Seven-year-old Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja charmed the crowd at the StubHub Center stadium, home of the LA Galaxy, in Los Angeles, California, on Sunday evening local time. Prior to a soccer match between LA Galaxy and Seattle Sounders, the Indonesian girl sang the United States national anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner”.

Wearing an LA Galaxy jersey, Malea sang strong and handled the high notes with ease. After the performance, Swedish soccer star Zlatan Ibrahimovic posted on his Twitter account that Malea was the MVP of the game.

MVP of the game! https://t.co/eZ2WdQsVN7

— Zlatan Ibrahimović (@Ibra_official) September 24, 2018

Read also: The Indonesian kid who stirs the Hollywood Bowl: Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja

Malea won a social media contest to sing the national anthem at the Major League Soccer (MLS) match.

Her father, Arman Tjandrawidjaja, told The Jakarta Post via email that the contest was posted on LA Galaxy’s Instagram stories and they submitted Malea’s video via the Direct Message feature.

“They chose five finalists and asked people to vote on Instagram Stories. The voting lasted for 24 hours, and the result was announced on Tuesday afternoon,” he said, adding that Malea started to prepare for the performance on Sept. 18. 

Malea is currently busy with media interviews, and Armand shared that Malea was set to sing the national anthem for the Los Angeles Lakers in November.

 “There will be a few singing contests coming up,” he said. (wng)