Natalia Tsarikova is an opera singer from St. Petersburg, Russia. After studying opera in Milan, she settled in Finland and started a popular YouTube channel where she explores pop, jazz, and rock. With 181K subscribers, her most popular videos have garnered millions of views.
Tsarikova’s haunting cover of Evanescence’s “My Immortal” is her second most-watched YouTube video, with 4.3 million views. The song, written by Evanescence guitarist Ben Moody with some help from singer Amy Lee, tells a fictional tale of someone who can’t let go of a deceased love.
Evanescence fans are fiercely loyal to Amy Lee, as seen in the comments on Tsarikova’s video. Many viewers believed only Lee could do justice to the song until they heard Tsarikova’s cover. Amy Lee super-fan Walter Legere commented, “You achieved something I thought was impossible. Your version of ‘My Immortal’ was not only brilliant but also very close to the original in every way. You literally killed it.”
Tsarikova’s singing talent is evident in her cover of “My Immortal,” where she avoids the over-elaboration typical of opera singers’ takes on pop songs. She also showcases her powerful, trained operatic voice in classical covers like Franz Schubert’s “Ave Maria.”
Evanescence’s release of “My Immortal” had its challenges. Their record company, Wind-up Records, insisted on using a demo of the song for their debut album, *Fallen* (2003), which annoyed the band. When “My Immortal” was released as the third single, Moody and Lee, with more bargaining power due to the success of *Fallen*, insisted on releasing a full-band, orchestrated version. This version features in the popular black-and-white music video filmed in Barcelona, which has over 887 million views on YouTube. The single was a top 20 hit in more than ten countries, certified gold in the US, and platinum in Australia.
Ben Moody, who founded Evanescence with Amy Lee, left the band in 2003. Evanescence continues to tour and is scheduled to perform with Muse in the USA starting in April 2023 and at the Download festival in the UK in July 2023.
Evanescence fans are very loyal, so if you post an Evanescence cover on YouTube, make sure to do it justice. Natalia Tsarikova certainly did, passing with flying colors.