A 24-year-old blind woman with autism in Massachusetts moved the audience with her performance at a Pride event. Lavender Darcangelo sang ‘Part Of Your World’, the soulful ballad is sung by Ariel in Disney’s The Little Mermaid. The event was held as a fundraiser at the First Parish Church in Fitchburg.
A video of her performance was shared on Twitter by former U.S. Ambassador to Denmark and current congressional candidate Rufus Gifford who was honored at the event. The tweet reads, “A young woman comes on stage today in Fitchburg. Introduces herself as Lavender. Tells us that she is blind and autistic and wants to sing a song in honor of LGBT Pride. She sings one of my favorite songs and brings us tears.” In a video of the performance that now has garnered over 32k likes on Twitter, she tells the audience that she’s blind, autistic, and ‘wants to sing a song in honor of LGBT Pride’.
Post her performance, the family has received calls from around the world.
According to Yahoo Now, Darcangelo performs with her two fathers, one of whom is associated with a music group. According to CBS Boston, Lavender says growing up with her biological family was tough. She met Wil Darcangelo through music and at age 19 asked to be part of his family. After which the couple officially adopted her. Wil Darcangelo is a minister at First Parish Church, home to people who practice Unitarian Universalism. Wil, who along with his partner Jamie adopted Lavender in 2017, said they’ve all been a bit ‘teary-eyed’ about the positive responses to Lavender's big cabaret debut, where she performed four additional songs and a little dance routine.
