POWER OF THE HUMAN VOICE AND THE TEEN WHO FOUND HER FORTE
Samar Frost almost lost her life to diabetes but had an epiphany through singing
British-Yemeni teenager Samar Frost has had it tough over the past decade, but when things really got bleak she discovered a talent for singing that would turn her life around.
In 2008, at the age of 9, the usually cheerful Samar was found slumped and unresponsive by her Yemeni mother, Kinaia, at their home in Al Zahiya. She put the girl into a taxi and rushed to Sheikh Khalifa Medical Centre in Abu Dhabi.
On her arrival, medics placed specialist equipment around her, explaining there was no time to take her upstairs to the intensive care unit because she was slipping into a coma.
They said Samar was suffering a potentially fatal hypoglycaemic attack because of low blood sugar levels. For three days, before she started to respond to treatment, her life hung in the balance.
On waking up, Samar was told she had type 1 diabetes.
The specialist who treated her told Samar’s British father, Vince Frost, that he had put the girl’s chances of survival at less than 30 per cent.
The illness cost Samar a year of missed classes at school while her condition was stabilised through a regime of daily insulin injections and a carefully controlled diet. Her repeat year then put Samar out of step with her peer group, and as some friends drifted away, she began a slide into a depression. Last year she hit rock bottom when her mother died of a heart attack and her grandfather also passed away.
Samar’s brother Joe, 21, then stepped up to the plate by announcing he would take a year out to look after his sister, because Mr Frost was busy as project director at Louvre Abu Dhabi on Saadiyat Island.
But by that time, in 2016, Samar had found her saving grace through a chance on a singing course at her school, the British School Al Khubairat, rather than her double bass lessons. Somewhere deep down it struck a chord, and the turnaround has been spectacular.
Two years later, at the age of 19, she is a star in the making, having performed at the British Embassy in the capital plus a clutch of concerts last year that culminated in her winning the overall top prize for singing in her school.
Robert Millner, her singing teacher at BSAK, says: “Samar’s got it all, and her ability to get inside a song and evoke an emotional response from audiences is uncanny.” Samar recently recorded her first demo for talent spotters and entertainment companies.
Despite falling behind in her classwork because of her illness, she scored 89 per cent in her Grade 8 Trinity Rock and Pop singing exam, the top level, and won a rarely awarded distinction for her performances.
She counts Adele, Cher and Dua Lipa as her musical inspirations but, really, Samar just loves to sing anything, from rock and pop to classical.
“I’d like to sing for a living, and I am thinking about auditioning at Rada in England, or theatre work in the West End of London after I leave school next year,” she says.
“Bob Marley said: ‘One good thing about music, when it hits, you feel no pain.’ That’s the way I feel about singing.”
Mr Frost said: “I’m so proud of my family for rallying round to get us all through what’s been a very difficult 12 months. And when I see Samar step up to the microphone, it puts a song in my heart.”
Samar’s got it all, and her ability to get inside a song and evoke an emotional response from audiences is uncanny ROBERT MILLNER Singing teacher, BSAK