Last Thursday LAPD officers were patrolling the Subway when they heard someone performing an opera. When they saw her one of the officers filmed her and posted it to the LAPD Twitter account. It turns out, her name is Emily Zamourka and the video of her impressive voice has gone viral and landed her a major record deal.
Zamourka is a 52 year old musician who plays violin, piano and sings. She moved from Russia to America 30 years ago to pursue music. She ended up working as a music teacher. Then about 3 years ago she had some serious health issues. She lost her job and her bills overwhelmed her. She's been on the streets since then. She had been making money playing her violin but that was recently stolen. So the only thing she had left was her voice. She's been trying to sing for money all over the Subway. Thanks to that video she isn't going to have to sing in the Subway anymore. Or worry about feeding herself, or struggle to find shelter.
She’s been offered a recording contract with GRAMMY-nominated music producer Joel Diamond, who wants to make a “huge-classical-EDM crossover hit record” with her and says the first record will be called “Paradise.”
Along with the record deal, two GoFundMe campaigns have been raising money for Zamourka. This one was had around $64,000 this morning at 5:30 and this one around $34,000 and climbing.
So with $100,000 and a new recording contract and the world watching to see what she'll do next it's been quite a week! But the only thing she wanted to do last night was thank Officer Frazier