Francesca Battistelli Inspired by Young Cancer Patient
A Christian artist whose song received an unexpected boost from a hit YouTube video got to meet the young girl behind the video in a touching live television broadcast on CNN.
The YouTube video features the 7-year-old who was taped by her mother as she performed Francesca Battistelli’s “Angel by Your Side” song at the hospital where she was undergoing chemo treatment. The song is featured on the Dove Award-winning singer’s 2011 album, Hundred More Years (Fervent Records/Word Distribution).
Wanting to help Mattie Douglas, a 3-year-old girl in the same town who had a brain tumor, Tori Svenson competed in a Relay for Life beauty pageant to raise funds for her. Ironically the day Svenson brought the funds to the 3-year-old, she learned that she also had a brain tumor.
Appearing with CNN Newsroom’s Kyra Phillips to speak about her YouTube posting—with more than 1,800 views to date—Svenson was surprised when Battistelli walked into the studio to meet her for the first time. The young cancer patient told Battistelli that the song “inspires me so much and other children going through this,” and the singer told Svenson that she was “born for the stage.”
Click below to see the interview, which includes Battistelli and Svenson singing together, and here for the young girl’s solo rendition of “Angel by Your Side.”
