Four years after Avril Lavigne sings Ghent Anneketrien (15) openingssolo at the Special Olympic World Games

Ghent The Ghent Anneketrien Van Wassenhove (15) sing next Thursday the openingssolo at the Special Olympic World Games in Abu Dhabi. A great honor, in 2015 to Avril Lavigne to turn fell. The young Ghent, which in Dubai lives, it has also talent. This year, she won for the second time, the counterpart of the Queen Elisabeth international music competition in the Gulf states.

“Anneketrien sang already when she was a toddler was,” says her mother Mieke De Rijck. “The cds of Miffy and K3 were turned gray in the car, and everyone always had to sing along.” Her grandfather, the late Ghent opperdeken Eli De Rijck, noticed early on that his granddaughter really could sing. Eli gave former singing at Sint-Amandus, and knew what he said. But Anneketriens parents suspects him of the ‘own-(small)child-clean-child-sydroom’.

Anneketrien moved with her parents to Dubai, where her mom as a veterinarian. When she was 6 years old, she set her sights on piano and singing lessons at the Polish muziekjuf Miss Lis, which, at the Sharjah English School had come to know. “A teacher with the reputation is very strict, that only wants to work with children who really go for it”, says Mieke. “But after 3 lessons, we were told that Anneketrien a very good voice, and that she wanted to enroll for the first exam for the Exam Board of the Royal Schools of Music.” (Read more under the picture)