Judges tear up at talent displayed during ChildAid 2024 audition

SINGAPORE – For 12-year-old Nur Anisah Daaniys Muhammad Sufian, it would be a dream come true to perform at the 2024 ChildAid concert, aptly titled The Dream Emporium.

The visually disabled girl moved the judges to tears with her heartfelt take on Canadian pop diva Celine Dion’s 1997 power ballad My Heart Will Go On at the audition on July 20.

She was one of around 80 shortlisted out of over 250 entrants vying for a spot in the annual charity show at 10 Square, an arts training centre for youth artists and venue partner for ChildAid’s auditions.

“I was like, why not, it’s a big opportunity. So here I am,” said the student from Lighthouse School, whose mother found out about the concert through a friend.

In March, Anisah was among a group of people featured in a Circle Line MRT train – dubbed “The Purple Parade train” – and on the platform screen doors of Bras Basah station. Both of these features were part of The Purple Parade movement’s campaign to celebrate what those with disabilities can do.

Anisah is also a student vocalist for The Purple Symphony, Singapore’s largest inclusive orchestra.

Despite it being her first time auditioning for ChildAid – which wis open to those between the ages of six and 19 who can sing, act, dance or play a musical instrument – she took the jitters in her stride. After performing her main song, she belted out the chorus of American pop star Taylor Swift’s Blank Space (2014) a cappella at the judges’ request.

Anisah, who aspires to be a professional singer or a music teacher when she grows up, says: “When I perform, I get to do what I love, which is singing.”

This year marks the 20th edition of ChildAid, which is organised by The Straits Times and The Business Times to raise money for The Straits Times Pocket Money Fund and The Business Times Budding Artists Fund respectively.

The pocket money fund provides allowances to children from low-income families to help them through school, while the artists fund helps to sponsor arts training for talented youth from less privileged households.

ChildAid 2024 will be held at the Esplanade Theatre on Nov 29 and 30. Ticketing details will be announced later.

Scriptwriter and stage director Krish Natarajan said: “At the heart of ChildAid, and every foundation that’s involved with ChildAid, is making as many dreams come true as possible.”

He added that the script would have a “sub-theme” of artificial intelligence (AI), incorporated in a fantastical machine that sorts children’s dreams.

Anisah was not the only first-time auditionee.

Outside the audition room, nine-year-old Travis Wong appeared shy and soft-spoken. But once he picked up his 3/4-sized violin, he transformed into a prodigy tackling the notoriously difficult Caprice No. 16 by Italian composer Niccolo Paganini with ease.

This was the same piece that earned him victory at the prestigious Andrea Postacchini International Violin Competition held in Italy in May – and, at the audition, a room full of applause.

Travis first grabbed headlines in 2021 at the age of five, when he achieved a distinction in the Grade 8 violin performance examination conducted by the London-based Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM).

For violin exams by ABRSM, Grade 8 is the highest level before the suite of diplomas taken at the professional level.

In the past three years, he has attended violin master classes in Oxford, Britain, and won competitions such as the GSF Singapore Festival 2023 and 2024 Concert Artists International Competition.

“If I get to perform for ChildAid, I can use my music, which I love, to raise funds for the less fortunate children in Singapore,” says the pupil of Fairfield Methodist School (Primary).

There were also return performers at the audition. Divyasree Ravichandraraja, 13, acted and sang in the 2023 iteration of ChildAid. She enjoyed the experience so much that she came back for more.

“It was so exhilarating and so much fun to perform. It was great,” said the student at international school 5 Steps Academy.

Though trained in musical theatre, Divyasree started off her audition with American singer Olivia Rodrigo’s All I Want (2019), using her soulful rendition to show the judging panel that she “was not just a musical theatre student”.

Then, seamlessly, the teenager whipped out a top hat and treated the judges to a one-woman show – singing, acting and dancing to The Mad Hatter from the stage musical Wonderland.

“If you’re afraid, that’s a good thing,” she quipped to the judges, before diving into her number with a cartwheel.

“We have a lot of talented people coming in,” raved ChildAid’s co-creative director Joshua Quek.

So many, in fact, that the auditions spanned three days, from July 19 to 21. “Some of (the auditionees) were really quite surprising,” said Mr Quek.