About

Homeless Opera Singer GoFundMe refers to a viral video tweeted by the LAPD of a homeless woman, later identified at Emily Zamourka, singing a Puccini aria in a Los Angeles subway station. The video went viral in September 2019 and inspired a GoFundMe campaign to help Zamourka with housing.

Origin

On September 26th, 2019, the Los Angeles Police Department tweeted a video of a woman singing in a subway station with the caption, "4 million people call LA home. 4 million stories. 4 million voices…sometimes you just have to stop and listen to one, to hear something beautiful" (shown below). The tweet gained over 13,500 likes and 4,600 retweets in six days.

Spread

On September 27th, 2019, Twitter users began responding to the video inquiring about the woman. Twitter user @Arriadna^[3] tweeted "Why can’t someone hire her and get her a place to stay, she’s incredible" (shown below, left). The next day, Twitter user @Kara37078289^[4] replied by saying, "I’ve seen her for years on the Metro. I heard her once singing “Ave Maria” and thought it was a radio at first. Everyone has a story…this woman does too. I don’t know why she’s been homeless all these years, but she’s a human being…that’s all that matters" (shown below, right). The tweet received over 860 likes in four days.

Soon the woman was identified as Emily Zamourka a Russian Immigrant. RT^[1] reported that "she moved to the US aged 24 and taught music among her several jobs, but suffered health issues and turned to her musical skills to pay the bills. However, the heartbreaking theft of her violin ruined her efforts to earn money by playing for passersby on the streets of Los Angeles, and led to her becoming homeless." On September 30th, political consultant Michael Trujillo started a GoFundMe^[2] campaign to help Zamourka find housing and buy a new violin (shown below). The campaign has raised over $32,000 in three days.

On October 1st, 2019, the Los Angeles Times^[5] published an article on the woman which included a thank you from Zamourka to the officer who posted the video. That day, the LA Times posted another video of Zamourka singing to YouTube which has accumulated over 27,700 views in a day.

Various Examples

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