The 9-year-old belted the hit song as she cleaned her family's pool.

Not since Cinderella has a girl singing while doing her chores been so popular. Pensacola resident Tom Coverly covertly filmed his 9-year-old daughter, Annika Coverly, using a pool rake as a microphone and singing, "Girl on Fire." Coverly posted the video on TikTok, and told WEAR, "We were getting about 100,000 views a day." 

@tomcoverlytour

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♬ original sound - ♣️♦️ The Illusionist ♠️ ♥️

The video's popularity led to the original "Girl on Fire" (no, not Katniss Everdeen), Alicia Keys, seeing and commenting on Annika Coverly's poolside antics.

"Sing, Mama," the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter commented. Both as the mother of two children, and as a young prodigy herself (Keys was composing songs by age 12 and was signed to Columbia Records at age 15), Keys must have been pleased to see Coverly's fun cover of her hit song.

In the video, Tom Coverly tells his daughter, “You are the best singer-slash-pool cleaner, ever,” but she can't deny that the "really cool" internet popularity has made her feel "very special...worth it to this world." Tom Coverly told WEAR, "This has helped my daughter a lot with self-confidence and self-esteem." Annika echoed that statement when she said she hoped other children could see "they can follow their dream and they can be special too like that." 

As this sweet new "Girl on Fire" concluded: "They are all worth it. Everybody is worth it to this world." 

What do you think of this cute video? Let us know in the comments!

Tabitha Brower
A film school grad, Tabitha loves well-told stories wherever she can find them, whether in movies, TV, music, books, or games. She's also a nature enthusiast, so catch her birdwatching or hitting up a new hike. You can find her cheeky mini film reviews on Letterboxd as @tabbrower.
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