The mother of a Ukrainian girl who went viral for singing Disney hit Let It Go in a bomb shelter has said she is “proud” after her daughter sang onstage in front of thousands of people.
Seven-year-old Amelia Anisovych was reunited with her mother days before she performed to a packed stadium in Poland, where she is now a refugee.
Her mother Lilia Anisovych watched from behind the stage as her daughter sang the Ukrainian national anthem dressed in a traditional embroidered dress at the Atlas Arena stadium in Lodz.
“Everyone was worried that she would be very worried but she did great,” Ms Anisovych told the PA news agency.
“I was behind the stage and she was brought to me immediately after the performance.
“Her happy grandmother Vera was watching in the hall… is there a grandmother out there who would not be proud of her granddaughter in that moment?
“When Amelia went to the stage you could hear her say into the microphone “nightmare, nightmare” but she reconciled (those) feelings and sang.”
Amelia went viral earlier in March after she was filmed singing a song from the Disney film Frozen while sheltering from Russian shelling in an underground bunker in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
Her mother had initially stayed in the capital while her two children travelled across the border to their grandmother’s home in Poland after spending six nights in a bomb shelter.
On Thursday, Ms Anisovych was reunited with her son Misha and Amelia after fleeing the city where the children’s father Roman remains.
“We talk to her dad several times a day… Amelia is very sad but hopes to meet him soon,” she said.
“(I want) to emphasise that my child was lucky to be saved.
“More than 100 children’s lives in Ukraine have been taken by the war.
“These are wonderful, talented children who had just begun to live… they were not guilty of anything.”
Ms Anisovych echoed the frustration of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy with Nato over the refusal to implement a no-fly zone as her home town continues to come under fire.
“We beg you to close the sky over Ukraine and that our children stop dying from missiles and bombs,” she added.
An equivalent of more than £280,000 (€334,600) was raised from viewers of the televised Together for Ukraine concert by Polish and Ukrainian artists, including Amelia.
Another £600,000 (€717,000) was given by the organiser, TVN media group, which belongs to Discovery.
