Dame Nellie Melba — the girl who became the world’s most famous singer

Fierce Girls

ABC listen

Kids & Family, Stories For Kids

4.4 • 930 Ratings

🗓️ 7 November 2019

⏱️ 18 minutes

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Summary

Nellie's singing and humming around the house used to drive her dad crazy. But she always wanted to be a professional performer. She sailed to Europe to chase her dream and became the greatest opera singer in the world. She demanded to be paid exactly what a world-famous opera singer was worth — lots — and raised enormous amounts of money for charity. Narrated by singer-songwriter Dami Im.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the story of the girl who became the world's most famous singer, Dame Nellie Melba,
0:16.7	read by singer-songwriter Dami-In. The Nellie, would you stop that incessant noise? It's true.
0:37.0	Nellie, would you stop that incessant noise?
0:44.0	It's driving me mad.
0:46.0	Nellie Mitchell's dad was a strong, stubborn stonemason.
0:50.0	But he was no match for his six-year-old daughter who never let anyone boss her around.
0:55.4	You can't tell me what, proper, and quiet.
1:14.6	But Nellie was mischievous, rowdy, and loud.
1:20.2	She's a tomboy, people said. Tooty too naughty too much of a show-off
1:26.0	Nellie didn't care besides they were partly right
1:29.6	She despised dolls and tea sets
1:32.4	She preferred action toys like rocking horses and musical instruments and she loved
1:38.8	making noise.
1:40.6	Noise meant attention. attention.
1:47.0	ELLY! It's 2 a.m.
1:50.0	get off the piano and go back to bed.
1:55.0	It was obvious Nellie wanted an audience.
1:59.0	No, she needed an audience.
2:02.0	Or else she really would drive her parents mad.
2:05.0	So they agreed to let her sing in a school fundraising concert at the town hall.
2:10.0	The singer was so small she had to stand on a chair so that the crowd could see her.
2:18.0	She took a deep breath and belted out one of the most popular sing-along she knew.
	...

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