A Christian girl whose performance on The Voice Kids turned her into an internet star tells how she fled Iraq after the Islamic State (IS) threatened to kidnap and kill her.
Nicknamed ‘the Babylon Princess’, 11-year-old Mirna Hana, stunned the judges in Beirut when she sang Iraqi love song ‘Yesterday in a Dream’ and Frozen’s ‘Let it Go’.
Hana’s performance on The Voice Kids in Beirut has been viewed more than 11.8 million times on YouTube, and the tear-jerking story of how she had escaped Iraq and reached Lebanon when her life was threatened.
‘After we got to Lebanon, my dad told me that Da’ish wanted to kidnap and kill me. From then I felt very scared at night, and I couldn’t sleep alone, or be by myself.’ Hana tells her tale in a video.
‘The Voice Kids is a chance to sing for the world and to show that Iraq isn’t just about war and things like that there are beautiful sounds too,” she adds.
Hana’s father, a government employee, said: “They [IS] threatened us with the kidnapping our little girl, so we came here. We left everything behind us – even my job with the government.’
Before she walked on the stage, her father hugged her and told her not to be scared.
Once Hana started to perform on the stage, upon hearing the opening notes, 58-year-old Iraqi judge Kazem El Saher broke into a broad smile – immediately identifying the rendition of his own love song.
Other judges, Lebanese superstar Nancy Ajram and Egyptian actor and singer Tamer Hosny, were also visibly stirred.
“How do you sing like that,” judge Nancy asked her in disbelief, when Hana told her she is only 11-year-old.
She will now battle it out with other talented children to win the competition.
