Finally, tonight, the story of international opera singer Pretty Yende.

Growing up in South Africa, she hadn't even heard of opera until she was almost out of high school.

Now she's being hailed as one of her generation's most accomplished coloratura sopranos.

Here's Kieran Jenkins of Independent Television News.

The historic renalism. of independent television news. How sweet the historic reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral,

center stage, a voice that makes time stand still.

But the world almost never got to hear it.

Pretty Yende grew up in rural South Africa as apartheid came to an end.

She didn't hear a note of opera until she was 16.

Somehow, six years into her operatic journey, she could sing like this.

She fundraised for a flight to Europe, embodying the hope of a new generation of South Africans.

Since then, Priti Yende has joined legends on the global stage,

a unique voice that had been waiting to blossom.

At five years old, my grandmother taught me how to sing.

I was a happy child, and music was around the house.

We would sing every night after supper, hymns from the church.

My mom and my aunts would be washing dishes in the kitchen,

and we would start to him, my uncles and my dad and the other room.

We would all literally, harmony was

something that was always around me.

I didn't know well how to speak English, and so I had to learn English watching the cartoons.

What were you speaking?

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