Malinda Kathleen Reese is a talented singer who grew to YouTube fame after a quirky idea to sing the lyrics produced after putting popular songs through Google Translate. While originally known for her “Translator Fails” profile, the singer recently took a trip to Spain, where she found herself in an 18th-century church. She soon discovered that the acoustics inside the church were nothing short of magical, and she took the opportunity to sing part of a beloved Christmas song those of us in the Christian tradition hold dear.
When you get a Pantheon style church with a 6 second reverb all to yourself… ⛪️ 🔊 HOLIDAY EDITION!! (Montefrío, Spain)For more music from me: https://youtu.be/SoeOExu87aI
Posted by Malinda Kathleen Reese on Monday, December 10, 2018
The church Reese is singing in in the video is located in Montefrio, Spain. Iglesia de la Encarnacion is a Catholic church that was built between 1786 and 1802 and was modeled after the Pantheon of Agrippa in Rome, hence its circular shape.
The singer uploaded the video of herself singing a few bars from “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” to her Facebook page on December 10, 2018. Commenting on the brilliant acoustics of the church, she captions the video, “When you get a Pantheon style church with the 6 second reverb all to yourself…”
So far Reese’s video has been shared over 200,000 times and viewed 11 million times. This kind of attention is not foreign to Reese, whose Translator Fails YouTube videos have received as many as 10 million views.
The singer frequently vlogs on her personal YouTube channel. She talks about the unique space she occupies as a “YouTuber” in some of her video diaries. In one video, titled “I don’t want to be extraordinary,” Reese says she is aware that “Internet culture in particular rewards sensationalism” and that she constantly has to examine where the desire to “be in front of big crowds and play music and…be labeled as a YouTube sensation” comes from.
As far as the video of Reese singing in the Spanish church, I think it’s safe to say we are all glad she shared that one with the world. Perhaps people who are unfamiliar with “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” will be inclined to find out what the song means. And that can only be a good thing.
