Not everyone gets a break in the music industry at just a young age, but Emanne Beasha is one unique kid. Her music career started when she won Arabs Got Talent and placed 9th in America’s Got Talent. And finally, in 2019, she signed a worldwide publishing deal with Sony/ATV. Emanne joins Tara Joseph in discussing her music lessons and how she takes care of her still-developing vocal cords. She also tells some interesting stories about her life outside the musical limelight, from learning how to bake, being part of the BTS ARMY, doing charity work, and even making up a game with her brother.
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Singing, traveling and all things fun with special guest, 12 year old Soprano, Emanne Beasha
Our guest is, without a doubt, the youngest guest we’ve ever had on the show. At still only twelve years old, she has wowed the world with her incredible soprano voice. Let’s welcome to the show, the wonderful Emanne Beasha. Emanne, how are you?
I’m good. How are you? Thank you for inviting me.
I’m well. Thank you. When did you start singing?
I can’t remember a time when I was not singing, but around the age of two, I would sing whatever I hear on the radio.
Did you hear something and immediately start singing or you remember taking it away and then start going through the piece in your mind? How did it work?
I don’t remember. I was young. It’s been a long time.
When you first started singing, what songs did you liked best?
I remember hearing Adele on the radio and nursery rhyme songs. We had songbooks like Frosty the Snowman. They changed once I got older. At seven, I started listening to opera. It’s been different throughout the years.
Do you come from a musical family?
No. My uncle does play piano and he’s quite good at that.
You started learning the ukulele, didn’t you?
I started. I’ve been able to do a lot of stuff with it. I am about to finish a song and we’re learning Frosty the Snowman for Christmas.
What made you choose the ukulele? How did that happen?
I started off with guitar, but I became overwhelmed with all the six frets, everything being big and heavy. I was supposed to do both of them at the same time. I do well with ukulele, but we’re going to slowly get back into guitar after my fingers get a little stronger.
You’ve got to have quite long nails to play the guitar, to catch the strings? You have to have a long thumbnail?
I don’t know. My guitar teacher doesn’t and he plays everything. You need short nails on the left hand, and you can have long nails, but you don’t have to.
I’ve seen some good guitar players on there, it’s their right hand, or their strumming hand and their thumbnail is long, sometimes it looks a bit unusual.
It’s used for a replacement, rather a pick. It’s like my friend Marcin from AGT. His left nails are short and he had long nails on his right hand.
I can’t wait to hear and see what you’re up to. I’ve seen you with your ukulele and you’re great, but with your soon-to-be guitar skills. You mentioned a couple of sentences about AGT. For the readers who don’t know, although I’m sure most of the world does know, AGT stands for, America’s Got Talent. That’s when I originally met you when you were on the show and you blew everyone away. Tell us a bit about that experience back in 2019.
It feels long ago. It was an amazing learning experience. I met many people. I got to expand my song range. I made a lot of friends. It was such a great learning experience. I had fun. I had the time of my life on AGT, but it was also a lot of hard work. A lot of the days where you’re pushing yourself to the limits to finish a song, learn the rest of the lyrics. I’m happy with it.
What was your best part of being on AGT?
I have many.
What are your top two?
Number one was meeting Simon Cowell backstage. He came backstage after I performed, and I was crying. I cry after every performance. That’s the thing I do. Not because of sadness, not because of happiness, I cry. It’s an emotional relief. Meeting him at the side of backstage and getting to take a picture with him not in a white, gray or black t-shirt, but in a red t-shirt. It was special. That was a rare picture.
Did you feel under a lot of pressure whilst you were on the show, or you took it all in your stride?
At some point, you do feel overwhelmed and pressured to finish something, but it’s all worth it. You’ll get through it and you’re like, “There’s no pressure.” Few places, there were lots of pressure you could say. Everybody there, even the other contestants you were friends with, so there’s not much pressure.
When you were standing on the stage, which looks like a big stage and you’re about to sing your song to the masses watching you on TV, how did you feel at those moments?
It’s hard to say I’m never nervous, but I get a little overwhelmed and then I’m like, “It’s going to be fine. Whatever happens, happens.” I can’t change that. I’ll do my best. There’s always this funny guy backstage. He worked with the crew. I didn’t even know him that well. I didn’t get his name. I remembered him as backwards hoodie guy. Throughout rehearsal, I’ll wear my hoodie backwards to not mess up if I had hair done. He’d be like, “Why are you wearing your hoodie backwards?” He’d make a whole big joke out of it. Before I go on stage, he’d always make me laugh, so all the relief would go out. I’d go on stage and I would see the people, I’d be like, “They’re here. They’re going to have fun.” I’m going to go on with the show, whatever happens. Not too much nervousness.
You are amazing on the show. The people watching on TV and in the audience at the theater are blown away by the talent that you have.
Thank you.
You enjoy singing.
I love singing.
When you sing on a daily basis, do you have a routine? Do you go to lessons? Do you sing in the shower? What was your singing routine day to day?
It varies. I do take lessons a few times a week with two amazing teachers, Maxwell David and Lisa Hugo. I sing everywhere. My brothers will be like, “We’ve heard you sing so much.” I’ll sing in the shower sometimes. I’ll sing in my room and I’ll forget my windows are open, and I’ll see people outside and they’ll be like, “What was that?” I’ll be like, “Sorry.” It’s quite interesting. There’s not too much of a schedule. I sing when I sing. My mom will be like, “Emanne, you want to practice?” I’ll be like, “Let’s go.” We’ll practice for two hours. Sometimes we’ll practice for half an hour. Sometimes we’ll practice for four hours.
What do you do to look after your voice? I know singers often have specific things for themselves that they like to do to protect their instruments.
Ever since I first started working with one of my singing teachers, Lisa Hugo, she’s always been about making sure I don’t hurt my vocal cords, because I’m still little, everything is still developing and we’ve always been careful about that to not strain them and to not over sing. If I have a performance, I’ll take long breaks, sometimes a little too long, I’ll get a little lazy there. I’ll take breaks on my vocal cords. If ever I’m like, “I can’t sing now,” we won’t sing. We’ve got to always sing from our diaphragm or my voice will not sound good.
Work hard and always do what you love. Click To TweetYou mentioned, when you were little and you started off singing, you would listen to the radio and start singing along to different songs. Who are you listening to these days?
I’m mixing it up. I’m listening to Lana Del Rey. I listened to Maria Callas. I love her. I listen to some Paul Potts once in a while. We’re learning about different classical musicians and musicians in general.
Is it a classical person?
He orchestrated Clair de Lune.
Are you still a BTS fan?
I’m a fan. I wouldn’t consider myself an ARMY. They’ve become big, it’s hard to catch up. There are many things you’ve got to be on at 3:00 in the morning. I knew this one girl. She pulls all-nighters to be able to listen to them or see them. I haven’t got time. I want my sleep. I do listen to them. I hope to be able to listen to them more whenever it gets easier to listen to them. It’s a little easier to be an ARMY.
What does that mean? Does that mean like a hardcore fan if you’re in the BTS ARMY?
You are like a fanatic. There’s one person I met and she knows their blood types. I was mind blown. I’m like, “I’m not ARMY.” I would consider myself ARMY a few months ago before I met this person, but after, I’m like, “That’s crazy.” She’ll be like, “Sometimes I’ll stay up until 4:00, 6:00 AM.” Watching their V lives. I’ll be like, “What the hell?” I love them. I love their music. I just couldn’t do that. I’m sorry, BTS. I feel bad.
No, I don’t blame you. I don’t think I could stay up all night.
They stream their music so much. They know every word to every song. Some of them even learn Korean to understand even more.
Can you speak any Korean?
I’m not going to try.
You know a couple or so words?
I don’t even know any. All the Korean drama they watched, they got nothing from this, only subtitles.
When you’re not singing, what do you like to do?
The stuffs I do.
That seems to be a lot.
We can’t live life without doing a lot of stuff. I do lots of sports. I have tennis, boxing, football, swimming and basketball. I play with my friends. I run a lot. I do ballet, workout. Sometimes me and my brother, since I have a hammock in my room instead of a bed, we play games on my hammock. It’s fun. We made up a game.
What was that?
We have these massive pillows in my room, so we made a game where we had to kick the pillows, and every time we kick the pillows, “Let’s use your hands.” Every time we bash our heads into pillows, it will be funny. I do that. I make bracelets with my friend. I can make rings, the wire, you make the rings with the beads and stuff. I make those. I’m trying to get better at it. I might not be the best but being good takes time. I’ve learned that. I bake.
I was going to ask you about your baking because I’ve seen different photos of cookies and cakes that you’ve made.
My poor dad, he’s trying to get healthier, gain some muscle and lose weight. I was baking a lot in the beginning. When I first started baking, I was baking every single day. It was crazy. It was so much baking.
What’s your specialty?
Brownies. He’s like, “Stop baking. Stop it. All I do is I wake up and I eat your things and then I go back to bed. I’m like, ‘Why did I eat that? I’m on a diet.’” He’ll have to run an extra 10K the next day and I’ll feel bad. I’ll be like, “What can I bake? I feel bad.”
Do your brothers eat all your baking as well?
Yes, but they don’t eat it as much than my one friend. We’re best friends with his family. He’s a little younger than me. He’s like my brother and so as his brothers. They’re like my brothers, except for his older brother, he’s annoying, even though he’s older than me. I always take my baking over to their house because they’re a big family. I’ll take my baking and they’ll give me critiques. They’ll be like, “Some more of this, this and this. Some more chocolate here.” That’s the best way for me to be able to bake and not have to cut the recipe into fourths and get critiquing.
I take it over to their house and it’s devoured. There’s no more. It’s gone, especially my brownies. One time I took them over. I go into the other room to put something away. I come back and there’s no more brownies. I’m like, “I want to try them.” Sometimes if I make my mom’s favorites, anything to do with chocolatey or nuts, I wake up the next morning and they won’t be there. It depends because sometimes they won’t eat at all. Sometimes I’ll experiment things and they’ll be like, “I’m good. I’ll see you later.”
Do you do vegetarian stuff or vegan stuff or just full fat milk all the away and full fat cream all the way?
It’s like American style baking, extra butter.
That’s what I like. I would be devouring everything before they even got out the oven if I was with you.
What is your favorite dessert?
I’ve got a sweet tooth. In Santa Monica, which isn’t too far from me, there’s a British store. I love British chocolate. I went to the British store and I stocked up on all of this British chocolate. Things that you won’t have heard of like Double Deckers, Aeros, Flakes, and Ripples. I love chocolate.
I’ve heard of Flakes. Do they look flaky, they make a big mess and they always come loose?
Exactly. I love all of that stuff. My brother-in-law is a baker. Not professionally, but he likes baking. He’ll drop round chocolate chip cookies and banana breads.
That’s good.
Banana bread with walnuts, that’s good.
Some people will reject your music. Just keep going and work hard to do it. Click To TweetThat’s what my mom likes.
He spoils us with the cookies and the banana bread.
It must be nice. I’ll make banana bread. My mom and my little brother likes banana bread. I’m not even allowed to bring it over to my friend’s house. They have never tried it. The recipe, it’s four bananas, but the banana has always become small when I’m wishing them. The recipe always comes up being small and they’re like, “You’re not bringing it over. It’s for us.” It’s on the healthier side than all of my stuff. They won’t feel as guilty eating it. About the healthy baking, I do that sometimes, especially for me. I don’t like the taste of it, it makes me feel sick because I’m allergic to a lot of things. Lots of butter, sugar, and flour makes me feel sick because I’m allergic to flour, milk and butter. I still eat a lot of butter. Me and my friend, we were experimenting with healthier stuff so you can eat more of it.
I’m going to have to come over and you’re going to have to cook for me. You mentioned your brothers a couple of times. You’re in the middle, aren’t you? You’ve got an older brother and a younger brother.
I’m a mother too. I’m a mother to my brother.
Your little brother?
My older brother, not much. He goes to school, we don’t. Me and my little brother, we always got each other’s back, so does my older brother. They’re supportive.
You’re homeschooled is what you mean?
I’m homeschooled. My little brother is homeschooled. My other brother goes to school, because my mom is like, “You’re going into high school. It’s getting tough. I can’t do this.” It’s like, “X times V times 8.” I’m like, “What is he even learning at this point?”
What I’ve seen on Instagram a couple of times is you do duets with your younger brother. They’re adorable. He’s got a lovely voice too.
Thank you. My little brother during those duets is funny. I’ll give him signals of when to start. He still sometimes gets confused. They take us a long time though. That’s why there are only two of them. They’ll take us months because we’ll get lazy and he’ll be like, “No. I’m tired. I don’t want to do it.” I’ll be like, “I’ll back off.” My brothers are supportive through everything.
You’ve traveled the world. You, me and your mom. We were in Berlin. We had a great trip. You were singing on a big TV in Germany and Berlin. It was awesome. You have traveled a lot. This 2020 is slightly different because we’ve all been in lockdown with Coronavirus situations. Have you traveled to a particular country that you can’t wait to go back to and wait to sing in again? Is there somewhere you haven’t been yet that you’re looking forward to going to?
My favorite country I’ve ever been is Sri Lanka. I went backpacking with my family there for a month. It was such a great experience. It was such a great break. We didn’t do any singing, no performances. You got straight up shocked how beautiful some parts of the world are and how nice these people are. They’re the nicest people I’ve ever met. If I meet someone from Sri Lanka, they’re nice. There’s this one girl in my ballet, she’s from Sri Lanka. Before I even knew her, I’m like, “She’s the nicest person in this class.” That was long ago. I would love to go back. I wonder if I’ll perform there. If someone will invite me, I’d love to perform there. That’d be fun.
My mom got mad at us. We’d go out a little too far at the beaches and she’d be like, “I swear, Emanne, if you go out that far again.” We wouldn’t get the waves back in. The weirdest thing is the waves are not normal. They’re weird. Imagine two waves, there’s a wave coming in from the shore and there’s a wave coming from the Indian Ocean and they collide together. They make this big splash. I remember being in the middle of one with my little boogie board. You go up into the air, it shoots you up like a volcano. They’re fun, but it is hard to get into the middle of one because sometimes they’ll be bigger than others you only feel them. They show up towards the shore, but you’ve got to be exact. It’s like getting shot up.
I love your sportiness. You’re swimming in the dangerous waves.
My brother always had my back there in that.
It sounds a bit hairy, a bit dodgy doing that.
It was all worth it. It was fun and the water was beautiful. Also, my brother is daring. I was too scared, but I still regret not doing it. He went rock climbing down a waterfall. We also got to jump off waterfalls. We have this cool guide and he’s like, “I would walk all the way up this mountain to go to school because the school is at the top of the hill.” Me and the rest of my family, we’re dying and he’s walking, he’s barefoot. He is walking like it’s a walk in the park. It’s interesting to see the different lifestyles of many people. We also went to a tea plantation. It smells like tea and I was like, “No, I’m thirsty for tea.”
I’ve always wanted to go to Sri Lanka. I hope that it’s somewhere that I’m able to go backpacking in one day. Talking of meeting lots of different people, you became Youth Ambassador for the incredible charity Feed the Children. How did you enjoy that experience and why did you say yes?
I was lucky to be able to partner with them and become their youth ambassador. I was happy for that. Food is such a big part of my life. I love baking. I love trying different food. Many children around the world and in the US don’t have a guaranteed meal every day. It makes me sad to think of that. I’m trying to do whatever I can to help, and partnering with them was a great way to do that. We help to make progress.
That’s special that you’ve got involved with such a great charity.
Thank you.
Going back to your music and your singing, do you hope that as you get older and you become a teenager and then an adult, that you continue singing and singing is your career as a grown-up? Is that what you would like?
I want to spend my whole life singing, whether it’s singing for a massive audience or singing for myself or friends, to keep singing. Maybe something will happen. You never know. I’m going to go with the flow. I’ll figure it out in the future.
You’re talented. You’ve got such a beautiful voice and such stage presence. Often, performers don’t have the whole package. You can be a great singer, but you might not have the personality, or you might have a personality, not the great vocal capability but you’ve got it all. I’m excited to see what the future holds for you. I’ve got two more questions for you. What advice would you give to other children who would like to follow in your footsteps, who love singing and have a voice and would like to use it?
You’ve got to be ready to work hard. Sometimes, there will be people who are supportive and they love what you’re doing, they love the way you sound, they love your music. Some people will reject it. They won’t like it. You’ve just got to keep going and work hard to do it. It’s going to be tough and hard. You’re going to want to stop at some points, but once you get on stage or into a studio and you start doing what you love, it’s all worth it. Enjoy every moment of it.
That’s great advice. Enjoying every moment of it and working hard, those are two key important points. To finish off with, if you could duet with anyone in the world, who would you want to duet with? It could be a couple of people.
If Maria Callas was alive, her, but she’s not. That’s not possible.
That’s a good answer though.
Paul Potts is cool and his voice is velvety smooth. He’s quite interesting because if you look at his social media, it’s calm and he’s famous, and yet he doesn’t act like that. He’s down to earth. His pictures on Instagram, most of them will be pictures of places like an opera house or some scenery. You’ll see a few pictures of him. He’s like, “I’m using this account for the people who follow me and I’m going to use it to show all the cool places I’ve been.” I would do duet with him. That would be amazing. I would love that.
He is talented and seems like such a nice guy, doesn’t he?
He does seem nice.
Nice and successful.
He’s been successful, but he’s down to earth. What I’ve seen from social media and what I’ve heard is that people get over their heads with this whole fame thing. It’s cool how he’s been able to control that. He’d be like, “Famous or not, I would be me.”
Emanne, it’s been lovely to have you on the show. I’m happy that you said yes to coming on. I’m one of your number one fans. I’m excited about what the future holds. I wish you a happy holiday. We will be chatting again. Thank you again. Thank you to all of our fabulous For Love and Music readers. For now, stay safe and healthy.
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About Emanne Beasha
Emanne Beasha is an American singer born in 2008 who has been singing since she was two years old and has always loved performing on stage.
Her first major crowd of 10,000 was when she performed the National Anthem for a spring training baseball game in Port Charlotte, Florida when she was just seven years old. Soon after, she started learning opera songs from YouTube.
She won Arabs Got Talent in 2017 at only eight years old. Shortly after that, she was awarded the Golden Superiority Medal from His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan following her performance at the 2017 celebration of Jordan Independence Day. She also received the title “Champion for Children” from UNICEF in support of their efforts in various campaigns.
Since then, Emanne has performed at various local and international events including the Cirque Du Soleil annual fundraiser, “1 Night 1 Drop” in Las Vegas, alongside the famous American singer Jewel. She was also hosted as a guest star on the American TV show “Little Big Shots with Steve Harvey” in Los Angeles.
Emanne was also honoured to perform at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC at the awards ceremony for His Majesty King Abdullah II receiving the Templeton Prize.
In June 2019, Emanne made her debut on America’s Got Talent with “Nessun Dorma.” She went on to receive the Golden Buzzer from Jay Leno for her operatic version of “Caruso.” She continued to surprise with “Ebben Nandro Lontana,” then a crossover version of Bryan Adam’s “Everything I Do – Quello Che Faro” and her finale performance was the impressive “La Mamma Morta.
Emanne was a top 10 finalist in America’s Got Talent season 14. During the Finale Results show, she was honoured to perform “Con Te Partiro” with world-renowned pianist Lang Lang.
In 2019, Emanne signed a worldwide publishing deal with Sony/ATV.
When Emanne is not singing, she enjoys horseback riding, art, tennis, swimming, guitar, hip-hop and ballet. She really loves talking with people of all ages, travelling around the world and learning from new experiences.
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