Before millions of people online would discover her talent, Christina Smith was just an unsuspecting toddler singing classical songs at the top of her lungs in the late '90s.
Opera had already chosen her. As a young Black Caribbean-Canadian woman, she would eventually have to prove she belonged — and carry both the pressure to succeed and the weight of representation.
The early signs were there before she had language for them. Growing up, her mother played classical music throughout the house constantly. On the bus, what sounded like screaming turned out to be her daughter matching pitches from songs on the radio. By two years old, she was singing in the apartment, note for note, in a genre she didn't yet know had a name.
