Britain’s Got Talent: British Pakistani teenager’s powerful performance moves judges to tears

LONDON: 14-year-old British Pakistani singer Sirine Jahangir moved millions of people to tears and won four yeses from the judges as she displayed her unique vocals at ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ show on Saturday night and shared with the audience and judges how she completely lost sight in both eyes four years but never gave up on life and her passion for music.

The four Britain’s Got Talent (BGT) judges Simon Cowell, Alesha Dixon, Amanda Holden and David Walliams unanimously gave yeses to Sirine.

Appearing on the stage, she told the judges: “it’s pretty obvious that I can’t see. There was a time when I could but now I cannot. Music is my vision. It’s my thing.”

Sirine then played piano and sang Gabrielle Aplin’s "Salvation". As she sang through the “you are the avalanche, one world away”, the audience and the judges were spell bound listening to her. By the time the Sirine ended the song, most in the audience including two judges were moved to tears.

The judges were particularly impressed as Sirine told them that she only did school level performances and BGT was a huge stage for her and something new.

Alesha Dixon told her: “What a sweet girl you are. My heart is melted as you sang beautifully.” David Walliams told Sirine that she may not be able to see but the whole palladium was on their feet rooting for her. Tears in her eyes, Alesha Dixon told Sirine: “I found it so poignant. It was just brilliant. You sang so beautifully.” Simon Cowell told Sirine: “I think I should be the first person to say yes to you.”

While dozens of talented acts appeared on the show, some won approvals and some didn’t but Sirine was the only performer of the show who brought the whole house to their feet in applauding her talent.

Sirine Jahangir is granddaughter of Sahibzada Jahangir, one of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s oldest friends and his spokesperson on Trade & Investment in UK & Europe.

After the show, Sahibzada Jahangir spoke to The News and Geo and shared their joy and excitement. Sahibzada Jahangir said: “Our joy cannot be put in words. Sirine has shown to millions of people what a unique talent she is. She is a confident, super talented and well-liked young girl who wants to spread the message of good in the world. She has beaten odds with positivity and her positivity is making impact at a big scale as was witnessed on BGT.

“After The News and Geo published her news of making it to the contest, we have received messages of support from thousands of Pakistanis who have taken pride in her achievements. The messages of support have come from Pakistanis of all backgrounds, family and friends.”

Sahibzada Jahangir said Sirine has worked extremely hard to perform before millions of people. “She’s hopeful of making it to the next stages of the show. Since a young age, she has been doing charitable work and in the last four years Sirine has made it a point to do charitable work every week to help others.”

Sirine was born in 2005 in London. Until the age of five, she excelled in everything including sports and dancing was her favourite pastime. Her family discovered when Sirine was 5 that she had lost her vision totally in one eye and although the other eye was perfect there was a danger it may deteriorate.

Sirine lives with parents Kafeel, 48, and Ghizlane, 40, in north London with her brothers Zayn, 13, and Aydin, six.

When Sirine became blind in one eye, her parents became very concerned and did everything they could to get her cured. They took her to India for six weeks where she was given injections in her eye but that didn’t work. When they realised that she might lose sight in both eyes completely, they took her to all the places she wanted to see so she could enjoy the beauty of the world before losing sight.

Sirine said that she wants to spread positivity in the world through power of music. “If I do well on Britain’s Got Talent, it’s really not because I want to live the life of a celebrity. I’m doing it because I hope to have a bigger platform to spread a positive message about blindness and because I honestly love playing piano and singing. Music is my vision.”