Karlina Protsenko knows about being a child sensation. The Ukrainian-born violinist, whose family moved to the USA in 2015 when she was six, began busking on the streets when she was only eight years old. She quickly amassed a large following, gaining over 5 million followers on YouTube in less than two years. That has now risen to over 8 million followers.
In 2023, at fifteen, Protsenko gave a golden opportunity to a new eight-year-old violinist. While Protsenko was busking, accompanied by her mother on keyboards, young Emily Minko was given the opportunity to play with them. For an excited crowd, the group performed a moving version of Celine Dion’s classic song “My Heart Will Go On”, which featured in the film Titanic and was number one in 25 countries.
Unfazed by the situation, Minko played the opening bars as the solo violinist. Protsenko watched her young protégé with pride before joining in to duet with her. The three members played their instruments beautifully together while onlookers soaked it all in.
Then, Minko put down her violin and sang a verse and chorus. Then, she returned to her violin while Protsenko’s mother took over vocal duties for the rest of the song. As the song ended, the crowd clapped and cheered in delight.
Protsenko first found fame when a stranger, Carlos Guti, recorded her playing Luis Fonsi’s “Despacito” in the street. Protsenko didn’t even have a YouTube channel at the time, and it hadn’t occurred to the nine-year-old that she might reach a wider audience this way.
However, Guti posted the video on his own YouTube channel, and it quickly went viral, with over 100,000 views in two months. Such was the joy the video brought people, it was shared nearly three million times. Luis Fonsi himself was a fan, posting the video on his Instagram page.
Then, when she was aged ten, Protsenko posted a video of herself playing Post Malone’s “Sunflower”. This became an even bigger viral hit and has been viewed on YouTube over 41 million times. This caught the attention of Ellen DeGeneres, and in 2019 Protsenko performed “Sunflower” on the comedienne’s chat show, Ellen. Afterwards, she spoke to Ellen and explained that at age six, her parents had given her the choice of playing either the violin or the flute. “I just picked the violin without knowing what it was,” she admitted, bringing laughter to the studio.
Protsenko’s videos have been viewed over 400 million times, and she has followers from over 50 countries. Her dream for the future, as written on her website, is to play concerts all over the world and “make people happy” with her music.
If you would like to see more from Karolina Protsenko, you can subscribe to her YouTube channel or follow her on Facebook or Instagram. You can also visit her official website for more information.