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Biography
Emmanuel Kelly is breaking into and disrupting the norms of the music industry unlike any other artist. In the last two years alone, Emmanuel has performed duets with David Foster and Coldplay, opened for Snoop Dogg in front of a sold-out audience, performed a set of concerts in Juarez Mexico to sold out audiences, becoming the 1st non latino pop artist to do so. Additionally, performing at the United Nations as a celebrity youth ambassador for world leaders and royal families, and headlining a performance at the Forbes Impact Summit, receiving 3 standing ovations. Soon thereafter, lead singer Chris Martin began mentoring and producing Emmanuel’s music field in the midst of making his first album. But things weren’t always looking up for this bright young star.
Emmanuel was found half dead as a baby in a box by two soldiers in a park in Iraq, with no birth certificate, passport, and no Identity. Realistically, Emmanuel Kelly shouldn’t be alive, but fate had a different plan. He was taken to Mother Theresa orphanage in Baghdad where he met his now brother, Ahmed. Emmanuel and Ahmed spent the next seven and a half years as children of war, living a nightmare, experiencing and seeing some of the worst of mankind, wondering everyday if death would claim them. When Emmanuel was 5, humanitarian Moira Kelly heard about the brothers while working in Albania. Months later, Moira flew to meet the brothers, immediately fell in love with their energy, will to survive and desire to create a world filled with love. Two and a half years later, after many complications, Moira brought the brothers to Australia for life changing surgeries. Over the next 14 years Emmanuel had 6 surgeries, stepping over huge obstacles such as learning how to walk and feed himself using a knife & fork. Emmanuel’s biggest obstacle was learning how to embrace and love himself on the inside and out, while overcoming his insecurities.
Today, Emmanuel Kelly is a media sensation after his Australian X-Factor audition where his rendition of Imagine went viral. Emmanuel has captured, inspired, and entertained close to 1 billion people worldwide with his performances. In April 2018, Emmanuel’s career sky rocketed when Chris Martin joined him on stage for a debut duet of Emmanuel’s new single EDIS – Never Alone during a televised broadcast to over 100 million homes. Days following, Emmanuel was featured on Billboard Magazine.
Once his song was officially live, it went viral with over 500K views in just four days. On the 5th day, Coldplay posted Emmanuel’s EDIS – Never Alone video on their social media in support of his amazing song. To date, it has over 1 million views since its official release, with thousands of streams and downloads organically grown by fans.
In 2019, Emmanuel plans on launching his debut album, followed by a Broadway show about his life’s story, emphasized by the performance of the music from his debut album, a children’s book which will be followed by a book tour, a reality tv show about his journey, as well as a mini interview series designed to empower youth to embrace and love themselves.
Emmanuel Kelly is the freshest face of diversity, becoming the first pop star who is differently-abled.
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Videos
Speech TopicsExpand each topic to learn more
CHAPTER ONE: WHEN LIFE DEALS A TOUGH HAND
• Emmanuel talks about his early life, being found abandoned in a box on a battlefield in
Iraq by two soldiers shooting at each other.
• His experience in the bomb-battered orphanage, the horrors of war that he witnessed
first-hand as a child.
• How singing to the other children helped keep him emotionally strong.
• Being rescued by the humanitarian Moira Kelly, his life-changing surgeries in Australia
and the start of his new life, leading to his audition on X FACTOR and the birth of his
performing career.
CHAPTER TWO: NOTHING TO LOSE MEANS EVERYTHING’S A WIN
• Emmanuel connects the dots between his challenging start in his life and how it freed
his mind to dream big.
• The power gained when you’re liberated from any fear of failure, because memories of
sheer survival provide your baseline.
• The advantages to be found when society sees you as an “outlier”.
• How Emmanuel was able to achieve a series of seemingly impossible life-goals —
touring with Coldplay, co-founding a Film & TV entertainment company with Chris
Martin (OUTLYER) and spear-heading a global mission of Zero Barrier Casting and Zero
Barrier Crewing within the entertainment industry.
CHAPTER THREE: INVERSE THE ADVERSE
• Turn the paradigm upside down.
• Emmanuel extrapolates the lessons of his own life and broadens the perspective to
show how the same mind-set can be deployed by anyone who feels that they are
battling with adversity.
FOLLOWED BY AN AUDIENCE Q&A
Presentation includes 4 songs by Speaker
This speaker tailors this topic for each event. Please let us know if you'd like us to source a topic description.
This speaker tailors this topic for each event. Please let us know if you'd like us to source a topic description.
This speaker tailors this topic for each event. Please let us know if you'd like us to source a topic description.
This speaker tailors this topic for each event. Please let us know if you'd like us to source a topic description.
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