Madisen Hallberg was creating a video for her virtual graduation from Portland State University in Oregon. Because she’s a singer, she decided to sing the national anthem in a park while a cameraman filmed her.

As she began to sing, a stranger walking by asked if he could join.

She thought, “why not?”

She had no idea the man was professional opera singer Emmanuel “Onry” Henreid.

“All the sudden, we just started harmonizing. I came in on the verse, and she was kind of surprised a little bit,” Henreid said.

It was an absolutely stunning rendition.

Portland State posted the video of the two singing the national anthem for its virtual graduation, and it went viral.

NPR reported it was more than just a pretty song.  “It was by any measure a moment of magic. But it was especially magical right now. Onry is African American; Madisen is white. For him, the experience was a direct contrast to images and videos that portray conflict rooted in racism.”

Henreid agreed.  “This African American male just walking up and singing with this woman who happens to be white. And there’s a beautiful moment that happens there.”

I agree.  It was beautiful.  Watch it for yourself below:

Image Credit: Twitter Screen Shot

Hat Tip: NPR

About The Author

Mark was a co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, and served as the national coordinator. He left the organization to work more broadly on expanding the self-governance movement beyond the partisan divide. Mark appears regularly on television in outlets as diverse as MSNBC, ABC, NBC, Fox News, CNN, Bloomberg, Fox Business and the BBC. He’s highly sought after for the tea party perspective from print and electronic media outlets, from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, L.A. Times, Washington Examiner, Politico and the The Hill. Mark blogs at MarkMeckler.com, and his opinion editorials regularly run in many of the leading political newspapers both on and offline. Mark has a BA in English from San Diego State University and graduated with honors from University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in 1988. He practiced real estate and business law for almost a decade. For the last eleven years of his legal career he specialized in Internet advertising law. When not fighting for the future of our nation, Mark is an avid horseman, and lives in rural northern California with his wife Patty and two children.

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