A pair of young girls from Fort Frances, Ontario posted their rendition of the "Hallelujah" on social media last Easter 2020 but the video reportedly remains trending to this day due to its tear-jerking beauty.
Faithit reported that the video of sisters Cassandra Star and Callahan Armstrong is making waves online a year after its posting. The video, entitled "An Easter Hallelujah," was recorded last year for the sisters' grandmother who can not be with them because of the pandemic.
Uploaded on the sisters' YouTube Channel, "An Easter Hallelujah" registered 7,138,281 views, 150,000 likes, and 7,726 comments. The sisters' channel already has 69,200 subscribers. The video highlights the song written by Kelley Mooney based on the song composed by Leonard Cohen, which speaks of Jesus's passion and resurrection. Mooney wrote the song after she was asked by her church to sing it on a Sunday.
While the piano track was arranged by Karaoke Studios' Jeff Buckley and recorded by MJ Interactive's Maverick Judson. Cassandra was 10 and Callahan was 19 when the song was recorded last year.
"Especially for her Nana who needs extra love & prayers right now....this is her favorite song and dedicated to her with love," the video's notes highlighted.
The video has been reposted online by various YouTubers who helped out with the girls' request for their grandmother. Each of the reposted videos, like that of a certain account uploaded on April 2, 2021, registered tens of thousands of views. The video uploaded had 139,824 views and 3,400 likes.
In the original video, the sisters could be seen facing each other in a dark room while they wore black clothing. Their dark brown hair was tied in a bun and in between them a brightly lit candle illuminated their faces as they sang the song. The lyrics of the song flashed as they sang with angelic voices, which brings a certain calm to whoever would listen to it.
The sisters uploaded an updated version of the song four months ago. The girls have grown up a bit in the video where they are shown with their straight golden hair loosely resting on their shoulders. A nativity scene backdrop could be seen in this new video, which was viewed 608,613 times with 17,000 likes and 793 comments.
Because of the song, the sisters have become famous that they were asked to sing live at the Grand Opening of the Shroud of Turin Exhibit of Washington, D.C.'s Museum of the Bible last February 26. The sisters uploaded the video of their live duet on their channel two days ago and it already was viewed 30,830 times.
One netizen, Bob Wylie, commented on the original video and recounted how he came across the sisters' beautiful song. Wylie narrated that he was sitting on the steps of their little store while "soaking much of that beautiful sunshine as I could get" when his wife handed him her phone to listen to the song.
"As I'm listening to this song, tears flowed down my cheeks for a good 15 minutes after watching it 3 times," Wylie said.
Wylie continued stating that he was asked by his wife if he liked it after he returned her phone. He said he could hardly speak because there was a huge lump in his throat. His wife persisted to ask him if he liked the song, to which he replied it was precisely why he wanted to have a little girl of his own.
"What?" His wife asked in confusion.
"So she could sing a song like this to me some day," he replied.
Wylie said he was in a mess afterward but he commended the sisters for singing "the most beautiful version of Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen" that he has "ever heard."
"These two sisters, Cassandra & Callahan, are not only beautiful, their voices are simply angelic," Wylie ended.
The sisters responded accordingly to all those who commented on their first video. They expressed gratitude and happiness for touching the hearts of their listeners, which they said is what they wanted to happen. The sisters expressed their wish to hug everyone for being special and kind.
Posted in the height of uncertainty brought by the first year of the pandemic, the sisters shared that their intent of singing the song was to provide hope in dark times.
"The world is really sad right now and we wanted to give you hope. Everything is going to be okay, we just need to love each other more," Cassandra and Callahan said.
