LA subway singer in viral video is a classical musician who became homeless after her $10,000 violin was stolen
A homeless subway singer who went viral after an LAPD officer filmed her belting out notes at the subway station in Koreatown, Los Angeles, has been identified as 52-year-old Emily Zamourka, a classical singer and musician.
It was revealed that Zamourka's life turned upside down as a result of mounting medical bills that she couldn't afford after her very expensive violin, her source of income, was stolen.
Speaking to NBC, she said of her $10,000 violin, "It was my income. It was everything to me." She reportedly said that it was when the violin was stolen that she couldn't pay her bills anymore. "That's when I became homeless. When I could not actually pay any of my bills and could not pay any more of my rent," she said, according to Daily Mail.
The musician, who is originally from Russia, came to Los Angeles with dreams of making it as a singer. But even though everything was lost, she never lost her talent.
The sonorous singer is heard singing beautifully at the station at Purple Line's Normandie Metro as the officer films the video.
"4 million people call LA home. 4 million stories. 4 million voices...sometimes you just have to stop and listen to one, to hear something beautiful," the LAPD officer wrote on the clip that was shared on Twitter on September 27.
The video has nearly 545K views and has been shared thousands of times. "I will be so grateful to anyone who is trying to help me to get off the streets, and to have my own place, to have my instrument," she said.
She's currently making ends meet however she can, sleeping on cardboards. "I am sleeping actually on the cardboard right now, in the parking lot," Zamourka said.
She added, "I am sleeping where I can sleep... I have people that feel sorry for me, but I don't want to be a burden to anybody.'"
A GoFundMe page has been started to help the woman and so far has raised $25,886 of the $40,000 goal. The page says they will "work to get her a violin and any other immediate housing she needs."
Jose Ubaldo, a Metro spokesman told the LA Times that he hadn't heard of her before. "That was surprising to us," he said. "We don't know who this person is."