The Los Angeles Police Department posted a video to social media of a woman singing a Puccini aria in a metro station in the central part of the city.
”Four million people call LA home. 4 million stories. 4 million voices,” the LAPD wrote in the caption of the video posted to their Twitter and Instagram accounts. ”Sometimes you just have to stop and listen to one, to hear something beautiful.”
Internet showed it power and the video quickly went viral also garnered thousands of views. The homeless opera singer gained fame overnight.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the woman was identified as Emily Zamourka, who grew up in Russia before moving to the United States.
The 52-year-old told the newspaper that she is now homeless and has experienced health complications and financial problems in recent years. She also revealed that she is relying on the $400 a month she gets from the government.
Zamourka told the Times: ”I didn’t want to be dependent on anybody,”
”I was having fun. I was learning English.”
After experiencing pancreas and liver problems in 2005, she thought to take treatment at a hospital in Los Angeles. When she recovered, she taught music and played the violin in public for tips, but somebody had stolen her instrument three years ago.
”That’s when I became homeless,” Zamourka told KABC.
”When I could not actually pay any of my bills and could not pay any more of my rent.”
”I am sleeping actually on the cardboard right now, in the parking lot,”
”I am sleeping where I can sleep … I have people that feel sorry for me, but I don’t want to be a burden to anybody.”
When the video of her singing went viral, Branimir Kvartuc who is a spokesman for Los Angeles Councilman Joe Buscaino approached Zamourka and offered a job singing at the opening of an Italian Resturant on nearby San Pedro.
A GoFundMe page was also set up for Zamourka and has raised nearly $30,000 in just 24 hours.
”My dreams are always there, of course,” Zamourka told The Times. ”Maybe it’ll come true this time.”
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