Mirna Hanna ( ميرنا حنا )  is a 12 years old Iraqi girl who hit fame during her participation in the Voice Kids in its Arabic version. Mirna was born in Karkook in Iraq. At the age of 10, Mirna and her family fled from ISIS to Irbil (Iraq) and then finally to Lebanon about 2 years ago.

Mirna’s story, just like few of the stories I have covered on this blog, is a story of talent and beauty overcoming unfair odds of suffering and oppression. A fight for beauty and freedom against ignorance and blind hatred, its a fight fueled by true art and genius; not with guns and bombs.

I will talk about Mirna’s early life later; but first, I would like to make you fall in love with her and after that, I will tell you more about where she came from and what her life before “The Voice Kids” was like. So lets get started!

At the first stage of the Voice Kids, it took Mirna less than two minutes to grab the hearts of the judges, especially with her rendition of “Last night in a dream”, موال البارحة بالحلم for Nathim Al Ghazali ناظم الغزالي. Ofcourse, the child in her had to sing 1 minute of “Let it go” which was lovely, but not nearly as breath taking as her Arabic Rendition.

Here is a video of Mirna during the blind audition of the Voice Kids ( ميرنا حنا – موال البارحة بالحلم – Let It Go – مرحلة الصوت وبس) . Guess what, the Youtube version of this video has got only 57,381,629 views in less than 4 months… I bet there are 100s of illegal versions of the video floating on Facebook and other video services with many more millions of views that we cannot even account for. So I think we can conclude that this girl is a huge star with a bright future.

In The Battle Round مرحلة المواجهة, Mirna was joined by  محمد العمرو Mohamad Amro from Jordan and تارة صلاح مونيكا Tara Salah Moniqa from Iraq to perform a rendition of ميحانا. I loved all three kids, but two of them had to be eliminated. I bet this decision was very difficult for Kazim Al Saher, كاظم الساهر; none the less, it had to be done. Mirna went through and the other two kids had to go home.

 

In the final round, Mirna sang, “I need to Fly” محتاج أطير for Mohannad Mohsin مهند محسن and “my aunt” يا عمة  during the final live show.

ميرنا حنا – محتاج أطير – مرحلة المواجهة الأخيرة

ميرنا حنا – يا عمة – العرض المباشر الاخير

 

Unfortunately, Mirna didn’t get enough votes and didn’t win the competition. The final stage of the competition is determined through public votes. Perhaps, it does make sense that the winner was Lebanese ( Leen Al Hayek ), a luckier candidate who had stronger support from the country hosting the event.

Back to Mirna’s personal life. She is a sweet and lovely child. The video below is an interview with her and Leen Al Hayek with Nishan on the program Akaber.

ميرنا حنا ولين الحايك نجمات ذا فويس كيدز لقاء برنامج اكابر

There is more to Mirna’s life than anyone would expect. She learned singing with the help of her brother since she was 5 years old. However, as she said in the interview below, she only felt that her voice is becoming beautiful at the age of 7. Her first songs were chants for her church and she practiced at home under the guidance of her brother who plays the organ. Her brother Milad is the one who taught her the different singing notes, she practiced almost everyday, 3 times a day..

Here is a video of Mirna practicing one of the songs for church with her brother.

كواليس ميرنا حنا يامريم

 

 

The criminal minds of ISIS never fail to blow our mind away, blow literally and figuratively. The latest threat to ISIS is children who sing like angels. Can you believe it? Can they get more evil than this?

According to Mirna’s father, ISIS has threatened to kidnap his daughter  if she doesn’t stop singing. Horrified by the threats and the instability in Iraq, Mirna’s family sought refugee in the “relatively” safe Lebanon, but unfortunately for them, Lebanon isn’t Switzerland nor Singapore. Lebanon is struggling with its own economical and political problems and can hardly carry the weight of its own citizens, not to mention the effect of the regional conflicts on it. Palestinian Israeli conflict to the south ( almost half a million Palestinian refugees in Lebanon) and more than a million Syrian refugee due to the Syrian civil war and the existence of ISIS. Even Lebanese don’t feel safe in Lebanon.

لقاء مع الطفلة ميرنا حنا مع اسرتها – قناة العراقية الفضائية

Mirna’s message to the world is that Iraqi people are beautiful, Iraq is not ISIS. If you live in the Middle East or North Africa, then my post is probably common knowledge to you, but If you don’t, then just for the sake of Mirna and all the children who are suffering in this conflict torn region, don’t let the media blind you. There are many beautiful and free minds and souls in this dark region.

Final question for non Arabic speakers who are reading my post, how does Mirna’s voice / singing / presence make you feel? Can you hear the beauty of her voice and enjoy it as much as we, Arabic speakers, enjoy it?

Thanks everyone for taking the time to read this blog post.