shelter in an unknown location in Kyiv while Russian forces were advancing into the country.
The video has hit six million views on Twitter. No less than Idina Menzel, the original singer of the soundtrack of the 2013 Disney movie hit, Frozen, took notice of Amelia.
"We see you. We really, really see you," Menzel wrote on Twitter, alongside blue and yellow heart emoji and the viral video.
While reporting on a train, NBC's Richard Engel said that the little girl's performance speaks to the universal appeal of music and the resilience of the human spirit.
He added that the girl's song is meant to entertain others in the shelter, keep their spirits alive, and keep their "spirits" up.
TODAY's Sheinelle Jones, while listening from a studio in New York, said, "that got me."
Bomb Shelters and Evacuation Situation in Ukraine
While millions of people fled to Ukraine's borders for safety, other Ukrainians who have not escaped the country seek shelter underground.
AS of Monday, the UN confirmed that 406 civilians have died, including 27 children, since the start of Russia's invasion on February 24. The agency also estimates that more than 1.5 million people have fled the country, and the number is rising each day.
As of Sunday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said that the attempt to evacuate civilians in Ukraine's Mariupol "failed."
The International Committee of the Red Cross said parties need to agree on safe evacuation details of civilians, like a specific time, locations, and routes, as people are living in terror in the southeastern port city and in desperate need of safety.
Ukraine recently rejected a Russian proposal to allow civilians to escape after Ukraine realized that many routes would only lead to Russia or its ally, Belarus. The third round of Russia-Ukraine peace talks ends with little agreement, while another peace talk will take place on Tuesday.
The United Nations declared that the country had had the fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War II on its Twitter account. The agency said that millions more lives would be uprooted in the coming days unless there is an immediate end to the conflict.
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