CHANDLER, Ariz. — From the moment Cairo Koomson took the stage at his elementary school’s talent show, he captivated the audience.
Dressed in a bright yellow Bowser costume, the 7-year-old sat next to a piano and belted the lyrics to the "Peaches" song, from the movie hit "Super Mario Bros."
What began as a solo show, ended in a full-room singalong with loud applause at Carlson Elementary School in Chandler on May 19. The video of the spectacle has been seen by 6.8 million people on TikTok.
The first-grader's performance made Cairo’s 6-year-old brother, Eli, who has autism, emotionally happy.
“He was crying during the performance,” said Cairo’s mother, Tracy. “I can count on one hand how many times he’s appropriately shown emotion.”
And that was a big deal for the Koomson family, who also saw a breakthrough in Eli’s ability to express himself a day before Cairo hit the stage.
“The night before my performance, he sang the whole entire song,” Cairo told 12News about his little brother. “When he was done, me and my little sister ran to him and hugged him, and Mama was just tearing out and crying.”
Cairo had been practicing at home as he got ready for his first-ever live performance, never thinking his brother Eli, who typically used three-to-four-word sentences, was tuning in.
“We didn’t know what to do,” Tracy recalls about that emotional moment. “We’re looking like, is this really happening right now? My kids were so excited. We didn’t know he knew the song and he knew every single word and sang it so clearly. You would never know he had any type of speech delay.”
But because of the excitement, no one thought about filming the moment. When they asked Eli to sing it again and do it in front of their grandparents, “he just stood there,” said Cairo.
“It was just a special treat for us three that we’ll always remember,” Tracy said.
Despite being a confident boy, Cairo admitted he was nervous about his talent show debut. His brother’s impressive impromptu private serenade motivated him to fight the fear.
“He was saying mom, ‘I’m gonna do it,’” Tracy recalls Cairo said. “'Because Eli keeps trying, look at him singing.’ And he’s like, ‘So, I have to keep trying. I have to be brave. I have to be Eli’s voice.'”
The “Super Mario Bros” movie also illustrates the love between her sons, Tracy said. When the family saw the movie for the first time, the mother recalls Cairo telling her he was Mario and Eli was Luigi.
“He’s like, ‘Mom, Mario reminds me of me. Eli is Luigi because I’m always protecting him,'” Tracy said, affirming with her older son.
Cairo said he was surprised when he saw his classmate’s reaction to his performance, saying he felt like he wasn’t the only one singing. It was that singalong that Tracy said, “gave him the will to keep going.”
The viral video of the 7-year-old’s performance reached the main character of the movie, Chris Pratt, who voiced Mario. He shared the TikTok video on his Instagram story and tagged Jack Black, who sang the “Peaches” song in the movie.
“Watch out [Jack Black] this kid might take your job. Epic performance dude,” Pratt wrote in the post screengrabbed by Chandler Unified School District.
The first-graders first rise to fame happened when he was just two years old. The family lived in their native hometown of Huntington Beach, California, and both Cairo and Eli were with a modeling agency, Tracy said.
“The commercial had a casting call, and the requirement was for the baby to cry”, Cairo’s mother said. “My husband and I looked at each other and said, ‘We got this!’ He used to hate to see me, and my husband give each other a hug. Instantly right away with angrily cry, until we stop hugging.”
That’s all she said they had to do to get the part in Intel’s 2017 famous Lebron James crying baby commercial.
Cairo wants to be a travel YouTuber and show the world through the eyes of a kid. He’s now considering doing home schooling. Tracy said she is in touch with producers who might help them make that dream into a reality.
While she’s received several direct messages about Cairo’s performance, “we’re still waiting on you Jack Black,” Tracy told 12News.
Even though Cairo was not playing the piano in the now-viral video, Tracy said she is enrolling him in lessons.
“I just want to travel around the world and sing the song ‘Peaches,’” Cairo said.
VERSIÓN EN ESPAÑOL: La interpretación de la canción 'Peaches' en el show de talentos de un alumno de primer grado de Chandler conquista los corazones de millones.
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